The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails Definition of The Bloody Caesar

The Bloody Caesar , a variation on the Bloody Mary with a blend of clam and tomato juices in place of the straight tomato juice, is widely considered to be the national drink of Canada. The drink’s immediate story is well known and largely unchallenged: it was invented in 1969 by Walter Silin Chell (1925–1997), the Montenegro-born, European hotel school–educated manager of the Owl’s Nest restaurant in the Calgary Inn, at the time the finest restaurant in Calgary, for the opening of Marco’s, an Italian restaurant in the same hotel. Within five years, it was popular throughout western Canada, with the

The question is: What exactly did Chell invent? If he recorded his original recipe, it has not been circulated. There are claims that his drink used juiced whole clams, not Clamato, and that it was spiced with oregano, not Tabasco sauce. These are small hooks on which to hang a claim of invention. The idea of a spiced clam juice–tomato juice–vodka cocktail was not new. Setting aside a long tradition of nonalcoholic drinks involving clam juice and bottled condiments, including Tabasco and Worcestershire sauces and ketchup, and clam juice and tomato juice, and even the Fire Island Clam Juice, a Bloody Mary with clam juice instead of the tomato (attested to in the early 1950s), there is the Smirnoff Smiler, touted by American gossip columnist Walter Winchell in 1953: tomato juice, clam juice, a dash of “Wooooshhhtasheer sauce,” and, of course, vodka. “The best pickmeup since Eve winked at Adam,” he pronounced it. That one did not quite catch on. More successful was the Clam Digger, heavily promoted by the Mott corporation in 1968 and 1969 as a use for their newly introduced “Clamato.” Its ingredients? Vodka and Clamato. While these creations might invalidate any claim to true originality and introduce a good deal of skepticism regarding the story that Chell labored for months on the drink’s formula, they cannot undermine his credit for naming, or renaming, the drink and launching it on its journey to becoming a symbol of Canadian identity.

In the twenty-first century, the “Caesar,” as it is generally known, has served as a focal point for the creativity of Canada’s bartenders and amateur mixologists and in particular for their spicing and garnishing skills. The traditional spices are often supplemented or replaced by everything from horseradish and wasabi to pickle brine to various bottled condiments, while garnishes range from the traditional celery stick and lime wedge to pickled vegetables to boiled shrimp to a gamut of eye-popping stunt garnishes similar to the ones that the Bloody Mary has been subjected to, although often with a nautical cast (think whole lobster tails).

Recipe: Roll or gently shake 45 ml vodka, 120 ml Clamato, 2 dashes Worcestershire sauce, and 2 dashes Tabasco sauce with ice. Strain into a salt-rimmed highball glass full of ice. Add a celery stalk, a lime wedge, and a straw.

The Bloody Caesar

NEWSLETTER

CONNECT

FINE PRINT

GROW YOUR BUSINESS