ORTH ROYALTON, OH – Ilona Simon of North Royalton has scored a few home runs in her nearly four decades as an entrepreneur. Her latest grand slam: Budapest Blonde cocktail mixes that eventually ended up in the hands of Lynda Obst, the executive producer of the TV Land hit, Hot in Cleveland.
“Since I am a proud Clevelander, I thought it would be a perfect fit (on the show),“ Simon says, after she surprised the Hollywood mogul with a complimentary shipment. “I received an email from her raving about the mixes and saying they were all over the set. I have had customers tell me they have seen them in certain episodes. But I think, if you blink, you’ll miss them.”
The 32-ounce bottles of the non-alcoholic mix may have had sporadic cameo roles on the small screen, but they have become can’t-miss items for sale in more than 100 retail stores throughout Ohio, including the Buehler’s and Heinen’s supermarket chains. And the inspiration to create a Rolls-Royce of martini mixes came to Simon when she owned the Budapest Blonde martini bar in Independence from the fall of 2003 until she sold it to a friend in the summer of 2009.
“I was always looking for something better than the watered-down salty brine in a jar of olives,” says Simon, whose other business ventures have included the concert-ticket sales outlet Ticketron in 1974 . “So I found a fabulous, all-natural olive juice that simply makes a martini cool, crisp and dirty.”
Meet the “Dirty Blonde,” the olive-flavored mix that Simon conceived to add to vodka or gin for a dirty martini. Then there’s the “Hot Blonde,” a spicy mix of wasabi, Hungarian paprika and ground mustard for a bloody Mary that “has the heat without that burning pepper taste.” To cap off the trifecta of the line, the “Beach Blonde” is a grape-and-lime mix for all seasons, whether you add it to tequila for a margarita or rum and mint for a mojito. “It takes on the characteristic of whatever spirit is added to it,” Simon says. “It’s like a chameleon; its flavor changes with a variety of spirits.”
Like a mad scientist of mixology, Simon continued to tinker with her recipes. Suddenly, she made a startling discovery: The mixes contained fewer calories and lower levels of sodium and sugar than those of leaders in the cocktail-mix market. For health nuts, they had less than one-fourth the amount of carbs in a serving. And the best part? For $6.99 a bottle, the price beat the $10 charge for a single martini in downtown Cleveland.
“Of course, I would never want to take away from a night out at any of the fabulous bars in Cleveland, especially the ones shaking up cocktails with my mixes,” Simon says. “However, if one’s planning to entertain at home, my mixes are very affordable, can be mixed with a variety of spirits or can be creatively served without alcohol. So I’m thrilled that the mixes are well-received and that people really do love the taste.”
