On Sunday, spicy red cocktail fanatics converged upon the Bloody Mary Festival, which brought a boatload of bloodies to Industry City. We sent Josh Reznick to the stomach-punishing event—he wisely ingested a double dose of Pepcid Complete along with breakfast waffles beforehand—to determine which Brooklyn venue boasted the Best Bloody Mary. Reznick found a few favorites—though he deemed the absence of celery garnishes "blasphemous"—so read on to find out where you'll be indulging in vodka-soaked tomato juice next weekend.
Cain's Tavern - "Cain's Bloody Mary" A full jalapeño pepper makes a big difference in getting the jalapeno flavor in there versus just the heat. I really enjoyed slowly eating the pepper as I made my way through the drink. I found he pickle to be unnecessary and getting in the way of the jalapeño. Distinct Tabasco as well. Otherwise straightforward. 3.5/5
Catfish - "Voodoo Bloody Mary" A Cajun/New Orleans-themed bloody. They were handing out Mardi Gras beads which I guess was "fun," but gave anyone who kept a handful of them around their neck for the entire event a distinct "spring break disaster" vibe (I'm sure they were all nice people who just didn't look in a mirror). I am a huge fan of seafood in my bloody mary, so I was psyched to hear that this one included both shrimp garnish and crabmeat. Unfortunately, neither were noticeably present. I'd imagine the logistics of a peeled shrimp hanging off the rim of every class might be hard, but why mention it then? Total buzzkill. Had a single green bean as a garnish. The green bean flavor worked well with the seasoning, but the bean flavor is not incredibly strong and gets eaten too fast. Two or three would have been a better balance. The "secret spices" tasted a lot like Old Bay to me. Points for originality, not so much on the delivery. 3/5
Enid's - "Enid's Bloody Mary" Enid's did a great job of showing how to churn out quality bloodies in high volume. Ideal ratios of all the staple ingredients, and each constructed with the care you would expect from a fancy brunch price tag. You could crush six or seven of these without blinking. 4/5
Char No. 4 - "Chipotle Bourbon Bloody Mary" Heavy on the bourbon, which I love, unfortunately not much else to go on here. Not sure if this is how they generally serve them or if this is just a function of churning out so many, but it seems like they are just letting the bourbon ride on its own as the dominant flavor. I could barely taste the tomato juice let alone the chipotle flavor. Cucumber garnish worked. It was good, just wish there was more to it. 3/5
Mominette - "Mominette Bloody Mary" Another one of the more popular stations. One of the best visual presentations. Overwhelming flavor is lemon. I usually love anything heavy on sour citrus but I feel like I couldn't get through a second one of these without the lemon just being unbearably powerful. In addition to a green olive, there was also a Kalamata olive, which is in my opinion an inferior olive and should be left to its Greek salad duties. Going from bad to worse on the garnishes experience we've also got a "bacon marshmallow" (!?) that was just awful, especially because I expected it to be some type of cheese. I feel like my great grandmother may have eaten something similar as a tasty treat but she also didn't have running water. High fashion but a wreck. 2/5
Congress Bar - "The Pitted Queen" Seems to be the one of the hottest tickets here. Definitely wins best presentation—most stations are just churning them out but even with an impatient line 20 deep, each one looks gorgeous. This is a solid Bloody Mary- a good ratio of Worcestershire, horseradish and Tabasco. A single misfire in the garnish buffet they've got going on here: the beef jerky. A small piece of bacon may have worked well, but the jerky preservatives become all too apparent surrounded by the other fresh ingredients. I took half a bite and removed it from the otherwise top-notch experience. 4.5/5
Lucky Luna - "Lucky Luna Bloody Mary" I pretty much hate anything "mole"- it always tastes messed up and out of place like you tried to make something sweet taste savory by burning it. That said, this is may have been the best mole-flavored item I've ever tried. I know that's not saying much, but mole is gross and this Bloody Mary was still decent. 3/5
Bar 706 - "The Garcia" Overwhelming pepper flavor, the basil did a good job of complementing the pepper, but still drowned out the other flavors a bit too much. Watery, but in a drinkable way. The pepper heat combined with the light consistency gets you drinking one of these in double-time. 3.5/5
Bloody Mary Liberation Party - "Power to the People" This is the organizers' own entry into the event. No frills on the presentation but the ingredients make a statement. Big fan of the cilantro, but the only other prominent flavor is sriracha, which unfortunately doesn't seem to work here. I like sriracha as much as the next guy but sriracha for the sake of sriracha is generally not a recipe for success. I wish there was more of the horseradish to go with the cilantro instead, it could have been something really special. 3.5/5
Travel Bar - "Travel Bar Bloody Mary" This is the kind of thing that really shines at an event like this: a delicious, unorthodox Bloody Mary that isn't dependent on presentation. Cucumber jumps out as the biggest flavor and it works far better pressed as juice here than it generally does as a slice of the vegetable. Nice Worcestershire flavor (which seems underrepresented at the event) A great caraway seed and cumin seasoning around the rim bring it all together. Really solid. This one got my people's choice vote. 4.5/5
Pok Pok - "Pok Pok Bloody Mary" Cleaned out by the time we got to their station, less than 90 minutes after the event started. Maybe they were that good, but seems like they were unprepared. 0/5
Josh Reznick holds a 14-0 record for broadcast network game show appearances, and was once bitten by Gothamist publisher Jake Dobkin over a matter of four dollars [Publishers note: This was in 4th grade in 1985—with inflation, that four dollars would be worth $186,000 in 2015]. When he's not day-drinking, he runs a Brooklyn-based tech company, and occasionally posts buzzwords on Twitter.
