Bloody Mary Festival 2023

The Bloody Mary is an iconic drink, a staple of brunches. The origins of the cocktail are a little murky but probably originated sometime in the 1920’s or 1930″s.

A pretty basic recipe would be vodka, tomato juice, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice and tabasco.

On March 18th I attended the 9th annual Bloody Mary Festival, a multi city tour which came back to New York City this year after the pandemic hiatus.

The event was held at City Point, a venue in a Mall located at 445 Albee Square West in downtown Brooklyn and had over a dozen restaurants and cocktail mix producers vying for the title of the best Bloody Mary.

Each participant had their own versions of the Bloody Mary. There was some wiggle room with the ingredients used but the creativity came in to play with the garnishes used on the drink.

My favorite was the Bloody Mary from the Lobster Joint.

Some of the participants:

Bill’s Bar & BurgerBrooklyn Rabbit Bar & Grill
Lobster Joint The Wilson
Dos CaminosCrave Fishbar
390 SocialFever Tree
Toma Bloody MaryChela

The Bloody Mary Festival

 

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This past Sunday I attended The Bloody Mary Festival,  a multi-city event that was advertised as “a celebration of our beloved brunch cocktail and the largest event of its kind”.

It was an afternoon of sampling Bloody Marys  prepared by local bars and restaurants along with food trucks and a DJ.

This year the event was held at the Grand Prospect Hall at 263 Prospect Avenue in Park Slope Brooklyn. It’s a 100+ year old oak paneled beer hall event space that someone described as “Disney-does-Hapsburg”.

This time around the vodka sponsor was Bleu Storm vodka, an ultra premium French vodka made from whole wheat.

A few of the Bloodys and the restaurants/bars that serve them:

 

Bloody Mary Liberation Party The Prospect Park

Lucky Luna (Greenpoint) Kimchi and Nori Bloody Mary

Esme (Greenpoint) Esme Bloody Mary

Syndicated (Bushwick) Blood For Dracula

Travel Bar (Carrol Gardens) The Well Traveled

706 (Prospect Heights) The 706

Hunter’s (Cobble Hill) Hunter’s Saigon Mary

Skylark (Park Slope) The Skylark

Talde (Park Slope) Talde Bloody Mary

Catfish (Crown Heights) Creole Bloody Mary