Eight people have been attacked by sharks along the North Carolina coast within the past month. None of the victims were killed, but a few lost limbs and sustained other serious injuries. Sounds like inspiration for a cocktail?

AG Kitchen, a “nuevo Latino” restaurant from New York chef Alex Garcia that recently opened in Silver Spring, is offering a “Bloody Shark Attack” cocktail this week. The drink contains Captain Morgan light rum and blue curaçao and comes with a toy shark that’s filled with grenadine so you can release “blood” into the blue liquid.

Co-owner Jeremy Wladis says he wasn’t thinking about the North Carolina attacks when the drink was added to the menu. Rather, this week is Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, and AG Kitchen is located just around the corner from the company’s Silver Spring headquarters. And to be fair, selling a shark attack cocktail isn’t any more insensitive than Discovery selling shark attack slippers.

“Obviously, it’s insensitive if it’s taken the wrong way,” Wladis says. “The movie Jaws could be thought of as insensitive also.”  

Wladis, president of The Restaurant Group, which also operates Fuel Pizza, says the drink was revived from his days operating Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar in New York years ago. The original shark attack cocktail also had mermaids.

So, if you’re OK with gimmicks making light of visits to the ER (and the combination of grenadine and blue curaçao), the cocktail is $8. You can keep the shark too.

Photos courtesy AG Kitchen