Dr. Funk, Downtown San Jose’s excellent tiki bar, has been trying to make Tiki Tuesday a thing for the past year with DJs offering a variety of vintage styles on Tuesdays from 7 – 10 pm. I am not sure how much this has been actually pulling in the tiki people (more on that later) or even locals, but they’re continuing this program in 2024. We ventured down to see DJ Ship Rex who is assigned the rare “5th Tuesday of the month” slot.
The first bit of good news is that Dr. Funk is now doing Happy Hour all day on Tuesday. This is a big improvement since under the old set-up, the Happy Hour would end at 7:00 when the DJs started playing. So, having the better priced $12 Dr. Funk Mai Tai and some other drink specials is a nice update. I think tiki people would prefer drink specials like a nightly special cocktail more than a DJ (no offense to the DJs) but at least Happy Hour pricing is a plus.
Unfortunately there was a technical snafu and DJ Ship Rex got “ship wrecked” and couldn’t play tonight. Nonetheless, it was fun to hang out with Rex and a number of other tiki folks who came out. Be sure to check out Rex on his next gig.
The place was actually nicely full through most of our visit, perhaps due to the Sharks Night specials where there are some special cocktails such as the Shark’s Tooth that Mrs. Mai Tai tried in lieu of some of her favorites. The Blue Hawaii riff includes high-quality Probitas rum and was a great deal on the Sharks menu. She also tried the Shipwreck cocktail, a fruity cocktail that’s very nice.
I’m pleased to report both of my cocktails were made well, including the Mai Tai. I also tried the “Myers Storm” which is a Dark ‘n Stormy riff made with Myers’s Single Barrel – I asked them to go easy on the ginger beer and it was made correctly even if it wasn’t spelled correctly.
