HOW DO YOU BUILD THE BEST BLOODY MARY IN THE CHIPPEWA VALLEY?
You start with vodka and tomato juice, of course. Add Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, horseradish, and pickle juice. But that’s just the begin ning: The Bloody Mary at Big T’s Saloon in Eau Claire – perennial winner of Volume One’s Best of the Chippewa Valley Poll for Best Bloody Mary – includes more than a dozen additional ingredients. Yes, most of them are garnishes: Either carefully stacked atop the glass arranged carefully on a wooden skewer.
But there is a secret ingredient, explain the folks at Big T’s (2007 Third St., Eau Claire). It’s a mysterious liquid that owner Terry Luer mix es up in the kitchen. Just don’t ask him what’s in it. “It’s got a secret sauce,” he explains. “When I die, it’s gone.”
Luer bought the cozy tavern – previously
known as the Last Chance Bar — in 2010. A few years later, it began de veloping a reputation as a place to get a good Bloody.
“One of the bartenders really like Bloody Marys and wanted some thing to do on Sundays,” explains manager Rochell Allen. The tradition of serving gargantuan Bloody Marys on Sundays was born. (You can get them on Mondays, too, if there are any leftovers of the fancy fixings. And a scaled-back Bloody is available any day of the week.)
The recipe has been refined over the years, evolving into what pa trons know and love today. The Bloody Marys have proven to be a boon to the bar – drawing a diverse crowd, from college students to the af ter-church crowd, and even drinkers from La Crosse and the Twin Cities in search of a classic Wisconsin Bloody Mary. So what’s the draw?
“It’s something about the way they taste,” Luer said.
“I’m gonna say it’s the secret sauce.”
SPICY, SAVORY, SALTY, TOMATO-Y, BOOZY — A BLOODY MARY IS ALL THIS AND MORE. A standard Bloody Mary gets that spice from hot pepper sauce (often Tabasco). But even more than many other cock tails, the Bloody Mary is an infinitely variable drink, with almost as many recipes as there are bartenders slinging Bloodys at eager brunchers. This means that – especially here in Eau Claire, Horseradish Capital of the World – the heat in your favorite Bloody may just be coming from horseradish.
Eau Claire-based Silver Spring Foods, the largest grower and processor of horseradish on Earth, proclaims right on the bottle that it can give a kick to your roast beef, mashed potatoes, and Bloody Marys.
“It provides a different kind of heat than pep pers,” explains Judy Christensen, a food scientist at Silver Spring. “It hits you fast and goes away fast. A capsaicin heat from peppers will build and build. … It’s easier to continuing eating (horse radish), even the really hot stuff.”
Horseradish is root vegetable with a built-in self-defense mechanism: It produces a pungent compound called allyl isothiocyanate, which can both combat plant pathogens and light up your tastebuds. “That’s what punches you in the nose,” says Christensen, Silver Spring’s R&D and techni cal services manager.
Horseradish works well in a Bloody Mary in part because of the drink’s flexibility, Christensen says. The beverage already is loaded with multi ple flavors, so adding horseradish just increases the complexity.
“You can have pepper heat and horseradish heat in a good Bloody Mary,” she says.
Silver Spring recommends using a prepared horseradish to add flavor to a Bloody Mary. Finely ground, the horseradish gets suspended in the liquid like a spice and spreads evenly. And, if you want an even bolder flavor, use a spoonful of its extra hot horseradish.
While pepper sauce has been the most com mon kind of heat in a Bloody Mary, horseradish is gaining popularity both in bartenders’ recipes and in prepared mixes. Even if you have a triedand-true Bloody Mary recipe, a bit or horseradish could be a welcome addition.
“It’s a great addition to round out those flavors or for something new if you haven’t tried it,” Christensen says.
For more Bloody Mary recipes, visit silverspring foods.com and click on Recipes.
ONE OF THE GREAT THINGS ABOUT BEING A BLOODY MARY LOVER IN THE CHIPPEWA VALLEY is that there are so many great places to choose from. From hole-inthe-wall taverns to brunch spots to traditional bar-and-grills, it seems everyone’s got their take on the Bloody Mary. Every year in our Best of the Chippewa Valley Reader Poll we ask folks where we can find the best ones. Last winter, hundreds of you voted to choose the winners. Below we’ve listed the top 10 (in alphabetical order), but you can see the final Top 3 ranking at the far right. Check out the list, try them all (across a reasonable amount of time, of course), and be prepared to vote the next time the poll comes around.
BEMIS BLUFF WINERY
E2960 Hageness Rd, Eleva
The picturesque rural winery offers a not-so-se
cret beverage: a Bloody Mary made with white wine. You can even bring home your own bottle!
BIG T’S SALOON
2007 Third St, Eau Claire.
They serve giant Bloody Marys made with a “secret sauce” on Sundays. (See the complete rundown and a generous photo on page 45).
BRACKETT BAR
9150 Beaver Creek Road, Fall Creek
The drive is worth it on “Sunday Funday” when patrons get deals on jumbo, large, or regu lar-sized Bloody Marys.
CHIPPEWA RIVER DISTILLERY & BREWSTER BROTHERS BREWING CO.
402 W River St, Chippewa Falls
One of the specialties at this brewpub and distillery is Trumie’s Vodka. Go directly to the source and get a Bloody made with Trumie’s original vodka, or one of the flavored varieties, including dill, horseradish, garlic, or bacon.
COWBOY JACK’S
1432 Front Porch Place, Altoona
Enjoy the view of the Eau Claire River on one of the best patios in the area while you sip Bloody Mary specials on Sundays. You can even get one made with local Trumie’s Vodka (from the Chippewa River Distillery above).
GIROLAMO’S COURT’N HOUSE
113 W. Grand Ave., Eau Claire
Ranked No. 1 by Visit Eau Claire, declared “the best Bloody Mary for 100 miles” by someone on TripAdvi sor.com, and heaped with praise by Volume One’s own Lindsey Quinnies.
HANGAR 54
3800 Starr Ave., Eau Claire
Located at the Chippewa Valley Re gional Airport, Hangar 54 will give your tastebuds some altitude with its zesty bloody, complete with a Rump’s beef stick.
MILWAUKEE BURGER CO.
2620 E Clairemont Ave, Eau Claire
Many options to choose from at this local favorite, including the Bacon Bloody, the Pickle Me Crazy, and the 32-ounce Big Mil Bloody.
RAY’S PLACE
838 Water St., Eau Claire
You’ve heard of the legendary hot beefs and the Spanish stew, but it turns out Ray’s makes a darn good Bloody Mary, too. Don’t forget the beer chaser. (And the mustard on the hot beef.)
VFW POST 305
1300 Starr Ave., Eau Claire
Another below-the-radar choice for a superior Bloody is the VFW Post 305, perched high above and overlooking Dells Pond. A great place to watch the game and grab breakfast, too.
IS YOUR FAVORITE MISSING? Be sure to nominate and vote in next year’s Best of the Chippewa Valley Reader Poll to make your choice known!
1. Big T’s Saloon
2. Milwaukee Burger Company
3. Girolamo’s Court ‘n House Bar & Grill
Are you hungry or thirsty? The answer is always “yes” with a local Blood Mary! Volume One readers love to hit up Big T’s Saloon (2007 3rd St., Eau Claire), where the Bloodys are so good, people who visit from out of town literally consider moving to the Chippewa Valley. Milwaukee Burger Com pany (2620 E Clairemont Ave., Eau Claire) comes in second, with largerthan-life offerings that will leave you wide-eyed and satisfied. In third place is the classic, delicious offering from Girolamo’s Court’n House Bar & Grill (113 W Grand Ave., Eau Claire), always served with an ice-cold chaser. Now that is a fine Bloody Mary.
–Cullen Ryan
NOW THAT WE’VE SPENT A WHOLE SPECIAL SECTION OF THIS MAGAZINE EXTOLLING THE VIRTUES OF THIS CLASSIC COCKTAIL, you may be wondering about a few very basic things: Namely, where did the Bloody Mary come from? And why is it called the Bloody Mary in the first place?
Those are excellent questions, which in this case is code for “hardto-answer questions.” Since we’re relaxed and belly up to the bar, let’s have a history lesson, shall we? And like any good lesson at a bar, this one is filled with potential misinforma tion and is subject to correction and/ or argumentation.
There are several tales associ ated with the original of the Bloody Mary. According to one of the most persistent, it was the creation of a French bartender, Fernand Petiot, who worked at a Paris bar confus ingly named the New York Bar (and later named Harry’s Bar). Suppos edly, in the 1920s Petiot mixed vodka and tomato juice — no pickles or horseradish or mini burgers on sticks yet — and dubbed it the Buck et of Blood. Petiot later moved to the United States and brought the drink with him, although for a time it was made with gin, not vodka (that’s what is now called a Red Snapper). Separately, comedian George Jessel claimed to have invented the drink in the 1930s, while a bartender at the 21 Club in New York also supposedly first mixed up the Bloody during that decade.
According to the book Boozy Brunch: The Quintessential Guide to Daytime Drinking by Peter Jo seph, Petiot is the drink’s definitive inventor. In the 1960s, he described his creation like this: “I cover the bottom of the (cocktail) shaker with four large dashes of salt, two dashes of black pepper, two dashes of cay enne pepper, and a layer of Worces tershire sauce; I then add a dash of lemon juice and some cracked ice,
put in two ounces of vodka and two ounces of thick tomato juice, shake, strain, and pour.”
That sounds pretty close to a modern recipe, but variations have abounded over the years. As Joseph writes, “The Bloody Mary is a drink meant to be tinkered with, as it has been since it arrived in the States.”
So who was Mary? Once of Petiot’s customers allegedly said the new drink reminded him of his girl friend, named Mary, who he met at a cabaret called the Bucket of Blood. Other sources claim the Bucket of Bloody was a bar in Chicago with
a waitress named Mary. Or maybe the inspiration was Mary Pickford, Hollywood star of the era. Or maybe it’s an homage to Mary I of England, dubbed “Bloody Mary” for slaugh tering religious opponents. (Spicy behavior, to be sure.)
The true story is that we prob ably will never know the true story. Whoever Mary was, she had a face that launched a thousand variations, and that’s to the benefit of all of us who love our alcohol with a side of tomato juice, spice, and anything else a creative bartender cares to add.
