Who Really Invented the Bloody Mary?

“Meet me down in the bar,” entreated W. C. Fields. “We’ll drink breakfast together.”

The origination of the only drink that’s socially acceptable to drink in the morning links back to comedian, songwriter and movie producer George Jessel, who, beginning in 1927, mixed half-vodka and half-tomato juice to help with his morning hangovers from the night before, in his words, “the juice for body and the Vodka for spirit.”

During the 1930s, bartender Henry Zbikiewicz was charged with mixing Jessel’s drink at the ‘21’ Club, and New York Herald gossip columnist Lucius Beebe took note, citing “George Jessel’s Pick-Me-Up.”

The restorative was later embellished and perfected by Fernand “Pete” Petiot at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris. “Jessel said he created it,” explained Petiot, “but it was really nothing but Vodka and tomato juice when I took it over.”

Though located in Paris, Harry’s catered to American expatriates and became a cultural bridge between the old world and the Jazz Age sensibilities of the Roaring Twenties. It was here, in this smoky, cosmopolitan haven, that Petiot first mixed what would become the Bloody Mary. The story goes that around 1921, Petiot was experimenting with vodka – a spirit then relatively unfamiliar in Western Europe – brought over by Russian émigrés following the revolution. To counter vodka’s neutral taste, Petiot added tomato juice, a pinch of salt and pepper, and a splash of Worcestershire sauce. Early patrons called it “Bucket of Blood,” but it eventually took on the name “Bloody Mary.”

The cocktail evolved when Petiot later moved to the United States and began working at the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City. There, he refined the drink further, adding lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and Tabasco sauce to suit American palates.

The best glass for a Bloody Mary is a highball glass that feels solid in the hand – tall, straight-sided, and typically holding 14 to 15 ounces. The Bloody Mary holds a singular place in the pantheon of cocktail culture – not merely as a drink, but as a ritual, a remedy, and a rite of passage.

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