Open Door Gastropub. Ordinary Bloody for the Extraordinary Assassin.
After a long absence, the Buzzed Assassin is here again. Where have I been, you might wonder? What bloody mary fueled exploits have I achieved in this absence? Was I on a secret deep cover assignment, observing cocktails and straight spirits in shadowy surveillance in order to consume them in the most efficient ways possible? I shall not say. But as you know, such mystery is the way of the Assassin and his trusty side kick, the Liver! My recent travels brought me to lower Manhattan yet again, where my companion and I decided to brunch at the Open Door, a self-anointed Irish gastropub in the Financial District. While I had been to this bar before, I had never eaten there, nor had I tried their Bloody Mary. So given my recent absence from The Drunken Tomato, and the fact that our united search for the best bloody mary EVAR was still ongoing, my companion and I decided to give it a shot.
We were greeted by a playlist of modern pop music, filled with more Taylor Swift and Pink than any brunch playlist I've heard in the higher than I care to admit number of brunches I've been to in my life. We were also greeted by an authentic Irish waitress (really, an actual waitress from Ireland), and seated quickly. After perusing the food menu, I got down to our beautiful, bloody business.
The only Mary listed on the menu was a classic Bloody, which as it turns out, was more tomato forward than just about any Bloody I have had to date. The upfront tomato flavor, however, did not overwhelm the rest of the drink since it was also accompanied by a decent spiciness. Horseradish was visible, but not overly abundant, as you can see in the picture above, and the vodka kick was detectable, but not overpowering. But while this Bloody was fairly well balanced, it was also not particularly flavorful, a consequence, I feel, of the use of standard well vodka, standard canned tomato juice and a rather average bottled horseradish. So overall, there was really nothing spectacular about it. Nothing bad, mind you, but nothing great. The Bloody Mary worked well as a compliment to our tasty brunch entrees (with rather large portions of food, the Open Door is definitely a good value for your brunch dollar), but I feel that this Bloody would work better as an introductory Bloody Mary for the less experienced. In other words, it would leave your rabid Bloody Mary fans wanting much, much more.
For a well-balanced, if not spectacular, Bloody, the Open Door gets Celery Stalks.
Open Door Gastropub 110 John Street New York, New York 10038. P: (212) 608-0200. [wpgmza id="51"]
