I recently stopped at Water Street Brewery, a brewpub with three area locations, brewing a variety of award-winning traditional and specialty beers from ambers and ales to stouts and seasonals.
While their beer is good, I had never had a Bloody Mary here, so I stopped in at the Lake Country location and ordered one up.
I was happy to get to select my own chaser because Water Street Brewery offer an ever-changing selection of delicious beers on tap and given that it’s mid-September, they had a delicious pumpkin pie beer on the menu. I know what you’re thinking: Bloody Marys and pumpkin beer don’t really go that well together, do they? No, not really, but if you drink each separately, you have the best of both worlds.
Anyway, read on for the stats.
Mix:Homemade
Chaser:Yes–you can pick from any of their beers on tap; I chose pumpkin
Fixin’s: Two olives, lemon, lime and pickle
Price: $7.50
The flavor of this Bloody was very good–you could detect the horseradish, but it wasn’t too spicy. I liked the salted rim on the glass, a nice touch. This Bloody Mary was decent, but when the bartender came to ask me if I’d like another, I chose a full pumpkin pie ale instead.
But then my dining companion asked to see the complete beer list. He was given a menu to peruse and I happened to notice this:
They have a special Oktoberfest Bloody Mary! For just $4.50 more, I could have had the “signature garnish,” a shrimp fritter, bleu cheese croquette, brewton, cheese curds, eggplant fry and bacon.
“Excuse me,” I asked the bartender, “You have a special Bloody?”
“Yes,” he admitted, perhaps sensing that something was amiss. “But that’s more like a meal,” he said quickly, trying to deter me, as if there were a problem with that, as if that wasn’t what I lived for.
I hung my head in disappointment. “If I would have known, I would have ordered that one.” I told him.
He didn’t apologize or offer to do anything for us. My dining companion decided not to order a second beverage and instead helped me finish my pumpkin beer and we quickly left following that exchange.
I guess I am partly to blame for ordering without looking at a menu first, but clearly this was special beverage created for this time of year, so I am not sure why this wasn’t suggested or offered when I initially ordered the Bloody Mary.
Lesson learned. In the future, I will ask more questions.
According to Steny’s website, Steny’s Bloody Mary was named #1 Bloody at an event last August… we’ll be the judge of that!
