Forbidden Island recently updated the rum blend in their Classic Mai Tai and I’m pleased to report that it is definitely an upgrade. There is more Jamaican rum in this blend and improved richness as well, a worthy cocktail for a still wonderful tiki bar and the best Mai Tai I’ve had here in a long time.
There’s also still a Top Shelf Mai Tai available for $5 more, though we spoke with several people who tried both and they all preferred the new Classic. And for those looking for something a little different the Viking Mai Tai features Svol Aquavit and is also very good.
We’ve had two great experiences at Alter Ego recently so wanted to highlight the excellent cocktail and food program. Located in the back of Still OG on First Street, Alter Ego has a lounge feel and features a cuisine oriented cocktail program featuring Japanese flavors in many items, along with sometimes elaborate garnishes.
The food menu has been recently revamped to provide less expensive options with larger portions, though thankfully the deliciously seasoned Bread and Butter remains. I really enjoyed the amazing new Sizzling Cheeseburger which is simply made but served over a hot plate of melted cheese, while Mrs. Mai Tai enjoyed the Cold Soba Noodles.
The cocktails at Alter Ego are easily the best in the city, incorporating a variety of spirts and using a host of different and interesting ingredients. Easy Tiger will appeal to tiki fans with its two rums and rich walnut flavors and I also enjoyed the foamy Asteroid Blues served in a bubble glass with an astronaut figure. We both were super impressed by the Busters & Babs, a clarified cocktail for two that has delicious baking spice notes. Mrs Mai Tai enjoyed the melon flavors of Silk Road Project and she absolutely loved the Proxima Vida which pairs smoky Mezcal with actual smoke, which I also found the flavors to be complimentary and very approachable.
Busters & Babs
The vibe inside Alter Ego is refined, but our dealings with the staff are anything but pretentious. The team take their craft seriously but they’re accommodating and friendly. Music inside is a mix of dancy hip-hop but the volume’s perfect for conversations, with the dimly lit space that’s walled off from the outside world making it a true retreat. A reservation is usually required most nights, though there’s often room at opening. We think that Alter Ego is San Jose’s best speakeasy experience.
Wednesday night found us at Dr. Funk in downtown San Jose for dinner, cocktails, and a few more rums for my final push to complete level II of Dr. Funk’s Rum Asylum list.
We immediately sensed the energy of San Pedro Square with a crush of people filling every bar and restaurant in the area, due to the attendees of the NVIDIA GTC (GPU Technology Conference). Luckily, the crew found us a booth inside and Riley and I both had excellent cheeseburgers while we watched the decidedly uncommon crowd pack the patio and interior of San Jose’s best tiki bar. So many lanyards and backpacks and a couple people even doing laptop work with their Mai Tais. Shhh, don’t tell the office back home.
Foursquare Rums
I’m getting to the end of my Level II list, and most of the remaining rums are top shelf items, so I made a concerted effort to savor the pairing of excellent Barbados rums from Foursquare – the 2010 vintage and Isonomy. After Riley polished off a Dr. Funk Mai Tai we shared a really crisp and delicious daiquiri with the limited edition Ron Superior De Bacardi Y Cia from Mexico, supposedly more like the old Bacardis used to taste like.
The Dr. Funk crew have had quite a week, given the weekend’s St. Patrick’s Day revelry, corporate buy-outs, and a true crush of customers on our visit Wednesday. It was basically all hands on deck and we saw the crew really working well together. Our sever Michelle did an especially stellar job.
Just a few more rums to go ahead of Sunday’s quarterly Rum Asylum meeting.
Dr. Funk has a special cocktail menu to celebrate the regional premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning Primary Trust, showing at the Lucie Stern theater in Palo Alto through March 29. The special menu featuring two cocktails also runs through the 29th, with ticket holders getting a $3 discount.
Primary Trust is humorous and emotional tale written by Eboni Booth and features a bookstore clerk named Kenneth who spends his nights at a local tiki bar. The plot turns when unemployment jolts Kenneth and requires him to face new life challenges.
For this menu, the team at Dr. Funk aren’t merely renaming existing menu items. We were drawn to Kenneth’s Mai Tai which features some funky rums that are different from Dr. Funk’s standard issue. Featuring The Funk, Coruba, and La Favorite Agricole, this Mai Tai is incredibly balanced and features just a touch of grassy and savory flavors that add complexity to the cocktail that you’ll definitely want to take your time with.
Wilfred’s Lounge is about to start this year’s Mai Tai Madness tournament and so we’re saluting last year’s champ which we had with dinner a couple days ago. The Tai Game features a blend of interesting flavors including fig-infused rum, amaro, amaretto, orgeat, and tawny port. It tastes like a Mai Tai but the amaro and port do give it a richer kick. I loved it.
If you’re in Napa be sure to check out Wilfred’s for the next couple of weeks and try some of the Mai Tai variants they have in the tournament. Vote early, vote often as they say. I’m not sure we’ll be able to make it out there for the tournament but we’re looking forward to trying the winner down the line.
We also made sure to celebrate Pi Day with Wilfred’s delicious ‘Ono Pie.
We visited Livermore’s Nightcaps at Rosetta a few times over the past year, but so far hadn’t made it out for their tiki themed Thursday cocktail menu. That was rectified when we met up with Bob and Julie who are locals and helped us through the menu. Nightcaps is the evening version of the Rosetta Roasting cafe, where coffee and cakes are met with small bites and cocktails.
The back half of Rosetta’s venue is dimly lit at night with lanterns and features several large tiki totems and artifacts, plus jade tiles and comfy booths to enjoy the exotica and mellow lounge music playing. It’s actually “more tiki” than a lot of places that people think of as a tiki bars, and the back room is quite isolated from the rest of the venue.
Mai Tai
The cocktails were great, starting with the Mai Tai that features rich, bold flavors. In a nice touch, the branded glass available for purchase features a word mark logo that appears suddenly depending on the light. I also tried the Jungle Bird that leans a little light on Campari and a bit heavier on the rum, which is precisely how I like it. Meanwhile, Mrs. Mai Tai indulged with a couple creamy Grasshoppers, her newest obsession.
Several of the cocktails were elaborately garnished and we even got into the shared cocktail experience. The wait staff and bar team were super helpful in answering some questions, and while our party knows the team already, we saw the friendly vibe being share with other guests as well. Note that tiki drinks can usually be ordered any day of the week, so ask them if you come in on the weekends.
This cocktail was a highlight of Sunday’s happy hour special event at Trader Vic’s Emeryville organized by some local tiki folks. We gathered in the Lanyu room and could order at that room’s bar for the cocktails on the special menu, plus food items from the regular lounge menu. We did see a few people go to the main bar to order other drinks, but it seemed like most people were happy with the varied options that included the Original Mai Tai, a Navy Grog, a Clarified Essence of San Juan, the classic Trader Vic’s Stinker.
The flame was quite impressive and I enjoyed this cocktail in any case, thanks to the Trader Vic’s Grog mix and a blend of spirits.
Trader Vic’s Stinker 1 oz Lime Juice 2 oz Pineapple juice ½ oz Trader Vic’s Grog Mix ½ oz Sloe Gin 2 oz Trader Vic’s Dark Rum Flash Blend or shake and pour into a Menehune bowl or goblet. Garnish with spent lime shell filled with 151 rum and ignite
The recipe for the Stinker was shown on Trader Vic’s now defunct Twitter account in 2020, adding “Squeeze half of a lime, save spent shell” but there’s no way they were using ~1½ oz of lime juice in this and eyeballing the recipe it seems like too much in any case.
