Bloody Mary bars let drinkers give their cocktails a personal twist

On any given Sunday, you can find brunch regulars at the Well building Bloody Marys at a bar stocked with an intoxicating array of ingredients.

Customers pay $5.50 for a glass of ice and vodka, then customize the cocktail with their pick of eight Bloody Mary mixes, 20 hot sauces, pickles, olives, beef jerky sticks, cherry peppers, lemons, limes, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce and celery sticks, the quintessential garnish.

“Some people put two or three of those in their drink,” general manager Raymond Reyes says, “so it looks like a small salad.”

Over the past few years, Bloody Mary bars have become weekend staples at several local bars and restaurants, including the RecordBar and Port Fonda in Westport, Tomfooleries on the Country Club Plaza and downtown’s Bristol Seafood Grill. The customizable cocktails are also popular at tailgating parties, bridal showers and homemade brunches.

Michelle Majerle of Prairie Village assembles Bloody Mary bars for her book club’s regular brunches. Her essentials include blue cheese-stuffed olives, Tabasco hot sauce, dill pickle spears, celery salt and Zing Zang, a mix that she says has the perfect hint of heat.

“The more options, the better,” Majerle says.

The first Bloody Mary was made in 1921 by Pete Petiot, a bartender at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris. At first, it was a simple, savory concoction of tomato juice and vodka, but eventually Petiot tweaked the recipe by adding Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco and other seasonings.

According to “The New Food Lover’s Companion” (2013 Barron’s Educational Series), Petiot named the drink after Mary Tudor, queen of England and Ireland, whose executions of Protestants earned her the nickname Bloody Mary.

These days, Bloody Marys are associated more with hot sauce, bacon and hangovers than murderous queens.

“A Bloody Mary is more than a drink, it’s a hangover helper,” says John Bryan of Louisburg, Kan. “The tomato juice has a bunch of vitamins, and there’s something magical about horseradish — it gets some sweat on the brow.”

Bryan, who works as export director for Firestone Walker Brewing Co., discovered Bloody Marys in college. In 1984, he was a regular at the Elephant Bar in Olathe, where bartenders spiked the drink with Gates barbecue sauce.

Gates sauce is a fixture at the Bloody Mary bars Bryan assembles while tailgating before Chiefs games. He also likes Arthur Bryant’s sauce for tang and Jack Stack’s all-purpose KC barbecue rub, which adds flavors of onion, garlic and bell pepper.

When it comes to barbecue sauce, a little goes a long way, says Eddie Crane, co-founder of Revel Traveling Bar & Events.

“Less than a teaspoon will add a little Kansas City flavor,” Crane says, “but you don’t want to feel like you’re drinking barbecue sauce.”

Crane likes Kansas City’s Cowtown Night of the Living Bar-B-Q sauce, a hot concoction that promises to “reanimate your tastebuds.” The bartender also likes surprising ingredients such as pickled asparagus, Greek seasoning and pickled tomatoes, also known as tomolives. He amps up the flavor of the drink with basil or bacon-infused vodka and has even considered infusing the spirit with hard salami sticks.

“Imagine a Slim Jim-infused vodka,” Crane says. “That would be interesting.”

Not all Bloody Marys are made with vodka: Port Fonda’s bar serves Bloody Marias made with tequila, mezcal or a combination of the agave-based spirits. “Cocktails: The Bartender’s Bible” (Firefly 2013) offers eight versions of the drink, including a Bloody Joseph spiked with scotch and a Bloody Maru made with sake.

That’s the thing about DIY Bloody Marys: The sky’s the limit when it comes to creativity.

It’s easy to go overboard at Tomfooleries, which offers one of Kansas City’s most extensive Bloody Mary bars on Saturdays and Sundays. The staggering selection includes 18 mixes — horseradish-heavy Mr. and Mrs. T is a customer favorite — and about 50 garnishes, including shrimp, house-pickled green beans and garlic breadsticks.

Owner Barton Bloom says that every once in a while, a customer adds way too much hot sauce and ends up with an undrinkable cocktail.

“We give them some more tomato juice to mellow it out,” Bloom says.

Last month, Tomfooleries added a build-your-own mimosa bar where customers can doctor Champagne with 12 juices, fresh fruit and fun add-ins such as Froot Loops cereal and gummy worms, which tend to run out fast.

DIY cocktail bars can be a lot of work, Bloom says, but they’re also a lot of fun.

“You know, the more, the merrier,” he says.

This story was originally published May 26, 2015 at 5:00 AM.