Nowhere else in the country are Bloody Marys so loved as here in Southeastern Wisconsin. While many are consumed during Sunday brunch, Bloodies are enjoyed all day, every day. This may be the only place where people won’t look at you sideways when you order a Bloody on a Wednesday night. This is also one of the only places where ordering a Bloody will automatically get you a chaser of beer; many bars outside of the state don’t even know what a chaser is. And we love our tomato vodka cocktails so much that we go out of our way to top them with some of the most outrageous—and delicious—stuff possible, making a meal out of a drink. Bars don’t neglect the actual drink, though, and many take pride in their own homemade tomato mix, keeping their secret recipe hidden even from their most loyal Bloody-loving customers. No matter where you order a Bloody Mary in Wisconsin, you’re going to get something unique and concocted with pride.
- Page 1 (Results 1-10)
-
1
Blue's Egg (Milwaukee)
Blue’s Egg tops lists of best breakfast places in town, year after year. They wouldn’t be able to maintain such accolades if they didn’t make a top-notch Bloody Mary. Compared to some versions of the classic breakfast cocktail available in Milwaukee, Blue’s Egg sticks to the basics—great vodka and subtly-spiced, substantial tomato juice garnished with a hefty pickle spear, green olive and a nice, thick piece of bacon. The result is a perfectly prepared Bloody Mary, which can easily be consumed by a single person. Delicious! (Susan Harpt Grimes)
-
2
The Lakeside Supper Club & Lounge (Oconomowoc)
The special weekend Bloody is quite the sight, with a name to match. The Wisconsin Supper Club Lazy Susan Bloody Mary puts the drink in the middle of a small rotating board and surrounds it with cups of garnishes. What all’s included? Shrimp cocktail, pepperoni and cheese, cherry tomatoes, pickled green beans, baby corn, bacon, deviled egg, celery, cherry pepper, a chaser and tater tots. The ingenious use of the Lazy Susan means you can still eat a meal’s worth of garnishes without it falling off your drink. (Lacey Muszynski)
-
3
Centraal Grand Café & Tappery
It wasn’t all that long ago that bacon in a Bloody Mary was considered a decadent novelty; now it’s an expected ingredient at brunch spots around the country. Served for brunch at the Lowlands Group’s Café Centraal and Café Hollander locations, the Milwaukeean can celebrate this new normal while going one step further and adding two of the city’s chief culinary exports: beer and cheese, along with a dash of horseradish. The beer is brewed locally by Lakefront and even the vodka has roots in the city—it’s Rehorst from the Great Lakes Distillery. (Evan Rytlewski)
-
4
-
5
Comet Café
A slice of bacon is the essential garnish for the house Bloody Mary at this homey East Side café. “Bacon is part of breakfast; why not make it part of a breakfast drink?” says Manager Nick Westfahl who thought up the idea. “Bacon is kind of our thing; it’s pretty prevalent on the food menu.” The mix is made from scratch in the kitchen. The recipe is retooled regularly. “You want to make sure you’re always serving what you’d want to drink yourself,” Westfahl says. The vodka is Rehorst, made in Milwaukee by Great Lakes Distillery. The hand-selected veggies are locally sourced. The Bloody Mary is the Comet’s most popular drink with a good 60 served on a slow day. (John Schneider)
-
6
County Clare Irish Inn & Pub
You might not think Irish when you think Bloody Mary, but Milwaukee’s most traditional Irish pub sells an impressive number. The main thing, says Bar Manager Blake Johnston, is to use the highest-quality ingredients. A Klement’s sausage stick, a Wisconsin cheddar cheese stick, a kosher dill pickle, two olives and a pickled potato made with the house brine are the garnishes. The always-fresh mix is also made in house using acclaimed Chef Troy Mueller’s recipe perfected over years. To add Irish flavor, five ounces of Harp beer comes automatically with every Bloody. But if that’s not enough, order County Clare’s original Bloody Máire made with a bit of Guinness and some excellent Irish whiskey in place of the vodka. Oh, and try the root soup. (J.S.)
-
7
4th Base Restaurant
Even when a bar uses a homemade mix, rarely do they actually mix it in front of you, like at 4th Base. This make-your-own-menu restaurant near Miller Park starts with Sacramento tomato juice—the favorite of many bloody aficionados—and adds things like horseradish, celery salt and Worcestershire sauce to a customer’s taste right behind the bar for a truly customized drink. Then they top the drink with some fresh vegetables, pickle, a massive shrimp (if you like) and a large tumbleweed of fried onion strings. It looks just as impressive as it tastes, and you can’t beat the full pint chaser, either. (L.M.)
-
8
Oscar's on Pierce
Although tucked into an unobtrusive industrial neighborhood, Oscar’s does elbow-to-elbow business at the bar and around the tables. They are best known for two things: delicious burgers and potent Bloody Marys. The Oscar’s Bloody is rimmed with salt and slices of lemon and lime, and fortified with a bacon strip, a celery stalk and a spear of olive, soft white cheese and a pickle. Tangy with the taste of Worcestershire or some other spicy sauce, a lunchtime Bloody at Oscar’s makes returning to work a pleasure. (David Luhrssen)
-
9
Sobelman's Pub & Grill (On St. Paul)
No longer just known for its burgers, Sobleman’s has pioneered the art of turning Bloody Marys into a spectacle in recent years, first with its Masterpiece, an overloaded Bloody served with, among too many ingredients to list, a cheeseburger, then with The Baconado, a similarly indulgent mug of food crowned with a proud tower of bacon. In terms of sheer scale, though, nothing competes with a concoction they’ve dubbed The Beast, a pitcher-sized mug of tomato juice and vodka topped with enough food to feed a small family, including two sliders, four shrimp, olives, asparagus, cherry tomatoes, beef sticks, pickles, bacon-wrapped tater tots and a battalion of cheese and beef sticks. Come hungry. (E.R.)
-
10
The Wicked Hop
The Wicked Hop is housed on the corner of the old Commission Row in the Third Ward, but according to the homemade street sign on the sidewalk patio, it’s at the intersection of Bloody Mary and Sunday Brunch. The Bloody, of course, is one of the Hop’s attractions—a tall and well-seasoned number garnished with a meat stick, shrimp, a marinated mushroom, a blue-cheese-stuffed olive and strings of mozzarella cheese. It’s been described as “more like a voluptuous alcoholic salad than a cocktail.” Tuesdays from 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Bloody Marys are on special for $5 (plus another buck for a beer chaser). (D.L.)
- Page 1 (Results 1-10)
