enRoute


	ENROUTE TV ENROUTE FM MEDIA KIT AIR CANADA LINKS WRITERS' GUIDELINES

YOU SAY TOMATO, I SAY CLAMATO
Ask for a Caesar south of the 49th parallel, and you'll probably get a garlicky salad instead of a spicy cocktail. A Canadian creation, this clam-infused vodka cocktail is the most popular cocktail in the country, with more than 250 million served up every year.

Text: CHARLENE ROOKE

If the combination of tomatoes, seafood and citrus smacks of the Mediterranean region, that’s because the Caesar was invented in an Italian restaurant. To celebrate the opening of Marco’s in 1969, the Calgary Inn (now the Westin) commissioned a new cocktail. Resident mixologist Walter Chell, a debonair Montenegro native who had served in the kitchens and hotels of Europe, was inspired by the flavours of spaghetti vongole to combine sweet (tomato juice), salty (clam nectar), sour (lime), spicy (Worcestershire sauce) and bitter (celery salt) in the new libation.

After naming the drink for the Roman emperor, legend has it that Chell served one to an Englishman who exclaimed, "That’s a good bloody Caesar!" Makes a good bloody story, but the nickname is likely a riff on Caesar’s better-known sibling, the Bloody Mary. The drink’s popularity led American entrepreneur Duffy Mott to patent a mix called Clamato, for which Chell was a consultant and pitchman before his death in 1997.

Today, variations abound: salted or celery-salted rim; spiked with hot sauce or horseradish; and garnished with everything from pickled asparagus to a genuine clam. To hail Caesar’s ancestry, best follow the original recipe as it’s still mixed in the Owl’s Nest lounge at the Calgary Westin. Because the only salad greenery a Caesar fan really wants to see is a leafy stalk of celery perched in this hearty, refreshing cocktail.