This post was originally published on February 16, 2015.

As snow started to pour down in Denver on Sunday, my boyfriend and I decided to eat a late brunch close to home. We went to the Denver Biscuit Company to get some filling biscuits and meat in our tummies. Fat Sully’s Pizza and the Atomic Cowboy are also housed under the same roof as the DBC; the Atomic Cowboy is the bar serving up drinks and making the Bloody Marys. We had to wait for awhile to get a booth, but were pleased we could rest and kick back once we were finally seated. We both ordered Atomic Bloodys, which are your classic Bloody Marys crafted with an addition of Left Hand Brewery’s Nitro Milk Stout.

For brunch, I ordered the DBC Club, which is a biscuit layered with fried chicken, bacon, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, and chipotle ranch. I also added a fried egg to my biscuit sammy. The DBC Club was delicious, and I will talk about the Atomic Bloody in my review below. Although the sandwich was wonderful, the Atomic Bloody and the service did not stand up to that par. When we first sat down and ordered, our waitress was quick and cheery with our order. After we finished eating, our waitress seemingly forgot we existed and it took us nearly a half hour after finishing our meals to finally get our check. I have worked in the service industry and I DO NOT find it acceptable to forget about your tables while you finish doing your side work to get off early. Sorry. Your tip just went from 20% down to a meager 16%. Anyways, here is my review of the Atomic Bloody.

AT A GLANCE 14/20

When the Atomic Bloody first arrived at our table, it looked simple but tasty. As I got a closer look at the garnish, it was noticeable that the pickle and the olive were smashed together. The pickle was practically ruined because the olive went through the pickle’s center. The Atomic Bloody gets docked points for this mishap. Thus, this gave the Atomic Bloody an unclean appearance as there were parts of the pickle spread all over the drink and cocktail pick (I had to reconstruct the garnish to make the photograph I took more appealing to the eye). The ingredients of the garnish were the usual– no points for abundance of ingredients on this one. The color was nice, though, and you could see spices in the drink.

GARNISH 14/20

The Atomic Bloody’s garnish consisted of a sweet pickle, an olive, a lemon wedge, a lime wedge, and a stalk of celery. As mentioned in the “At a Glance” category, the pickle was practically ruined because the olive was smashed through it, rendering the loss of points for attractiveness. From what I could taste of the pickle, it was good and reminded me of the sweet-n-spicy pickles we used to make at a BBQ restaurant I worked at in high school. The olive also had a somewhat sweet flavor. The only thing that was creative about the Atomic Bloody’s garnish was the sweet-n-spicy pickle.

SPICE 18/20

The Atomic Bloody Mary was spiced well and delved into complex flavors. It was spicy and not sweet at all, while leaving an extremely “hot” aftertaste in my mouth. The only problem I had was that the spices were not evenly distributed and instead sunk to the bottom of the drink.

TEXTURE & ACIDITY 16/20

The texture of the Atomic Bloody was so-so. As mentioned in the “Spice” category, the spices were not evenly distributed. The bottom third of the glass contained all of the spices, while the remaining upper two-thirds of the drink was characterized by the more acidic parts of the drink. This left for an uneven ratio of all components of the drink (some parts were a little diluted, others were just perfect). This Bloody Mary was not free of acidity and I felt a little heartburn when drinking it. I think the Nitro Milk Stout even got rid of some acidity, so I couldn’t even imagine how acidic the Atomic Bloody would be without the addition of beer.

UNIQUENESS 15/20

The Atomic Bloody was unique because of the addition of Left Hand’s Nitro Milk Stout. This resulted in a diversion from the usual flavor of a Bloody Mary. The sweet-n-spicy pickle was also different, while the rest of the ingredients of the garnish reflected a typical Bloody Mary. The actual craftmanship of the drink (i.e. constructing the garnish correctly, “rolling” the Bloody Mary so that the spices are evenly distributed, adding more ingredients to the garnish, etc.) could have been improved upon to make the Atomic Bloody more outstanding and unique. I was not impressed by the Atomic Bloody Mary.

FINAL SCORE 77/100

Check out the Denver Biscuit Company here and the Atomic Cowboy via this link. Both the DBC and Atomic Cowboy are located at:

3237 E. Colfax Ave, Denver, CO, 80206