Wildfin American Grill - Seattle. Building Your Own Bloody Mary.

#Instagram

Fuck Instagram. Okay, let me restate that. I fail to see the business utility of Instagram as a viable source of successful conversions. Why? Because you can't link out. It's just that simple. I don't care that you have 13K followers on your all-things-taco account. The only thing you personally accomplish by posting, liking, following and repeating this one hundred times a day is simple, straight forward, brute force visual advertising of whatever is in your image. And unless I'm getting paid for my posts, my only consolation prize is but an inkling of brand awareness.

I suppose some people actually enjoy all this social media stuff. For me, Instagram is just not my thing. Nor is Twitter or Pinterest or Tumblr or Google+, or whatever else is out there because, dare I say, I'm just too old? I mean, I'm pretty sure my first social networking site was Orkut. So yeah. Just let that sink in, and ask yourself, do you even know what Orkut is?

But, with all that said, I'm seriously spending a ridiculous amount of time liking things on Instagram. Like, I wake up and Instagram. I get on the elliptical and Instagram. I schedule posts two weeks in advance on Instagram. And if I say Instagram one more time in this post, I may just have to Instagram my annoyance as expressed through a Hudson-filtered photo of melting ice cream in a snow storm. #hipster #irony #TotallyGettingBetterAtThisInstagramThing

So it was of great delight when I met a fellow blogger and bloody mary enthusiast through... that social networking site. Staci is a new transplant to Seattle, and you can follow her adventures over at Miss Bloody Mary. Last Sunday, we had the pleasure of brunching, chatting and day-drinking at Wildfin American Grill just outside Seattle in a town called Issaquah.

Wildfin American Grill

Wildfin American Grill serves up fresh Pacific Northwest bites, and on weekends, a build-your-own bloody mary for just $7.50. The set up goes like this. Pick your booze, pick your rim salt, get your boozy, rimmed glass from your wildly entertaining server, and then head to the bar to build the rest.

The booze selection was pretty good with your standard vodka, gin and tequila as well as different flavored vodkas, including Heritage Smoky Bacon Vodka. I also enjoyed the ability to choose my own rim salt from a selection of Spicy, Bacon Salt and Regular. Three mixes were listed on the menu, though only two were actually available at the bar. The "House Recipe" was slightly spicy, slightly sweet, balanced and of good consistency. As for the "Secret Ingredient Mix," the bartender let us know that the secret ingredient was "spice." So it was basically exactly the same as the House Recipe but much spicier.

Garnish ranged from olives, pickled veg and celery to pepperoncinis and a big cup of bacon. I would have appreciated some cheese cubes, just because I think they've become pretty standard on these build-your-own bars, but they had all the usual suspects for a minimal set up. The most impressive part of this bar was the selection of hot sauces, which included Bacon Hot Sauce, Habanero Hot Sauce From Hell, and something called Slap Ya Mama.

All in all, at the $7.50 price point, I'd say this BYOBM was alright. Booze selection was good, mixes were standard, hot sauces were great, but garnishes were minimal. And when I'm building my own bloody mary, I really do expect a good garnish. Of course, the company was absolutely awesome, and if I've got to traverse this wild world of social media, at least I get to meet some fantastic people in the process.

3 Celery Stalks

Post script: Go follow my Instagram already! ;)