National Caesar Day

Ask a Canadian to name the national drink and you will not hear “maple latte.” You will hear “Caesar,” said with the quiet confidence of a people who know they invented something wonderful. The classic recipe starts with a highball glass rimmed in celery salt, filled with ice, then seasoned with Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, salt, and pepper. Add one to two ounces of vodka, top with Clamato, that unmistakable blend of tomato and clam juices, and finish with a lime wedge and a crunchy stalk of celery. The result is savory, briny, spicy, and endlessly sippable, the undisputed champion of brunch tables and patios from Victoria to St. John’s, and a drink that is nearly impossible to find outside Canada’s borders.

The Caesar was born in 1969, the creation of Walter Chell, a bartender and restaurant manager at the Calgary Inn in Calgary, Alberta, today the Westin Hotel. The hotel was opening a new Italian restaurant, Marco’s, and Chell was tasked with inventing a signature cocktail to pair with the menu. Drawing inspiration from spaghetti alle vongole, the classic dish of spaghetti with clams in tomato sauce, he spent months perfecting a blend of vodka, fresh tomato juice, and hand-mashed clam juice, seasoned with Worcestershire sauce and his secret ingredient, oregano. The drink was an instant hit around Calgary, especially as a lunchtime pour, and its fame spread steadily eastward across the country. It is worth noting that clam-and-tomato drinks had appeared before, from the Smirnoff Smiler of the 1950s to Charles Addams’s Gravel Gertie, but Chell’s precise, savory, oregano-kissed formula was the one that stuck, and the one Canada adopted as its own.

Clamato made the Caesar a drink anyone could mix. Later in 1969, with Chell’s help, Mott’s began producing the bottled blend of clam nectar and tomato juice, eliminating the need to mash your own clams and turning the Caesar into a true home-bar staple. More than half of all Clamato sold is estimated to go straight into Caesars, a statistic that tells you everything about the drink’s grip on the national imagination. The milestones piled up: in 2006 the cocktail ranked number 13 on the CBC television series The Greatest Canadian Invention, and in 2009, for the drink’s 40th anniversary, Calgary mayor David Bronconnier declared May 13 Caesar Day while Canada Dry Mott’s launched an online petition to make the Caesar Canada’s official cocktail. An Ipsos-Reid poll that year confirmed what Canadians already knew, naming the Caesar the country’s most popular cocktail, with Canadians drinking more than 400 million of them every year.

National Caesar Day itself was born in 2015, created to promote the cocktail and to keep the campaign for Canada’s national drink alive. Its timing is pure strategy: the Thursday before the Victoria Day long weekend, which means the celebration lands just as Canadians kick off the May long weekend, the unofficial start of patio season. Bars run Caesar specials, bartenders compete over the wildest garnishes, and social media fills with towering creations. Some observances describe it simply as the Thursday before the May long weekend, but the meaning is the same: the long weekend starts here, and it starts with a Caesar. It also lands at the perfect moment in the calendar, when winter has finally loosened its grip and the whole country is ready to sit outside again.

And then there are the garnishes, where the Caesar truly becomes a contact sport. Celery stalks and lime wedges are just the opening bid. Pickles, asparagus spears, prawns, bacon strips, and pepperoni sticks all make regular appearances, and the boldest bartenders have been known to crown their creations with onion rings, sliders, or entire miniature meals on skewers. The drink’s fans also swear by its powers as a hangover cure, a claim that has not been scientifically proven but that brunch crowds uphold with total conviction. There is even a friendly rivalry with the Bloody Mary: the Caesar’s briny Clamato base makes it lighter and less sweet than its tomato-only cousin, which devotees insist is the whole point. On National Caesar Day, the only rule is to make it your own: rim it, spice it, stack it, and raise it high.

THE STORY BEHIND NATIONAL CAESAR DAY

🍅 Born in Calgary, 1969
Bartender Walter Chell invented the Caesar in 1969 at the Calgary Inn in Calgary, Alberta, after being asked to create a signature drink for the hotel’s new Italian restaurant, Marco’s. He mixed vodka with clam and tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, and other spices, including his secret ingredient, oregano, creating a uniquely spicy cousin of the Bloody Mary that became an institution.

🧂 The Clam That Started It All
Chell drew his inspiration from spaghetti alle vongole, spaghetti with clams and tomato, which led him to mash fresh clams into tomato juice for the original recipe. Later in 1969, Mott’s began producing Clamato, the bottled blend of clam and tomato juices, with Chell’s help, making the Caesar easy to mix at home and cementing the drink’s place in Canadian kitchens.

🏆 Canada’s Favorite Cocktail
In 2009, an Ipsos-Reid poll named the Caesar Canada’s most popular cocktail, and Canadians now drink more than 400 million of them every year. The drink ranked number 13 on the CBC series The Greatest Canadian Invention in 2006, and that same anniversary year saw Calgary’s mayor declare May 13 Caesar Day while Mott’s petitioned to make it the country’s official cocktail.

📅 Why This Thursday
National Caesar Day was established in 2015 to promote the cocktail and campaign for its status as Canada’s national drink. It is celebrated every year on the Thursday before the Victoria Day long weekend in May, launching the May long weekend in style. In 2027, Victoria Day falls on Monday, May 24, which puts National Caesar Day on Thursday, May 20.

🥓 The Garnish Game
The Caesar is famous for its edible architecture. Beyond the classic celery stalk and lime, garnishes range from pickles and asparagus to prawns, bacon, and pepperoni, with daring bartenders stacking entire appetizers on skewers above the rim. The celery-salt rim and the briny Clamato base stay constant, but everything above the glass is pure creative license.

WAYS TO CELEBRATE

🍸 Mix the Classic at Home
Rim a highball glass with celery salt, add ice, Worcestershire, Tabasco, salt, and pepper, then pour in vodka and top with Clamato. Garnish with celery and lime, and taste the 1969 original before you start improvising. One careful classic earns you the right to experiment.

🤝 Host a Garnish Showdown
Invite friends over, set out a Caesar bar with an outrageous spread of garnishes, and hold a vote for the tallest, tastiest, and most ridiculous creation. Award bonus points for anything that requires structural engineering to stay upright.

🏠 Toast Your Local Bartender
Head to a favorite bar or pub on May 20 and order a Caesar from someone who makes them for a living. Ask about their house twist, tip like you mean it, and raise your glass to Walter Chell, the Calgary bartender who started it all.

Celebrate National Caesar Day

On May 20, 2027, the Thursday before the Victoria Day long weekend, do as Canadians do: rim a glass, spice it boldly, and pile the garnishes high. Whether you keep it classic or build a small meal on top, raise your Caesar to Walter Chell and 58 years of briny, beautiful tradition. Cheers, eh.