Month: November 2023

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Orinda’s Boo Loo Lounge is the Newest Bay Area Tiki Bar

The Bay Area just lost the Kon-Tiki Room in Oakland, but there’s a new spot in nearby Orinda that may scratch the itch for those looking for a neighborhood tiki bar. The Boo Loo Lounge has soft opened, connected to the Orinda Theater and just a four minute walk from the BART station. The venue is small; there’s room for just over 20 inside with additional seating on the patio. Look for a grand opening soon.

Ruby Daiquiri with a friend

The dark and windowless venue features decor with heavy nods from Creature of the Black Lagoon and nautical/pirates but has a few tikis and some cheeky and fun signage. The drink menu features classics like the Saturn and Mai Tai, with the Boo Loo for Two being the namesake cocktail that’s served in a pineapple! There’s even a small but well-curated rum collection. The space is cozy and fun with a few bar stools, a half booth, and loungy tables.

Boo Loo’s GM is Maxton Kennedy (Tiki Tolteca, Kon-Tiki, Forbidden Island), who you might also find behind the bar. Off menu orders will probably vary depending on the bartender but the quality was there when Maxton filled an order for a Jungle Bird and a called rum Mai Tai that was incredible.

The venue’s small size and single serving well presents challenges when larger groups arrive at the same time. In our two visits we’ve seen a lot of ebb and flow with the crowds and backups on drink orders, but patience is rewarded with high quality cocktails. The Ruby Daiquiri with Port wine is a nice twist, the Mai Tai is legit good, and the fantastic Saturn is sure to be a huge hit especially for tiki newbies who’ll be shocked a gin cocktail can be that good.

Boo Loo Lounge is off to a promising start. Check them out Thu-Sun in downtown Orinda.

Lady of Singapore
Patio and Entrance
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The World’s Best Chinese Mai Tai at Li Po Lounge

Among the world’s most notable Mai Tais is the one at Li Po Lounge in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Though notorious is a more apt description, driven by an appearance on Anthony Bourdain’s TV show and the late celebrity chef’s declaration that the cocktail was “lethal.” The dive bar’s iconic neon sign is also a draw for the venue. The Chinese Mai Tai is a cult favorite or rite of passage, or maybe a combination of both.

 

Calling this the world’s best Chinese Mai Tai is a backhanded compliment, since Chinese Mai Tais aren’t really a subgenre and being the best in a dead end of an evolutionary tree still doesn’t mean the cocktail is necessarily good. The cocktail’s ingredients have shifted due to the supply of spirits, hence the red marker covering up original brands on the sign behind the bar. But it’s a mix of dark, light, and 151 rums, pineapple, and Chinese Liqueur. We did see these being built using some sort of batched liquor along with Mr & Mrs T. Mai Tai Mix and Pineapple Juice – very freely poured into a blender with ice and flash blended for 5-10 seconds.

The Chinese liqueur used is called Ng Ka Py, a Sorghum-based spirit that is bottled at 48% ABV complete with strong fruit peel and plum notes. It’s the cornerstone ingredient in the cocktail and can be quite divisive. Its a strong flavor with a really long finish, but it may not be pleasant for many including this writer.

Is it a Mai Tai? Well, the Mai Tai Mix kind of says yes. But the flavor profile isn’t like any Mai Tai you’ve ever had before.

When we visited Li Po on a Saturday mid-afternoon the place was packed, and they were selling plenty of the Chinese Mai Tais along with Li Po’s set of potent cocktails and beer. We found a couch and ordered the round of drinks at the bar where the bartender prepared cocktails, took money, and cleared stations. She even provided crowd control, allowing a couple who had been waiting to sit at recently vacated bar stools in lieu of guests who had recently entered the venue. If your Chinese grandmother was running a bar, this was the vibe.

Li Po remains a San Francisco institution that tourists and locals should seek out, and their Chinese Mai Tai is a must try… at least once.

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Myers’s Single Barrel Select Sazerac Rye Casks

It is nice to see newish brand owners Sazerac trying to do something different with the Myers’s Rum brand. This slightly upscale version of the Jamaica rum stalwart is finished in Sazerac Rye Casks and bottled in Kentucky. The bottle has hints of the flared front of the classic Myers’s bottle, though with clear glass, and the design including the cork expresses an indication that this should be considered for sipping. There’s no age statement.

At 43% ABV, Single Barrel Select is a little more suitable for tasting outside of cocktails but won’t kill novices who aren’t used to cask-strength spirits. The Rye finish is very subtle. As with Myers’s Original Dark, the rum doesn’t have the high ester and congener count you see with some Jamaican rums, and it compares fairly well to Appleton’s releases at the high $20s price point it seems to be widely available at.

I wouldn’t call Single Barrel Select an all-star for sipping rums, but for rum newbies it might be well-received. Certainly it is a welcome addition to the Myers’s line and we hope to see other interesting expressions in the future. Love me some Jamaica rum in all forms.

This bottle was available for sale at craft cocktail bar California Gold in San Rafael, who’s logo appears on the medallion. You can also find this at other bars and at retail.

Makes a good Rum Old Fashioned
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Myers’s Rum Tasting with Martin Cate

Time machines do exist, if you know where to find them. That was the takeaway from Martin Cate‘s seminar and happy hour at California Gold in San Rafael on Sunday. Cate is a part owner of the saloon in downtown San Rafael, a bar with a great reputation for excellent cocktails and quite a fine selection of spirits.

We were welcomed with a formidable Planter’s Punch made with Myers’s new Single Barrel Select release, finished in Sazerac Rye casks. We then made it into the back portion of the venue for a little history lesson about punch, rum, and Fred L. Myers who founded the Myers’s rum company. Cate weaved the historical details along with his own experience as a curator of rum at Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco. More Planter’s Punches were provided as well.

The star of the show wasn’t Cate, though. It was the vintage bottle of 1960s era Myers’s Planters’ Punch rum. At 97 proof this was really different from the Myers’s of today – but also unlike anything currently on the market. The rum was designed to go into the Planter’s Punch, a Jamaican cocktail featuring rum, lime, sugar, and water/ice. And maybe a little spice to make it extra nice. The punchy flavor of the vintage Myers’s is bold with burnt caramel flavors and not a ton of the high ester funk you often find in Jamaica rum today.

I’ve tasted a 1950s version of this rum and the 1960s version tasted essentially similar. So good, if you can find a place selling it. Rums like this are time machines to different distilleries, extinct expressions, or the flavors of another generation.

We then tried a taste of Myers’s Single Barrel Select release, a more refined and slightly boozier expression than the standard Original Dark Myers’s that’s so pervasive across so many bars. Indeed this is a nice sipper with a hint of Rye Whiskey from the finish. It comes in a nice bottle and California Gold was selling it for a bit of a discount.

Many of us lingered at the bar discussing rums of all kinds (but mostly Jamaican) and enjoying the good cheer.

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Luau Lounge, the Hidden Waterfront Tiki Bar in San Francisco

Luau Lounge is the “hidden tiki bar” with waterfront views that’s attached to the Players Sports Grill all the way at the end of Pier 39 in San Francisco. Food is the same as Players but there are an assortment of tiki cocktails to go with the thatch bar and Hawaiian leaning tiki theme. There’s also a small bar outside that seems like a great place if you love the cold wind off the bay. Great views of the bay and Alcatraz though.

Our experience in the past was that cocktails can be hit or miss, which was our experience on Saturday. The Mai Tai leaned a little tart and needed bolder rums but wasn’t terrible. Mrs Mai Tai thought the Kahuki Kai was too sweet, surprisingly since she usually liked these sweet coconut cocktails. There’s a reasonable rum and spirits selection so something neat or on the rocks is a safer choice. Glen made a wise choice to order a Gin & Tonic.

The sound of air hockey blending with Reggae is your audio soundscape here but we still think this can be a nice place to visit as part of your touristy Pier 39 visit. Service has always been friendly and the views are great.

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Mai Tai Happy Hour Private Event

As part of the silent auction component of the Oakhana Summer Swizzle / two home tiki bar crawl in August, one of the auction items I contributed was a private tasting event with three Mai Tais for up to 8 people and hosted by Jeff Hall at the Dragon’s Den in the Oakland hills. Nav Singh was the high bidder and we had the event this past weekend.

What a great time, thanks to Nav and some of the Sacramento Ohana she brought along for the ride. A few quality questions about the Mai Tai’s ingredients and components and some about its key ingredient (that would be rum, folks). We also had a great vibe at Jeff’s place and some tasty food provided by Jeff. I brought the rum and the cocktail ingredients.

Auction winner Nav Singh

We had three Mai Tais:

  1. First was a Trader Vic’s Mai Tai made with either Khukri rum from Nepal or Santiago aged rum from Cuba. One of these countries has a great reputation as a rum producer, but both are unusual and have a lighter column-still production method. Either one of these produced a fine Mai Tai.

  2. Second was a Mai Tai made with Hampden Great House 2020, a cask strength flavor bomb from Jamaica. The difference between our first Mai Tai and this was greatly evident, and even with a super boozy rum the cocktail is still very approachable. This shows how different rums produce a very different Mai Tai.

  3. We ended with a Blue Mai Tai, made with high quality Giffard Blue Curacao and a rum blend featuring Charley’s JB Overproof rum that’s available only in Jamaica. I’ve done different variants of this over the years and it still impresses; people expect it to be sweet like a Blue Hawaii but the boozy Jamaican rum gives it a good balance.

Thanks again to Jeff for hosting and to Nav for the winning bid.

Additional photos by Robyn Haas and Nav Singh.

Khukri Rum Mai Tai
Hampden Mai Tai