Best Bloody Mary

There's nothing particularly special about the Bloody Marys served on the ferryboats that embark, many times a day, for Sausalito and Larkspur -- your basic vodka, tomato juice, and Tabasco in a plastic cup; nothing so captivating as, for instance, the wasabi-and-sake-informed concoction prepared at Ponzu -- but the setting can't be beat. There's the salty, briny oxygen; the rhythmic swaying beneath your feet; the wheeling sea gulls and the bobbing sailboats and the stiff western breeze. And, at one special confluence, there's the city to your left, Mount Tamalpais to your right, and the Golden Gate Bridge and the Pacific Ocean straight ahead. If you time it so the sun is setting and the lights are coming up at just that moment, you'll agree: No Bloody Mary ever tasted so good.