Bloody Mary fans build their own

Bartender Calixto Hernandez has a wrist as loose as Steven Tyler’s tongue, so the results can be menacing if you’re not careful. Every Sunday, Hernandez lords over one of the most popular build-your-own Bloody Mary bars in the city on the back patio of La Cita in downtown Los Angeles. He provides a pint glass half full (or more) of vodka and you go to work mixing and garnishing it from the movable feast of condiments, crisp bacon, sauces and pickled veggies he lines up on the side of the bar.

Thanks to the oppressive August heat, which mandates a healthy amount of escapist day drinking, the Enabler has lately been obsessed with build-your-own Bloody Mary bars. That’s why she found herself amid a tattoo- and leopard-print-loving crowd of chain-smoking rockers at La Cita with a drink in her hand that looked like a hat Lady Gaga might wear.

But that was just the beginning. In her quest to suss out the best places to turn drinking into a DIY art form she rolled onward to St. Felix in Hollywood, the tourist-clogged recesses of Rolling Stone restaurant and to the Redwood Bar & Grill in downtown L.A. where bartender Daryl Rodela was trying out a new Saturday build-your-own option.

At St. Felix, Chad Stewart has constructed a temple to alcohol-infused tomato pleasure with ingredients he buys every Sunday morning at the Hollywood Farmers Market just out the restaurant’s back door.

“The owners had a concept for the Bloody Mary bar and they said, ‘When you build this thing make it look like a KISS concert, we want it to be as big as possible,’” says Stewart, also the drummer for the glam metal band Faster Pussycat. “So that’s how I set up the display every Sunday and how I want the drinks to taste.”

Baskets full of fresh peppers, herbs and citrus line the bar along with jars fat with spices and bowls filled with olives, pickles and spicy vegetables. There are also towers of beef jerky and trays of hot sauce, chili paste and Sriracha. Here the intrepid drinker is presented with a sheet of paper with more than 30 options including variety of liquor (vodka, gin, tequila, bacon-infused vodka), garnish (celery, pickles, garlic-stuffed olives), rim (BBQ chili, salt and pepper, salt-chili) and added goodness like shrimp or bacon. Seasonal choices are then thrown into the mix.

The Enabler and her trusty partner in crime (we’ll call her the Enabled for her enthusiastic approach to the Enabler’s saucy missions) immediately checked off about 20 options.

“That’s enough, we don’t want to overdo it,” said the Enabled.

This was certainly true because we had overdone it the day before at the Redwood, where our rock band had played a daytime show and indulged a bit too freely in the build-your-own Bloody Mary bar that Rodela was testing out there. The Enabler made fast work of the fresh bacon crumbles Rodela left out and the Enabled learned the hard way why it’s ill advised to put too much horseradish in your drink.

Building your own Bloody Mary is about balance, after all, and flavor can quickly take a back seat to spectacle if you’re too heavy-handed.

Which is almost what happened at St. Felix the next day. When our Bloody Mary came, it looked like something Jackson Pollock would have painted. We didn’t know whether to frame it or drink it. Choosing the latter, we soon discovered that the best build-your-own Bloody Mary also doubles as breakfast. Is it a salad or a drink? It’s both! But if we had checked off even four more boxes it would’ve just been a mess.

Flush with liquid courage, we were now prepared for the last leg of our journey: a trip to Rolling Stone restaurant in the fanny-pack-clad Hollywood & Highland Center. We arrived during the pinnacle of a thing called “Sunday Brunch With the Beatles” where a talented band performed Beatles covers for a crowd of camera-toting tourists. The bar, however, seemed to attract a more local scene thanks to the lighthearted banter of bartender Clayton Froning.

Froning’s build-your-own Bloody Mary bar was modest in comparison to the others, with a small but select offering of veggies and pickled garnishes. The real star here is the trio of fresh Bloody Mary mixes that the bar makes: mild, medium and spicy. Also the drinks come in sensible Collins glasses rather than pint glasses, which the Enabler found to be a relief after a weekend of excess.

It will be a few weeks before the Enabler wants another Bloody Mary, but when she does she plans to visit Stewart at St. Felix who has challenged her to come up with a combination he hasn’t.

“I encourage people to just come down here and experiment,” says Stewart. “And I’m not afraid to try anything right here on the spot.”

jessica.gelt@latimes.com