Ordering a mixed cocktail, no matter how simple, can vary from bartender to bartender. The ingredients are not always standard from restaurant to bar to hotel to your home. I know many home bartenders who make drinks that are better than most bars in Morristown.
Unless, of course, you are drinking at the comfortable, mirror-lined bar at .
After trying the Bloody Mary at The Grand Cafe, I believe that I've found the best example in town. A true five-star experience! I challenge you to find better.
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The Grand Cafe offers a hush of good taste at a fair price on bustling Washington Street. Now, the former Washington Building has been taken down and new daylight exposes the gleaming white brick walls of this grand cafe.
The Grand Cafe is a refuge for those individuals who truly want and are accustomed to receiving the very best of everything. From the ingredients in your drink to the glass selected, each part of The Bloody Mary exemplifies careful creation of a deliciously-combined cocktail.
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Walter Hansberry has been handcrafting Bloody Mary cocktails for an appreciative audience for nearly 25 years. He's confident that his cocktail (the Bloody Mary) is the very best available in town. The ingredients are simply chosen for their flavor.
Freshly-cracked black pepper and horseradish are the first to be added to a pint mixing glass that has been prechilled with ice. Next, a shot (or two) of Boru Vodka from Ireland goes into the pint glass, followed by several shakes of Tabasco Sauce and several shakes of Worcester Sauce. Lemons and limes are squeezed into the glass (but not thrown into the cocktail because the skin is bitter) then are followed by a small container of Sacramento Tomato Juice and a few cubes of ice.
Next, the drink is "rolled" instead of shaken. Why rolled? Walter states, when you shake a drink instead of gently rolling it, the ice melts too quickly, thus dilluting the cocktail. So, Walter rolls the glass across the bar on the bottom edge, combining the flavors, not bruising them in a hurried fashion. Like everything at the Grand Cafe, these flavors take time to coax into their respective combinations. You cannot force a Bloody Mary to be delicious, it just occurs with the natural motion of the glass gently rolling across the bar.
The aromatic combination of flavors is then poured into a tall wine glass normally used for Chardonnay. There are very few cubes of ice so the drink stays crisp and electrifyingly delicious. The citrus juices combined with the deeper flavors of the high-quality tomato juice brings to life the Tabasco and Worcester Sauce. This is a sophisticated cocktail meant to go with many of the foods on The Grand Cafe menu. I started lunch with a fine bowl of Lobster Bisque. Spooned into a pre-heated bowl with a silver ladle from a single-serving soup pot, this elixer is food for the soul, richly-scented with the essence of the lobster. The key to great Lobster Bisque is the use of the lobster shells, cooked low and slow, to coax the flavors of saline out of the sea creature. Alternatively sip your Bloody Mary. Mmm. A perfect combination of the tomato-based cocktail and the sensuous oceanic flavors in the bisque.
The next course was the perfectly prepared chicken pot pie, topped with puff pastry. Again, a few sips of the Bloody Mary perfectly complement the creamy texture of the dish.
A Bloody Mary is most forgiving to many of the dishes at The Grand Cafe. The softly creamy texture of my unhurried lunch was perfectly pared to the sharply citrus aromatics of their handcrafted Bloody Mary.
The price for my drink? About $10. For top-shelf liquors and a celery spear garnish, this is not only the most delicious Bloody Mary in town, it is also among the least expensive. The idea that The Grand Cafe is an expensive place to drink is a mistake and is just wrong. I'd tell you to go right now, but please put on a nice shirt and get your pants pressed first. You may feel more comfortable in a sports coat, it's up to you.
This is not a t-shirt and jeans kind of restaurant and for good reason. Should you take the time to look presentable, then there are very few places in New Jersey as unpretentious.
