Buffalo Bloody Mary Festival with Step Out Buffalo [VIDEOS]

Yeah, sometimes, our jobs don't suck. ;)

If you recall, last Friday Keith and I were in a Bloody Mary Throwdown contest (between the two of us) and the creators of Buffalo's first Bloody Mary Festival from Step Out Buffalo were in studio to judge.  Both were tasty...and it was a tough decision.  Mine ended up just nudging Keith's out.  To the winner go the spoils, no?

We attended the festival (work purposes only, of course...) and if next year's is anything like the inaugural one, you don't want to miss it!  Ten area bar/restaurants were featured, including:

• Aroma on Bryant
• Ballyhoo
• Bar Bill
• Buffalo Proper
• Cole's 
• Craving
• Hydraulic Hearth
• Oshun
• Providence Social
• The Lodge

A handful of other local hits were also there, sampling their wares, like KegWorks and Breadhive.

By the way, if you're ever around Cream & Sugar in Lockport, get their Breakfast Biscuit.  This savory, tender scone-like dream is stuffed with a local, organic egg, and is studded with fresh herbs like rosemary and other lovliness.  I almost cried tears of beautiful joy when I ate it. :)

Of all the ones Keith and I tried, we both agreed on a tie between Bar Bill and Oshun...both selections were classic bloody-mary-tasting, each with it's own distinction.  Bar Bill's won ME over with their accouterments:  a piece of fried chicken skin wrapped around a cheesy Buffalo-chicken chunk.

In the end, Ballyhoo reigned supreme with their very unique, sweet-forward-spice-in-the-end A'ole Pilikia, a Hawaiian style Bloody Mary.  (Funny enough, it featured Spam, which I tried for the FIRST time last week!)

Here's the video of the announcement: