Out For Bloodies

Today, I had the pleasure of being a celebrity judge in the East Side’s Tomato Romp.

There were eight bars participating in the challenge and for $25, people could taste a 5oz sample of each bloody and turn in a ballot to cast their vote.

I have attended the Tomato Romp in the past and personally, while I love a great bloody mary event, the main issue I have with the Tomato Romp is the fact that it is sponsored by Absolut Vodka and garnishes are regulated…therefore, you don’t actually get a good idea of the bloody served at each bar in terms of taste or accouterments.

Nevertheless, we made it to each bar and here’s our take:

Landmark Lanes: Landmark Lanes was nothing special.

Hooligan’s: Hooligan’s was our favorite of the bunch. Their bloody had a distinctive chili powder taste and we were diggin’ it.The Bloody Mary at Kawa was decent; they had a beer from Minnesota as the chaser.

Izzy Hops had two offerings: A spicy and a mild, which we appreciated. We tried and enjoyed them both.

Vitucci’s was our least favorite. It was just lacking any sort of flavor or originality.

Von Trier was tried and true. We stopped here and initially did not get a chaser, but when we came back with a friend later, he received one. This one had a definite “seafoody” taste. Perhaps they use Clamato?

Axe Bar was the bar with the longest line; it felt like it took forever to get in.

Our final bloody (not pictured) was at Vintage.

Again, very hard to determine which bars we liked the best with the restrictions put in place. I am not sure I would want to head all the way to the East Side for any of these bloodies based purely on today’s experience. However, of them all, Hooligan’s was my favorite because it had a very distinct taste.

Finally, the last part of my day was the best part as I got to take place in a tomato fight which helps raise money to fight hunger.

This was a very fun and unique experience where I was able to get down and dirty and just chuck rotten tomatoes at other people. I really enjoyed this aspect of the event and would definitely do it again.

I want to thank the East Side, the Tomato Romp and the Marcus Center for having me as a guest celebrity judge for today’s event. It was super fun and easy and I enjoyed the experience.

In the future I would hope that they would let their bars/restaurants showcase their true bloodies a bit more with garnishes and alcohol, but overall, I think the participants very much had fun.