Some moms like flowers. Others prefer candy. But plenty of moms will be happy with what Iron Chef Jose Garces is doling out for Mother’s Day: Bloody Mary’s.
In conjunction with Renaissance Hotels, Garces—a published cookbook author who owns restaurants in Chicago and Philadelphia—is launching a two-day celebration of the stalwart brunch cocktail.
“Bloody Marys are something that have always been near and dear to my heart—I look forward to having one at Sunday brunch,” Garcas says.
The affection runs so deep that Garcas and a team of bartenders created a menu of globally inspired Bloody Marys to be served at select Renaissance properties the from May 10 through 12.
“Taking a look at different influences, we collectively put together this list,” Garcas says of the menu, which includes Bloodies inspired by New York City dujour.com/new-york, New Orleans, Chicago, Tuscany, San Francisco, Shanghai, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong, Miami and San Juan.
“We looked at these different cities and we used that as inspiration for each Bloody Mary,” he explains. “We used tomato and vodka as the base, but it was fun to use pickled okra for the New Orleans cocktails or a hot dog to enhance the experience for the Chicago.”
And while this program is currently only slated to run for three days, Garcas—who runs a bottomless Bloody Mary program at his Chicago restaurant Mercat—sees the possibility for it to become permanent.
“The sky’s the limit,” he says. “Once we started getting into these different cities, it was clear that we could grab inspiration from anywhere in the world and we’d be able to come up with a really delicious Bloody Mary.”
