After “concluding” my Bloody Mary research at a make-your-own Bloody Mary bar with a group of friends a few months ago, rumors had it that I’d missed a good spot on 6th Street. I wanted to pick a time to invite friends to hit this dive burger bar when all of our schedules coincided.
Turns out, thanks to one of many ubiquitous street festivals that take place here in Austin, I convinced some other festival-goers I’d met that day to go with me.
We were going to get a burger along with drinks, but the wait-time for food ran about an hour. I figured since a Bloody Mary is like a meal in a glass, especially when properly garnished, then I’d still satisfy both objectives.
When the bartender asked how hot I wanted it on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the hottest, I figured I was being both adventurous and cautious by saying 8. After all, I didn’t want to pay nearly $10 for something bland. She warned me that it would have ghost peppers. I threw caution to the wind, thinking it would only be a dash of ghost pepper since I’d requested an 8.
That bartender, who had already demonstrated her snarkiness with other customers, did her damnedest to teach me a lesson, I’m sure. I tolerated the cocktail’s heat as long as I had some of the garnish (bacon, celery, pickled jalapeño, green olives) to eat along with every sip. Once the food was gone, that drinkable fire was overwhelming.
I auspiciously spied a leftover order of fries on a couple’s adjacent table. That couple had ordered two hamburgers, which came with fries and an extra order of fries. They’d stacked up their burger boats and had stopped paying attention to the other fries. I leaned over and politely asked if they were done with their fries, startling them with my request.
The guy shrugged, looked at his woman and she nodded she was done. He handed me the rest. Salvation! I dipped those fries into my beverage and managed to consume two-thirds of the bartender’s revenge.
The combination of the ghost pepper and the gory over-the-top Asian martial arts movie the restaurant showed on all the TVs started to turn my stomach. At the end of the movie, I said my good-byes and walked as quickly as I dared through the art and music festival crowd.
Once inside my car, the blast of AC helped, but I prayed traffic wouldn’t delay me from my porcelain throne. What an amazing experience. It’s not every day I can trace the presence of something throughout my alimentary canal. I could’ve sworn that ghost pepper pushed its way throughout my digestive track, bullying everything else in its wake.
All in all, it was a decent Bloody Mary.