The Beetlejuice and Grinch pop-ups at Dr. Funk must have done great, because downtown San Jose’s premier tiki bar is dipping into another themed menu and decor for Valentine’s Day. The pop-up launched on Saturday and runs through February 22nd.
The interior is a symphony of reds and pinks, with some nice lighting on the backbar so that you can actually see the rum and premium spirits, plus a cool lighting package on the outside of the bar that draws you into the theme (as an aside, can we please stop calling this a “hidden tiki bar”, Dr. Funk?). There’s even a “kissing booth” that’s designed for social media.
We felt that previous two special cocktail menus were only okay, but the crew did a wonderful job with the specialty cocktails this time. Most come with a strawberry-based garnish to remind you of a heart and some conversation heart picks.
Our favorite was the Lovebird, made with the same Jamaican rum blend as Dr. Funk’s Mai Tai, strawberry-infused Aperol, and juices. This rich and bold cocktail has a ton of flavor and isn’t too sweet.
Shot to the Heart was less sweet than you might have expected from the ingredients including a sugared rum and honey, but instead the light touch of passionfruit meant this was balanced well and had a great mouthfeel.
Heartbreaker is essentially a Painkiller with lighter rum and some raspberry added, still not overly sweet and a great option for tiki newbies who want something approachable.
The most crushable of all the cocktails was the Mad Love that has gin, vanilla liqueur, strawberry, and juices. This was very, very easy to drink but still has a lot of flavor.
I was impressed by the special cocktail menu, though I do hope to someday visit Dr. Funk when it is just a plain old regular tiki bar. We also had dinner last night and the staff couldn’t have been nicer and were very attentive even though it was fairly busy. We even caught a bit of DJ Ship Rex’s set as we were leaving.



