Jake’s BLT Mary. Everything’s Better with Bacon.
In my mind, there is no better breakfast food than a good slab of fatty hog. Yes. Bacon! Just saying the word brings back memories of that smoky, salty, juicy crunch that is... Bacon! Queue Homer Simpson salivating noise…mmmm. So it should be no surprise that my other favorite breakfast/brunch item is the bloody mary. And seeing that Jake’s in Palm Springs serves a bacon bloody mary, well, I couldn’t be happier. What better way to start the day than with two of my favorite breakfast items combined to form one ultimate dose of brunch heaven. Now upon delivery to my table, the first thing I noticed was a whole slice of cooked bacon in place of the typical celery stalk. I loved this. Stirring a bloody mary with bacon feels awesome. Trust me. Sort of like I was playing with my food, like dipping a french fry into a chocolate milk shake (you know you’ve done it). But it should be noted that I didn’t find the bacon garnish to be perfect. One of my favorite aspects of properly cooked bacon is texture and used as a garnish in a bloody mary naturally turned that satisfying crunch into a somewhat soggy chew. So while this did negatively impact my enjoyment of the bacon, the fact that I had a bacon garnish far outweighed that characteristic.
Now for the rest of the bloody mary. The bloody mary was good. I enjoyed the tomato juice. The vodka was infused with bacon and each bacon flavored sip was excellent. It added a certain smokiness to the cocktail. Not a flavor I would want in my bloody mary every day, but definitely something I would enjoy periodically. As far as weak points, I would have preferred more citrus. The rim of the glass was also salted, and I felt that drinking straight from the glass, compounded with salty bacon vodka, salty tomato juice and a salty bacon garnish, yielded a bloody mary that was just far too salty (but I suppose this is why the salt is on the rim and it’s served with a straw). The horseradish, which may have been wasabi, was also much too strong.
Overall, I enjoyed this bloody mary very much. The bacon garnish gives it high marks in the presentation department. The tomato juice was fresh, which was much appreciated, and the bacon infused vodka was very nice. However, the cocktail did have some balance issues in the citrus/salt/horseradish departments.
Celery Stalks
Jake's 664 North Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, CA 92262-5557. P: (760) 327-4400.
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