Bloody Marys with a zing
By Kristen Cook
kcook@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.29.2009
Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary.
Say that late on a Friday night and maybe the legendary specter will appear in your bathroom mirror.
If you're a 'tween girl at a slumber party, anyway. But we're talkin' about the wicked tomato juice cocktail
. Bloody Marys were the topic of our most recent Food Fight. According to folks who love 'em, a bartender named for a cartoon heroine and a design-it-yourself Bloody Mary bar whip up the best drinks in town.
Old Chicago bartender Sherra Stewart and The Cup Cafe's Sunday Bloody Mary bar inside Hotel Congress earned lavish praise for their concoctions.
Stewart — we'll get back to the story behind her first name — has spent about a year perfecting her "zing" sauce of 12 ingredients to kick up the standard Bloody Mary. Since it's part of a chain, Old Chicago has a basic recipe for a Bloody Mary but no spicy version. After Stewart watched her fiance pull out celery salt, Worcestershire sauce and chipotle chile sauce from a backpack to goose up a Blah-dy Mary, she set to work on her own spicy blend.
"I started experimenting on people," said Stewart, with a laugh.
Yes, Gen-Xers, she was named for Mattel superhero She-Ra, He-Man's twin sister. Stewart's parents let her 5-year-old sister name her. They drew the line at a hyphen, opting instead for a bonus "r." No matter, readers proclaim Stewart a true hero for her mad cocktail skills.
"Sherra's Bloody Marys at Old Chicago make me shiver with spicy tomato goodness!!! A+," wrote Steve Piper, a job coach for the developmentally disabled, in his online comment.
While she may have mixed up the occasional Bloody Mary before, now she blows through her 20-ounce bottle of special sauce — which does include her fiance's backpack ingredients — in a week's time. Stewart finishes off her spicy Bloody Marys with a few olives, a lime, celery stalk and salted rim.
Over at the Cup Cafe, a Bloody Mary could basically be a meal with shrimp, even feta cheese, tossed into it, depending on your tastes.
"You can add anything from jalapeños, cilantro, salsa, avocado, capers, blue cheese, roasted garlic and a ton more," Christy Holliger, an occupation software quality assurance manager, wrote. "To boot, they have the two hottest and most kick-azz (sic) bartenders on staff smiling and mixing it up for you."
The Sunday bar, which has been around for nearly four years and runs from 10 a.m. to about 1 p.m. Sundays only, works like a sushi bar, said Allison Baron, hotel manager. Customers have a card and check off the ingredients they want added to the drink.
"It's been very popular," said Baron, who likes her Marys with cilantro, garlic and lots of sriracha sauce. "I think that a Bloody Mary is such a personalized thing that it's nice people can get it exactly how they want it."
Becky Corran, a program coordinator at the University of Arizona, gave the bar props. "You can get a classic or add good things like balsamic reduction. And the ingredients are fresh and top quality," she wrote.
The Cup's Bloody Marys are garnished with a celery stalk, pickle, olives, limes and lemons.
Reader Megan Fischer, who's in human resources, threw her vote to Bison Witches' brew with a simple, but very excited "yummylicious!!!"
Dave "Cracker" Knak, who's in transportation safety, offered yet another alternative.
"Bartender Susan at the Taste of Texas — Thornydale and Cortaro Road — makes a very good Bloody Mary. Just the right combination of spices and celery salt at a very good $$$."
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