Bloody marys have been my drink of choice for as long as I can remember. It was the first cocktail I tried to master making in the kitchen of my first apartment when I was 22. I went straight-up traditional with vodka, tomato juice, worcestershire, hot sauce, and probably not much else. Over the years, it became my goal to never pass up an opportunity to try a new bloody mary and find the best of the best.
In my quest for the best, let’s just say that I’ve had to “kiss a lot of frogs to find my prince.” Some of those “frogs” should have been poured straight down the drain, if you get my gist. But I have finally found my perfect prince. Okay okay, I’ll drop the analogy and get right to it. One of the best bloody marys I have ever had, belongs to the Garage Bar & Bowl.
Breaking a World Record with a Proprietary Bloody Mary Mix
The Garage is located in Waconia, a western suburb of the Twin Cities of Minnesota, just a 30-minute drive west from Minneapolis. Run by Dan and Amy Madsen, the Garage Bar & Bowl is an award-winning sports bar and bowling alley. In the early and mid-1900’s, the building that is now home to the Garage, was used as a literal auto garage, and later turned into a bowling alley.
While the building fell into disrepair, it was purchased in 2017, where Dan and Amy undertook an eight-month long renovation project and opened Garage Bar & Bowl in 2018. The Garage is now a premier boutique sports bar, grill, and bowling alley, while still honoring the roots of its past.
Back to the bloody mary. I first met Dan and Team Garage at a festival in St. Paul in 2019. If you’ve ever attended one of these festivals, you may notice the creativity that goes into the garnishes on those sip-sized samples. The Garage team undertook making individual BLT sandwiches for each attendee’s drink. Crazy? Maybe! However, their hard work paid off and they won Best Bloody Mary and Best Garnish.
Build Your Own Bloody Mary
Prior to the festival, they had already established their build-your-own bloody mary bar, available every Sunday from 11am-2pm. Generally speaking, a BYO bloody mary sometimes leaves me feeling conflicted. Can you really say someone has “the best bloody mary” when you’re making your own?
Normally the bars are stocked with bottled mixes and a couple dishes of pickled goodies. If someone asks me where to get a great bloody mary, I generally don’t think of a BYO as my first recommendation. That all changed when I visited the Garage.
First things first, you can order either a pint for $12 or a large mug for $17. Of course, I went for the large, and we paid the upcharge for Tito’s vodka. The game changer here is that the only mix available is their house mix, which, if I haven’t stated in direct terms yet, is one of the absolute best mixes I’ve ever had. It’s a lighter consistency, balanced in its seasoning, and there is not one thing I would add, omit, or change about their mix.
Being a proprietary mix, I can’t give away any secrets as to what is all in it. Dan has been crafting the Garage mix for the last twenty years since he was a bartender at Chino Latino in Uptown Minneapolis. He said while playing around with the flavors, as they found something they liked, they kept it and then kept testing out what worked and what didn’t until they got to the point that they’re at today.
Chino Latino, at the time of this writing, was one of the Minneapolis mainstays that fell victim to the Covid-19 shutdowns and unfortunately, just announced they’re permanent closure. The Garage, like so many other restaurants, shut down for a couple of months starting last March and didn’t bring their BYO bloody mary bar back until August.
The World’s Largest Build Your Own Bloody Mary Bar
Fast forward to October of 2020. The Garage took on a world record sized event. No really, the Garage set out to break the world record for the largest build-your-own bloody mary bar. A tall order in a Covid-19 world. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. What I found was a meticulously planned event, with everyone’s safety as a top priority!
This event was by ticket only, so the number of people allowed into the restaurant was controlled. Tables were properly spaced; all employees wore masks and tables were set up to get their garnish one or two at a time in order to eliminate any congestion.
Each person was given their own set of plastic tongs and garnishes were dished up on plates. Did I mention, for this event we had 219 garnishes to choose from?! Once you loaded up your dish of garnishes, it was brought back to the table, where the skewers were there, and you could take your time building your masterpiece. Bottomless bloodys were delivered courtesy of the bloody mary carts.
They never left you with an empty glass. Needless to say, at 219 garnishes, the World Record Academy awarded the Garage Bar & Bowl with the world record for the Largest Build Your Own Bloody Mary Bar on October 3rd, 2020.
Although you’re not going to be able to choose from 219 garnishes, on any given Sunday you’ll still have close to fifty garnishes available, ranging from pickled veggies, meats, and cheeses along with cheese curds, breadsticks, and chicken wings. If you aren’t able to make it on a Sunday, you can still enjoy the fantastic mix that the Garage has to offer in a pint-sized bloody mary for $6, garnished simply with a pickle and their house made jerky. As far as Covid preparation goes, the Garage has all the safety precautions in place, even outside of the special event breaking a world record.
If you find yourself in Minnesota, the Garage Bar & Bowl is not to be missed. Not only are the bloody marys out of this world, but they support local producers for their food, and they give back to their community by sponsoring youth sports, local non-profits, and other local businesses. Stay tuned for future events and updates, including a future release of a Tomatillo Bloody Mary!
Now when someone asks me where my favorite bloody mary is, I don’t have any reason to hesitate with an answer. The Garage is where it’s at!
Renee Belanger
A self-professed professional Bloody Mary drinker, Renee founded Bloody Good Bloodys in 2014. One of the very first social media pages dedicated to the drink, it was a way to share her love of the savory cocktail. Midwest based, but willing to travel for a good Bloody Mary! She has judged numerous festivals and competitions, including the annual Drunken Tomato Awards.
