The quintessential brunch cocktail started with a rich guy’s hangover.
If John Jacob Astor IV hadn’t died on the Titanic in 1912 and left his $87 million fortune to his son, Vincent, and if Vincent hadn’t had a few too many one night in Paris and stumbled into Harry’s New York bar the next morning, the Bloody Mary might not exist.
The year was 1934, and Vincent was paying the price for a late night out.
French bartender Fernand Petiot knew of a cocktail that could help. It was a simple drink featuring tomato juice and vodka, spiced up with salt, pepper, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce.
“He loved it,” says Bill Dante, a longtime bartender at the St. Regis New York’s King Cole Bar, once owned by Astor. “So Fernand Petiot started making it for people at Harry’s in Paris. They loved it, and it became very popular.”
When Astor returned to New York and reopened the St. Regis’ King Cole Bar at the end of Prohibition, he offered Petiot a ticket to New York and a job as his new bartender, where he could serve Bloody Marys to Astor and all his friends.
It was a hit, particularly at brunch. There was only one problem: the high-society people of New York often included British folks who were not fond of the word “bloody,” a slur in the old country.
So they renamed the cocktail and called it a “Red Snapper.”
Today, the St. Regis in New York is enjoying a grand reopening after renovations. And while it no longer serves brunch, the Red Snapper remains a popular menu item.
“Vincent was a very big drinker,” says Dante, the bartender. “He died of cirrhosis of the liver. But the Bloody Mary absolutely works. It’s the combination of the spices, tomato juice and the alcohol. It has nutritional balance, it’s good for your stomach, and the alcohol, once it enters your bloodstream again, neutralizes the hangover.
“The key is to stop there and not continue drinking. The best thing to do is to have one stiff Bloody Mary and then get on with your day.”
Petiot worked at the bar until 1963. Pictures of him are hanging in the downstairs area of the St. Regis.
The original garnish was a lemon wedge, and that’s how it’s still served at the New York bar.
But the St. Regis hotel chain adapts its Bloody Mary based on the city. The St. Regis in Osaka, Japan, for example, makes its Shogun Mary with wasabi, yuzu and soy sauce, while the one in Rome uses basil, oregano and olive oil.
Dante offered this tip to anyone making a Bloody Mary at home: “Remember the basic elements.”
“The original recipe did not have horseradish and didn’t have Tabasco,” he says. “It was black and white pepper, a dash of cayenne — very little cayenne, because it’s very powerful. That’s the heat, the spice. And celery salt, which has flavor, Worcestershire sauce, which has the dark essence, that creates the flavor. And some lemon juice.
“If you’re making it for yourself, do it to taste. Add to it until it tastes right to you. Some people like more cayenne, more lemon juice, you vary it.”
St. Regis New York Bloody Mary
INGREDIENTS
1 ounce premium vodka
11 ounces Bloody Mary mix (see below)
1 lemon wedge, for garnish
Directions: Fill a 12-ounce Blood Mary glass with ice. Add vodka. Fill glass with Blood Mary mix and garnish with lemon.
The Signature St. Regis Bloody Mary Mix
Makes 3 gallons
INGREDIENTS
Juice of 3 lemons
2½ large (#10) cans tomato juice
5 ounces Worcestershire sauce
10 dashes Tabasco sauce
2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons ground cayenne
1 tablespoon celery salt
2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
Directions: Pour ingredients into a container and shake well. Use immediately or seal and refrigerate. Strain peppercorns from mix before adding alcohol.
Bill Dante, Bartender, St. Regis New York’s King Cole Bar, home of the original Bloody Mary; st-regis.marriott.com.
Today, Bloody Mary cocktails are served at bars and restaurants around the world — and at innumerable New Year’s Day brunches, as well — with each bartender adding his or her own twist to the tradition. Here are four great examples from Bay Area mixologists.
Mark Feaver
— Owner, bartender, cocktail class teacher at Northern California’s On Point Mobile Bartending; onpointmobilebartending.com.
The ingredients: Feaver’s policy on the classic Bloody Mary comes down to this: lime over lemon. “It’s how I was taught,” says Feaver, who started his mobile bartending company with a former co-worker in 2019. “I wonder if people can tell the difference.”
Any weird variations?
“One of our bartenders used to do sweet and sour, a little orange juice, tomato juice, lime juice and olive juice,” he says. “Another alternative I’ve done, if you don’t have Worcestershire sauce, do a little A.1. Sauce. People are thrown off, but when they try it, they’re like, ‘Wow, that’s pretty good.’”
The technique: Feaver rims the glass with Tajin to bring out the lime flavors. The Mexican seasoning, which includes dried chile peppers and salt as well as dried lime, “adds to the flavor and presentation.”
Garnishes: “Depending how extravagant the client wants to get with garnishes, you can do bacon-wrapped shrimp,” he says. “We usually do celery with an olive on top.”
Recipe: Mark Feaver’s Bloody Mary
INGREDIENTS
2 to 3 dashes Tabasco
2 to 3 dashes Worcestershire sauce
1/4 ounce lime juice
2 ounces vodka
4 ounces tomato juice
Rim of salt or Tajin
Freshly ground pepper
Celery stalk and olive garnish
Directions: Rim the glass with salt or Tajin. Fill with ice. Add the Tabasco, Worcestershire, lime juice, vodka and tomato juice. Stir until cold. Grind pepper over the top and add the garnish to finish.
Camper English
— San Francisco cocktail writer and speaker; author of 2023’s “The Ice Book: Cool Cubes, Clear Spheres, and Other Chill Cocktail Crafts”
The ingredients: English has very specific thoughts on what it takes to make a good Bloody Mary. “One, it needs to be super-boozy. Anywhere from a third to half of the drink should be vodka,” he says. “Second, I think it’s got to have something intensely spicy — I don’t think that’s controversial. Third, it needs something sharp. It’s traditionally served with a lemon wedge on the side, but that’s not enough acid for me. I definitely want a splash of pickle brine of some sort in the drink, as well.”
He doesn’t care too much about the quality of the spirit. What he does care about, very much, is that the finished drink has no bits of horseradish or other solids. For that reason, he infuses his own vodka with spicy ingredients. “You strain that and use the spicy vodka, rather than have all these chunks floating around in your drink,” he says. “I don’t even like flakes of black pepper floating on the surface, because it’s going to stick on your lips, and you’re going to look like a fool.”
The technique: “At home I’m pretty lazy, and I will just pour it all together in a glass with ice and give it a stir with a straw,” English says. “I actually drink my Bloody Marys with a straw, which is super-trashy, but that’s just me.”
Garnishes: English believes garnishes are basically just a fun little snack with your cocktail. “I know it’s all about getting as ridiculous as possible, with half a baked chicken and a cheeseburger on top, but I don’t know if I consider any garnishes as essential,” he says. “I enjoy pickled veggies or olives, personally.”
Recipe: Infused Bloody Mary (Code name: Blood Thinner)
INGREDIENTS
1/3 to 1/2 part infused vodka (instructions below), ideally chilled
2/3 to 1/2 part chilled tomato juice, or vegetable juice such as V8
Splash of green olive, peperoncini or other pickled-vegetable brine
DIRECTIONS
Add ingredients to a Collins glass filled with ice cubes, swirl with a straw and drink. Garnish as you wish!
Infused vodka: Add roughly one tablespoon of a spicy ingredient (peppercorns, peperoncini, chile peppers, jalapeño peppers, horseradish, wasabi paste, etc.) to 1 cup of vodka and let infuse overnight. Strain out the solids. “I like to make a few separate infusions and blend them together. If it comes out too spicy, add more uninfused vodka to thin it,” says English.
Jennifer Seidman
— Owner of Acme Bar & Company, Berkeley; consultant for Little Bird Bar, Oakland
The ingredients: The best Bloody Marys start with the best ingredients, and Seidman uses a base of organic R.W. Knudsen tomato juice. “It’s the best on the market, aside from making your own,” she says. (Some bartenders do make their own “tomato water,” typically by freezing tomatoes and then letting the liquid melt out.) Seidman doesn’t want to taste the booze, preferring instead something savory like a New Jersey nonna might stew up.
“The whole idea of a hangover cure is you’re trying to even your body out from last night’s festivities and get some nourishment,” she says.
The technique: “The easiest way to think about a Bloody Mary is that it’s like a tomato sauce, which you want to build umami flavor in by seasoning with oregano, garlic, onions and black pepper,” says Seidman.
For the classic version, she adds horseradish, Worcestershire, Tabasco, celery salt and Old Bay Seafood Seasoning. At Oakland’s Little Bird, a new pickle-centric bar, they use Clamato and a housemade probiotic brine from yellow bell peppers. She doesn’t like spiciness, so she adjusts the heat level for the customer post-mixing.
Garnishes: Acme built a reputation for the ridiculous number of condiments that towered on its Bloody Marys, like Leaning Food Towers of Pisa. One notable example had pickles, cucumber, shrimp, cheese, pepperoni, black olives, more cured meat, half a hard boiled egg and a meatball slider with tomato sauce and even more cheese. “If you Google ‘crazy Bloody Marys,’ there are people who will get a whole fried chicken on it, which if you’re hungover would be awesome,” she says.
Acme doesn’t make these monstrosities anymore, as they seem to have gone out of fashion, but Seidman still enjoys hefty garnishes. “My bars don’t have fried chicken. But anything that goes with tomato sauce, like meatballs and cheese, I personally like.”
Recipe: Acme’s Bloody Mary Mix
INGREDIENTS
1 liter R.W. Knudsen Organic Tomato Juice or Tres Agaves Organic Bloody Mary Mix
About 1 teaspoon horseradish, or to taste
1.5 ounces lemon juice
1.5 ounces lime juice
2.5 ounces Worcestershire sauce
0.5 ounce peperoncini juice
4 dashes Tapatio hot sauce
1 tablespoon Sriracha
2 dashes celery salt
2 dashes Old Bay Seafood Seasoning
Pinch of salt
Directions: Mix all ingredients in a large jar and refrigerate until ready to use. To make the Bloody Mary of your choice, measure 2 ounces of your preferred spirit — vodka (Bloody Mary), gin (Red Snapper), tequila (Bloody Maria) or whiskey (Bloody Bull) — into a 10 ounce or more Collins glass or a 16 ounce pint glass. Fill with ice, add Bloody mix to the spirit and stir with a barspoon. Garnish as desired.
Josue Orellana
—Bar manager, Sun of Wolf, Palo Alto
The ingredients: A variation on the Bloody Mary, the Bloody Maria at the creative Cali-Latin Sun of Wolf uses tequila — El Tequileno Blanco — instead of vodka. It’s combined with fresh squeezed lime juice and a housemade Maria mix made with tomato juice, Maggi, pickled jalapeno brine, Tajin, celery bitters and the restaurant’s housemade hot sauce, which includes chipotle in adobo, arbol chile and serrano peppers.
The technique: The addition of the Tres Soles — three suns — hot sauce is what makes their Bloody Maria/Mary unique, the Sols say. Add a couple of spoonfuls of the salsa to add a savory, smoky spice to the cocktail. Want to go smokier? Substitute mezcal for the tequila.
The garnishes: A Tajin rim adds to the Latin flair. Top it all off with fresh sprigs of cilantro, a lime wedge and green olives.
Recipe: Bloody Maria
INGREDIENTS
Tajin
5 ounces tomato juice
1/2 ounce jalapeño brine
1/2 ounce housemade hot sauce
2 dashes Maggi sauce
2 dashes celery bitters
2 ounces El Tequileño Blanco
1/2 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
Directions: Rim the glass with Tajin. Fill it with ice. Combine the tomato juice, brine, hot sauce, Maggi and celery bitters in the glass, stirring to mix. Add the tequila and lime juice and garnishes of your choice and serve.