We had a great lunch at Napa’s Wilfred’s Lounge a couple Sundays ago, including some fine food and ‘Ono pie. Mrs. Mai Tai had her favorite cocktail, the Maximum Aloha, that’s still great with a blend of rums, sweet flavors, and banana cream topping. Lots of reggae playing on our visit was relaxing but we wish they’d throw more Hawaiian onto the playlist.
New to me on this visit was a whole page of Mai Tais on the cocktail menu. I’d previously tried the standard 1944 Mai Tai of course, as well as Tai One On which is a spirit-forward riff that uses Amaretto rather than orgeat. It’s an understandable substitution for the format of this stirred cocktail, though I didn’t find the Amaretto a pleasant upgrade.
There’s been a lot of complaining online about pineapple juice in Mai Tais, and I admit I’ve probably done my fair share. But lately I’ve kind of come around to the idea that these can be great if balanced properly and this was certainly the case with the Haole Tai made with white rum, pineapple, orange, grenadine, and Wilfred’s boozy Jamaican rum blend. This is juicy to be sure, but it actually tasted really great and put a focus on that great Jamaican rum. Wilfred’s quality grenadine used in a small portion also made this better balanced than the ingredients might lead you to believe.
Even more fantastic was the Tai Game, a blend of interesting flavors including fig-infused rum, amaro, amaretto, orgeat, and tawny port. This recently won Wilfred’s annual Mai Tai competition and I can see why – it is a rich and chewy cocktail that uses the Mai Tai template and layers on additional flavors. This was a big hit at our table.
Wilfred’s Lounge remains a compelling cocktail destination in wine country. Their Mai Tai menu is really interesting and totally worth exploring more, so we’ll be sure to return soon.
Thanks to Brenda for the featured image for the post, and to Sam and Mandy for providing tasting notes.