A downtown Saturday on the “Bloody Mary March”

Sonja Kulseng-Hansen, the bartender at Sapphire, offers customers a very unique Bloody Mary.

Saturday in Knoxville dawned overcast and drizzly, but our spirits were not dampened. We knew we were about to embark on the “Bloody Mary March,” our own name for the monthly Market Square Mixer, which is a contest among downtown restaurants to see who can make the best cocktail.

The type of drink for the contest changes monthly — as do the participating restaurants. Last month, the S&W Grand on Gay Street won when the key ingredient was cucumbers. The idea for the contest is to feature products from the Market Square Farmers’ Market. The Market provides each restaurant with a quantity of the featured ingredient but the rest is up to them.

This event is an incredible deal. Customers pay $15 and usually five restaurants participate. This week, however, eight restaurants took part! They are supposed to serve smallish drinks, but some just go ahead and give you a big one! My advice: pace yourself. You don’t have to finish every drink!

Here’s how our day went.

Alan and I arranged to meet our friend Richard Ford (his wife, Dawn, was sick and couldn’t make it) at Oodles Uncorked on Market Square at noon, when the contest officially started.

Our waiter explained that the Oodles team created a special Bloody Mary for the contest based roughly on the bruschetta featured on the restaurant’s brunch menu. What a great idea, we thought. We loved the pickled asparagus that garnished the drink. But, for our taste, the Bloody itself was a little too sweet, too oniony and too pulpy. (Richard, however, managed to finish his!)

Here's Richard at Oodles, our first stop. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, as they say.

Then it was on to Latitude 35, where we ran into a puzzlement. Although they had asked to be added to the contest, they didn’t make a special Bloody Mary. At least not while we were there. “I’m not going to lie,” the bartender told us. “This is our regular mix.” They used Zing Zang mix, which happens to be our favorite, so we drank the Bloody Mary anyway. We loved it, as usual, but didn’t consider them a contender when it came time to vote for the winner. What did they do with the tomatoes from the Farmers’ Market, I wondered. “They put them on the hamburgers,” Richard quipped.

Richard and Alan Carmichael raise their glasses at Latitude 35. We drank their Bloody, but disqualified them from our ballot.

Alrighty then, onward and upward. The best thing about Market Square on Saturday is that you always see folks you know. In this case, we ran smack-dab into three of our favorite Knox County commissioners. “We ‘sunshined’ this,” they said in unison, referring to the state’s so-called “Sunshine Law,” which requires that public notice be given whenever public officials meet. We explained that we didn’t care because we were on our way to drinking eight Bloody Marys!

Alan, left, greets commissioners, from left, Dave Wright, Dr. Richard Briggs, and Ed Shouse on Market Square.

When we got to Gay Street, things really started getting interesting. At the S&W Grand, bartender Kris Greeson explained that his team smoked half the tomatoes and some peppers from the Farmers’ Market and combined them with “about 60 or 70 other ingredients” to make the interesting concoction for the contest. They called their Bloody the “SKS’ standing for Shane, Kris and Shane, the team that created it. It was smoky and delicious. “I find it amusing,” Richard deadpanned, as if he were a wine taster.

The Bloody Mary at the S&W Grand was garnished with a fried green bean which was, in itself, delicious.

We thought the sunflowers on the bar were a nice touch, even if the vase appears to be a pickle jar!

At Sapphire, our next stop, the first thing the bartender asked us was if we were vegetarians. That’s because the vodka they used for the special drink had been infused with bacon! Wow! We loved the result — and the garnish! The bartender, Sonja Kulseng-Hansen, said her team was inspired by the television show “Three Sheets” to really come up with something unique.

The Bloody Mary at Sapphire -- garnished with bacon!

Richard says he's not feeling a buzz at all. Hmmm.

At the Downown Grill and Brewery, bartender Megan Croft created the contest entry. The secret ingredient: some of the pub’s own beer, State Street Stout. Not a big stout fan, I was iffy on the result. But I’d give them an A for effort.

The Bloody was made with beer (and vodka!) at the Downtown Grill and Brewery.

At our next stop, Regas, we ran into a convivial group, pictured below. They had come up with their own method of ranking the Bloody Marys — they called it “The Baldwin Rankings.” Alec for first place, Stephen for second, Billy for third, Daniel for fourth and Adam for fifth place. “We put Adam in the lowest spot because when we Googled him, we found out he’s not a real Baldwin brother,” one of the guys explained. “He’s not related to them in any way!”

At The Gathering Place, the bar at Regas, from left: Sarah McLemore, Jon Gill, John Riccio, Brian Gray and Mary Shaffer Speight.

The Bloody Mary at Regas was spectacular. Richard said he’d give it five points for the garnish alone: a jumbo shrimp, a slice of bacon, an big olive and a celery stick. It was nothing crazy, just great ingredients and a fabulous presentation. “I’d give it a yum!” Richard opined.

The special contest Bloody Mary recipe at Regas was created by manager Roy Frazier.

The happy duo at Regas

With only two stops left, we headed to Preservation Pub, where we were informed they had run out of the special Bloody Marys. They offered us one made from mix which we, of course, accepted. But we crossed them off the list as contenders.

Richard at Preservation Pub. He's hanging in there!

Wow! The last stop was definitely worth the wait. The folks at La Costa on Market Square infused their vodka with habanero and jalapeno peppers. It had a kick, which we needed on Bloody number eight! Its flavor definitely was brightened by the peppers.

Here's the vodka La Costa used in the Bloody Marys Saturday.

We dropped our score cards in the jar at La Costa as we headed to the condo for naps. The process took five hours, but what a fun afternoon. Here’s our assessment: Regas first, La Costa second, Sapphire and S&W tied for third, nice efforts by Downtown Grill and Oodles, and Latitude 35 and Preservation Pub disqualified.

We look forward to hearing who the official winner is and will post it here when we find out, so check back. (The ballots are still being collected and counted.) Do you have any Bloody Mary secret ingredients? If so, please post in the comments section. Cheers!