You love to watch your favorite team with friends, but a lot of places who claim to be sports bars don’t have enough seating, are crowded, don’t have  your team’s game on their TVs.

So instead why not host your own football game party and have your friends over for brunch.  Ask them to bring an appetizer or entrée and as host, organize a Bloody Mary bar.

Bloody Mary’s are perfect for those early Sunday morning games; 1) it is OK to drink them before noon, 2) they are savory, salty, briny and delicious and 3) they are like drinking a salad, but with a zing to them.

Here are some tips for the ultimate Bloody Mary Bar from the pros.

Set Up

Find an area in your apartment to set up the bar, you want to make sure that guest can easily access it and can see the TV.  The kitchen counter is a perfect place; remove chairs from the area, place a waste basket nearby and in no time it is the perfect location for a Bloody Mary Bar.

Have enough bowls for all of the ingredients in your Bloody Mary Bar and a plate for the water and one for the salt that is large enough to rim your glasses.  Place out napkins and arrange cups or mason jars.

Shopping List

• Tomato Juice, Clamato or Bloody Mary Mix (see good pre-made mixes and a recipe to make it yourself)
• Celery
• Olives
• Sea Salt to rim your cups (we like garlic sea salt)
• Shrimp Cocktail Cups (buy them pre-cooked)
• Dill Pickles or Dilly Beans
• Cheese Cubes (everyone loves cheese, why not add it to your toothpick and add it to your bloody mary)
• Bacon (mmm, bacon)
• Radishes
• Asparagus Spears
• Lemons
• Tabasco Sauce
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Sriracha (everything tastes better with Sriracha)
• Vodka (we love Tito’s)
• Beer (think Red Eye, Blood Beer or Chavela)
•  Cups (you can purchase clear, tall plastic cups or use mason jars)
• Toothpicks or wooden skewers (long enough to skewer all the ingredients)
• Napkins

Have fun!  If you have any other tips, let us know.