Lollapalooza Break

Hope everyone enjoys the tunes this weekend! Stay safe & drink water...

Rockit: Great Garnishes, A Mini Mason

On Sunday, July, 27, we visited Rockit Bar & Grill, at Hubbard & Dearborn. We were pleasantly surprised at how quickly we were seated and able to order our drinks. When the waitress came back out, we were a little confused - she held a tray of clearly full glasses. We very cautiously asked her about the "build your own" status and she clarified that you could build your own garnish. Ah, okay. 

The first thing we took notice of were the mason jars the Snow Queen Bloody Mary was served in. Definitely a cute, if unoriginal, theme. I gave it alittle stir, noting the lime that came hinged on the side. Sippy. Yum! The consistency was pretty good, but the thickness of the drink was lost in all the ice. Large chunks + smallish glass = fat man in a little coat. 

We made it over to the garnish bar (which we actually had trouble finding, even though it was in the middle of the room - it was pretty well hidden, and I think we had a grander vision before we arrived. However, our hesitance was definitely not

warranted- the vast list of creative & gourmet ingredients almost even made up for the lack of freedom to create your own base. So much to choose from! The first thing that caught my eye was a little skewer comprised of rolled up salami & sliced cheese. Yum! Sometimes pre-rolled aint so bad. 1 please. 

I quickly realized I had a problem. Maybe it's my 

fault for not being strategic before diving in, or maybe it really is a deficiency on Rockit's part. But the diameter of the mason jar was too small for the ingredients! And, there were no skewers on which to skew your garnishes. (I would have loved to see some thin, reusable, wooden spears.) This meant that you had to put  your roasted garlic, or sun-dried tomato-stuffed olive, or what have you, straight into the drink and watch it sink to the bottom, knowing you'll meet again in about twenty minutes. Bummer. At least I could still add horseradish & hot sauce to my drink (they did have these essential ingredients - a plus to be sure.) As you can see from the picture below, I got creative with my shrimp skewing. And by creative I mean, used the salami one. 

Enough about me - what did the Bracketeers think??

the taste: 4.2

the texture: 3.4

the kick: 4.4

the sight: 4.4

the buck: 4.4

beer back: n

At $5 a pop, they're definitely worth it. An eerily-Brett Dennen sounding acoustic set added to the ambiance. Mrs. Ruby loved the mason jar, and one dear old friend noted of the various types of stuffed olives, "you know I like anything stuffed - or that you can dip." (Needless to say, we also ordered the Rockit Pockits.) See after the jump for some garnishes combos we came up with. 

Rockit's Garnish Bar

Loid

- Blue cheese stuffed olive

- Pesto Tomato

- Horseradish

- Caper Berry

- Onion

- Roasted Garlic

- Celery Salt 

Yours Truly

- Blackened Shrimp

- Sun-dried Tomato Stuffed Olive  

- Salami & Cheese Roll

- Caper Berry

- Grilled Artichoke

- Pickle Spear

- Celery Salt

- Horseradish

- Hot Sauce

Well, guess I had more room than I thought. But I did go back up for seconds. 

well hello, old frens. 

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Happy Friday, Bracketeers!!

What better way to spend a Friday afternoon at work than thinking about your Sunday morning alcohol intake?

With the new ban on blogging at work (I mean....) the frequency of my postings has definitely been hindered. But, this project is a work in progress of course, and it's going to be more of a meandering, lazy-river type path to the golden bloody mary at the end of the rainbow rather than a hardcore, strictly on schedule type of thing. I know you're all okay with that!

Anyway, updates on this end: We got a TON new bracketeers at the Silver Cloud expidition two weeks ago, and it was fantastic! Thanks to everyone who came out. Clearly, the inevitable finally happened, and I lost the score cards. I haven't given up faith yet, and since I know that they made it off the restaurant patio, I will keep the search going in my apartment. But it was a great day, and hopefully I'll be able to post about it soon. If not, we'll just have to go back there!

This Sunday, we will be visiting:

Rockit Bar & Grill

22 West Hubbard Street

12:00pm - NOON

With their Sunday tradition of live acoustic sets and $5 bloody mary bar, this one will be sure to please. Or, I hope it does - because I have not been blown away by any of the "best in the citys" so far!

Love & Libations,

Danielle

Saturday at Silver Cloud

Hello Bracketeers!

I hope the Fourth of July weekend has left everyone either sufficiently rested, or tired from various patriotic (I'm sure) activities.

This Saturday, July 12, we will be visiting the first Bucktown/Wicker Park area contestant:

Silver Cloud Bar & Grill

1700 North Damen Avenue

11:30

They claim that their bloody mary is a "meal in a glass" - so bring your appetite!

Patriotism.

Happy Fourth of July! Happy Birthday, America!

The Bracket will be taking a hiatus this week and will return next weekend. 

Love & libations, 

Danielle

Castaways - Just About What You'd Expect...Plus a Smidgen

First of all, let me just say that my primary reason for putting Castaways on the Bracket is because I wanted an excuse to go sit and drink at the beach - and a day at Casties is certainly something that needs to be done at least once every Chicago summer. 

For a corporate bloody mary - even a joint owned by Phil Stefani Restaurants - nobody expects it to be great. The description even tells you that the ingredients are Effen Vodka and bloody mary mix. However! I do believe, based on the scorecards received, that I was not the only one who was somewhat impressed by the taste: 

the taste: 3.4

the texture: 2.9

the kick: 2.4

the sight: 2

the buck ($7): 1.8

As you can see in the picture, the bloody mary was served in a normal sized plastic cup, with ice and the drink. Lemon wedges were thrown in for good measure at the beginning, but by the second round (yes! some of us got seconds. after a miami vice. whatever.) those were long gone. The celery salt was a great touch - mainly because you don't always find a place that uses it, and it looked like wet sand which went with the whole beach theme. As one Bracketeer noted, "salt looked like sand. i'm okay with that...venue made it bearable." At $7 a pop, it was on the pricey side for what you got - but again, we didn't expect them to be any less expensive.

All in all, I think that the bottom line for this one is that if you're going to go to Castaways - a place that looks like spring break all the time, a place where you need to get there at the crack of dawn to actually get a table (or, by 11:30 - they open at 11) and the water bottles cost $3.50 - the bloody mary is a decent choice of drink with it's surprisingly tasty (not gross) flavor. Sometimes you just can't drink mango frozen margaritas all day, or convince yourself to have a heineken first thing during a hungover morning. We expected the day in the sun to be fun albeit with a sucky first round of bloody marys - but, we were kind of surprised! 

Kristina - we'll go back again just for you. 

Homemade Brooklyn Bloody - Five Stars!

Last week, I visited my good friend Lila at her home in Brooklyn, NY. This was a very special visit for me, because she's been my bestest since babyhood and I had yet to see any post-high school home of hers. She lives in a great documentary arts collective called uniondocs, housed in a seemingly nondescript building in Williamsburg. In fact, the six residents live in three (I think) flats with furniture they made themselves (beautiful heavy log benches included) and a fantastic backyard, deck, and pulley-clothesline! (way to go, Lily!)

Of course Lila knows how to make a great bloody mary, she is the witty author behind our ranking descriptions. Of course her ingredients are home-made and fresh, she went au naturale years ago. I couldn't wait to try them!  

Ingredients (pictured): 

- Vodka

- Very Veggie Organic tomato juice

- Hot Chili Sauce (Sriracha)

- Dill

- Goya Season All

- Lemon Pepper Spice

- Salt

- Lemon Wedge Garnish 

- Best Homemade Horseradish EVER! 

- Soy Sauce!

It didn't even matter that the girls were out of olives or pickles; the lemon was enough in this tasty delight! Thanks to the chili sauce and horseradish, they were perfectly spicy and the consistency was creamy.

Occasionally, I thought I swallowed a hair or bug with the dill in there, but really the taste outweighed any phantom oral invasions. The soy was another welcome and unique flavor to the drink.

Of course, Lila is no rookie. She needs her snacks just as much as I do - and she certainly prepared. This lady made a loaf of bread from scratch, (yes, I walked into the apartment to bread in the oven. what.) with olive oil dip to boot. Of course, she also made her famous popcorn. Despite the fact that the recipe is on my fridge, I can never remember what goes into this spice mixture that she tops the popcorn with except that it contains nutritional yeast and is the tastiest thing of all time. Mmm, and these peanuts! Mama gets them for her in a big burlap bag, and they rival even the best of baseball game nuts. 

Homemade brooklyn bloody marys + warm homemade bread + peanuts + best popcorn ever + being outside + sitting on /at Lily's homemade benches/tables under her handmade pulley clothesline + being with my oldest friend of all time = a match made in heaven.