BLOODY MARY THE ULTIMATE BRUNCH DRINK.

Byline: Steven Pratt Chicago Tribune 

At the polished dark wood bar on the seventh floor of the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago, bartender Niklas Berggren sets out a glistening 12-ounce pilsner glass. He inserts a leafy rib of celery, pours in a scoop of small ice cubes then follows with a carefully measured shot of vodka.

With patience and precision, he is building a Bloody Mary in a style referred to as "club service": everything assembled in front of the customer.

Berggren next fills a small carafe with the house tomato juice mix, perches a wedge of lime on the rim of the glass, then pours in the mix. The contents get one smooth stir and the drink is ready, so colorful, shapely and elegant you can almost taste it.

Price: $5.

Down at Dirty Dick's Last Resort in the basement of the North Pier Terminal, the brunch music is loud and the atmosphere dark.

One end of the crowded bar is arranged with terraces of pickles, olives, carrots, celery sticks, mushrooms, cucumber slices, jalapenos, cauliflower and bell peppers - salad fixings. Then you see the flagons of tomato juice, Clamato and other thick red mixes along with a squad of hot sauce and spice bottles.

This is all for Bloody Marys? Mushrooms?

"Sure," manager Paul Grieshaber said. "People use everything. Mushrooms, pickles, even shrimp."

At Dirty Dick's, you pick a brand of vodka and get a shot in a plastic cup for $4.25. The rest is up to you at the salad, er, Bloody Mary bar.

But it's the Saturday and Sunday brunches at Stanley's Kitchen and Tap, where you find what may be the region's largest Bloody Mary: Make your own in a 1-quart plastic refrigerator container, starting with three shots of vodka.

Add anything you want from an array of tomato and vegetable juices to ribs of celery that resemble small trees. There's even a plate of ground celery seeds to "salt" the rim of your "tub."

"This is more of a vodka-laced soup than a cocktail," one recent diner said.

There's no doubt the Bloody Mary has become an element of American cuisine, and that is nowhere more apparent than in the modern phenomenon called Sunday brunch.

"People sometimes drink Bloody Marys in the evening, but they've always seemed to be a morning drink," said bartender John Mathis. "They are a popular drink with people who work all night and want to kick back when they get off at 7 or 8 in the morning."

Bloody Marys seem to have come into their own in the 1950s when the Smirnoff vodka people were attempting to Westernize vodka's Red Communist image. They capitalized on comedian George Jessel's boast that he had invented the drink by using him in ads describing how to make it.

Most liquor historians - and there are a few - believe the drink was created in Harry's New York Bar in Paris back in the early 1920s by legendary bar man Fernand Petoit, who poured it for a few customers. It may have been named by another comedian, cabaret star Roy Barton, who told Petoit the drink reminded him of a Chicago club of the era called the Bucket of Blood.

(Nobody could say whether the drink also refers to Queen Mary I, called "Bloody Mary" by her detractors.)

When Petoit moved to the saloon at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City in 1934, a refugee Russian aristocrat named Serge Oblonsky asked Petoit to prepare the cocktail he had drunk in Paris. Petoit spiced the formula with salt, pepper, lemon and Worcestershire sauce, but the Bloody Mary name was deemed too "gross" for the hotel's King Cole Bar, so the drink was rechristened the Red Snapper.

That name failed to catch on but the drink did, becoming a King Cole staple and moving to other venues. At least that's the version put out by the present management of the St. Regis.

Like much other American liquor lore, the Bloody Mary story also has an Ernest Hemingway angle, according to bartenders at the Hemingway Bar in the Ritz in Paris. Colin Field, the hotel's current bartender, tells it this way:

During Hemingway's travels in 1954, he slipped into the Ritz bar, moaning that his doctor and wife were nagging him to stop drinking. "Then have a glass of vodka, which leaves no odor on the breath," said the bartender, identified only as Bertin.

"But vodka has no taste either," the novelist countered. So the two concocted a vodka cocktail flavored with tomato juice and spices to fool that "bloody Mary."

"That is a true story, told later by Hemingway himself in this bar," swears Field, who often relates the tale to tourists.

Whatever the beginnings, as Bloodys became more commonplace, so did adaptations and variations. After V-8 juice was developed, it quickly found its way into the drink, as did various experiments with other spices and herbs. A Cajun Bloody Mary, for instance, may include a crayfish swimming in clam-flavored juice.

Several companies have manufactured proprietary mixes. Makers of other liquors, including flavored vodkas, gin, rum and even beer, have attempted to cash in on the cocktail's success.

Maybe the strongest reason the Bloody Mary has survived and remained popular is that it tastes good.

"That's why we let people make their own," said Stanley's Mathis. "Everybody wants it a little different. Let them make it themselves. That makes everybody happy."

BLOODY MARY

This basic formula from the King Cole Bar and Lounge at the St. Regis Hotel in New York relies on a bartender's sense of balance. Also the garnish is not specified.

1/8 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/8 teaspoon EACH salt and ground red pepper

1 dash lemon juice

Ice cubes

3 tablespoons vodka

1/4 cup tomato juice

In a shaker glass, add Worchestershire sauce, salt, red pepper, lemon juice ice, vodka and tomato juice.

Shake, pour into a highball glass, garnish and serve. Makes 1 serving.

NUTRITION INFORMATION PER SERVING: 110 calories; 0 fat; 0 cholesterol; 495 milligrams sodium; 3 grams carbohydrate; .5 gram protein.

FOUR SEASONS HOTEL BLOODY MARY MIX

This is the recipe used by the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago for its Bloody Mary Mix. It is assembled by the chefs in 1-gallon lots, but the recipe can be made in smaller quantities. Chile pepper vinegar can be found at some specialty stores, or you can make your own by inserting chiles into red wine vinegar and letting the mixture steep a few days.

2 1/2 cans (46 ounces EACH) tomato juice

1 cup beef broth

1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce

6 tablespoons chile pepper vinegar

2 tablespoons EACH grated fresh horseradish and fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon EACH celery salt and freshly ground black pepper

15 drops jalapeno hot sauce (green Tabasco)

In a 1-gallon sealable glass or plastic container mix all ingredients together. Store in refrigerator.

Use about 1/2 cup of mix with about 1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) vodka per drink. Makes 1 gallon; 32 servings.

NUTRITION INFORMATION PER SERVING: 120 calories; 0 fat; 0 cholesterol; 660 milligrams sodium; 6 grams carbohydrate; 1 gram protein.

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PHOTO

Photo (Color) The Bloody Mary has been around since the early '20s. Ingredients may include an array of tomato and vegetable juices, ribs of celery and other vegetables. Bob Fila/Chicago Tribune