Author: Kevin Crossman

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Sippin’ Santa at 55 South / Miracle on 1st in Downtown San Jose

The holiday season continues in downtown San Jose where two holiday cocktail pop-ups are still pulling in revelers. Both Sippin’ Santa and Miracle offer a variety of festive cocktails along with interesting and fun glassware that’s available for sale.

Sippin’ Santa at 55 South

We started at 55 South for Sippin’ Santa, the tiki-themed holiday pop-up produced with Jeff “Beachbum” Berry. The new cocktail and mug this year is Sharkey’s First Christmas, featuring vodka, aquavit, melon and walnut liqueur, lime and pineapple juices. Mrs. Mai Tai thought this was pretty good and I have to agree it was a nice twist and the mug is pretty good too. I had Sippin’ Santa cocktail that has Demerara rum, amaro, lemon, orange, and gingerbread mix – an all time favorite mug and the cocktail is always great too.

The team at 55 South did a good job with the drinks and decor again this year, though the music for our experience was a Sade playlist followed by mid-1950s rock ‘n roll hits. So, not really the holiday vibe. We arrived early and the crowd was sparse, but grew later in the evening.

55 South

Miracle on 1st is at Paper Plane across the street and continues to impress. The decor is elaborate here, and we found the service at the bar to be quite efficient and super friendly. I was driving and asked for something non-alcoholic and received a very nice juicy highball that was fantastic. Mrs. Mai Tai had the excellent Marshmallows & Unicorns, the complex cocktail with gin, several liqueurs, lemon, egg white, bitters, and cardamon. Our friends really liked their Carol Barrel and Hot Buttered Rum, two Miracle standouts. Crowds grew during our visit and there was a line when we left, so go early if you can.

Miracle on 1st at Paper Plane

Miracle has a larger cocktail menu than Sippin’ Santa and the more varied options seem offer something for everyone. Sippin’ Santa added a holiday spritz this year but we think the smaller menu is a deterrent for many potential patrons. Adding a couple more cocktails would help for 2024.

Sharkey’s First Christmas
Sippin’ Santa Cocktail
Juicy Highball
Marshmallows & Unicorns
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Shipwrecked Tiki Bar Offers Pirate Vibe to College Audience in Davis, CA

Shipwrecked is a new bar in Davis, down the highway from Sacramento and home of the University of California. Located downtown, there’s a lot to like and some gripes that may or may not be considered nitipicky. This is a bar only, though they do mention that outside food is welcome. Pirates are a key thematic aspect to this “tiki bar,” because every new tiki bar opening this year seems to feature pirates.

There are three distinct areas inside. The entrance is a beach themed area with some tables, huts, a few very cheap tikis (including some plastic ones). You can order at the bar from here. Going down the hallway, there’s a lounge section that’s nautical themed including a nice photo op stop, giant squid arms made from metal, and some granite tiled walls. The last section is a series of booths that are nominally themed as pirate jails, plus more pirate decor including a room with artifacts. The decor is more fun than fully immersive, but is pretty nice given intended scope and audience. Music on a Sunday afternoon featured gloomy classic rock and mood music.

The cocktail menu features 30 items and has something for everyone. The Mai Tai is okay, though I didn’t really get the complex rum notes I’d have expected from the combo of Appleton Signature, Clement VSOP, OFTD, and Smith & Cross. Mrs. Mai Tai’s Banana Boat Bliss leans on coconut, pineapple ice cream, and cachaca and we thought it tasted great and was easy to drink.

For a college town bar, Shipwrecked is fairly large and I’m sure a lot of fun, though prices aren’t inexpensive. Had they simply left “tiki bar” off their name I’d give them less grief about the dearth of quality tikis, but as it stands they do need to do better in the opinion of this writer. Someone spent money on the build-out, so the plastic tikis really stand out in a bad way. Still, definitely worth visiting.

Grotto section
Mai Tai and Banana Boat Bliss
Ditch the Plastic Tikis, please
Fijian Mermaid
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Christmas Suffering Bastard

Not the most traditional Christmas cocktail, but with the new green glaze I think the Suffering Bastard Mug is a perfect vessel. In order to prepare the cocktail we need to make some decisions about the ingredients.

The Trader Vic’s Suffering Bastard is very different from Joe Scialom’s original from the World War II era, and is basically a larger and boozier Mai Tai.

This is the recipe from Trader Vic’s 1972 Bartenders Guide Revised and from 1974’s Rum Cookery and Drinkery. Noteworthy that it specifically calls for an aged Rhum Agriole. But what’s missing? The lime, for one.

Suffering Bastard (1970s)
3 oz Trader Vic’s Mai Mix
1 oz Light Puerto Rican Rum
2 oz Rhum St. James
Shake with ice and garnish with spent lime shell, mint, fruit stick, and cucumber

The same books list the Mai Tai as using 2 oz each of Mai Tai Mix and Trader Vic’s Mai Tai rum, so we must assume the lime is incorporated into the Mai Tai mix. As for the blend of Orange Curacao and Orgeat, I thought I’d try the ratio used for the 1958 Mai Tai from the Trader Vic’s in Havana, 12 parts Curacao to 7 parts Orgeat, and make 2 oz of this mix to go with the 1 oz of lime. I don’t have any Rhum St. James but substituted Clement VSOP Rhum that’s also from Martinique. Plus Trader Vic’s Light Rum from Puerto Rico.

Christmas Suffering Bastard
1 oz Lime Juice
¾ oz Orgeat (Latitude 29)
1¼ oz Orange Curacao (Ferrand)
1 oz Trader Vic’s Light Rum
2 oz Rhum St. James (sub Clement)
Shake with ice and garnish with spent lime shell, mint, fruit stick, and cucumber (if you have one)

This was very satisfying. You certainly get a bit of that aged and grassy taste from the Clement, but it is balanced well by the subtle sweetness of the Mai Tai mix blend. The use of the light rum softens the edges of the Martinique rhum and keep this as the boozy cocktail it was meant to be.

Mele Kalikimaka

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Miracle Holiday Pop-Up at Brewsters Petaluma

Had a fabulous lunch with friends at Brewsters Beer Garden in Petaluma. This vast space was completely covered in holiday decorations and despite the name does have a strong cocktail program as well. So, the inclusion of the cocktail-focused pop-up from Miracle is not unexpected.

Saturday was unusually warm, which might have swelled the crowds and made it seem like everyone in the city was at Brewsters. But the effectiveness of the staff meant that our drinks and food came out quite quickly and prepared expertly. The food here leans on brisket and ribs, plus salads and sandwiches.

Brewsters does Miracle a little differently by including a couple of original cocktails on their menu that aren’t seen at other Miracle pop-up locations. We really loved Cappy’s World Famous Eggnog. Normally “world famous” in the title is a red-flag but indeed this was some really great nog, and plenty boozy thanks to the Smith & Cross overproof rum. There’s also The Krampus featuring Tequila, Sherry, and Mezcal – and served in a unique Krampus mug that’s also for sale. Miracle cocktail favorites are available too, including the wonderfully spicy and completely delicious Carol Barrel.

As with other Miracle locations, mugs, glassware, and other merch is for sale. You can even buy to-go bottles of Cappy’s World Famous Eggnog.

Brewsters has been doing Miracle for several years and have the routine down pat. Be sure to check out now through January 2nd, reservations recommended.

Cappy’s World Famous Eggnog
Carol Barrel
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The Exotic Sounds: The Very Best of Martin Denny

This Japanese compilation was issued on CD in 1991, and I found it at an antique store in Sacramento for $8 and picked it up immediately. Though the case is clipped, the CD is in great shape and the booklet is too – apart from nearly all of the writing being in Japanese!

I’ve been looking for this one for a long time, and it includes four tracks I don’t have on any of the other CD or digital reissues of Denny’s material. In fact, I’d say this 74 minute album is actually a pretty comprehensive collection that spans most of Denny’s 1950s-1960s output. The strongest material comes from Denny’s murderer’s row of 1950’s albums that ended with The Enchanted Sea, of course. But some of the 1960s tracks are quite good and representative of Denny’s later material, including “Blue Paradise” from 1962’s Romantica and “Indrani” from 1968’s A Taste of India. The version of “Black Orchid” is a live version that sounds great.

The photo of Denny and his band on the back cover features “The Modernist” tiki and is possibly taken outside the San Francisco Trader Vic’s.

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The Castaway

Appropriate for the finale of Survivor tonight, a show I still watch and like. I love the tropical island eye candy, the dramatic challenges, and all the castaway twists. This is a cocktail from the original Grog Log, circa 1994.

The Castaway by Beachbum Berry
3 oz Pineapple Juice
¾ oz Kahlua
1½ oz Gold Puerto Rican Rum (Bacardi 8)
Shake with crushed ice and serve in a Pilsner glass.

The Trader Vic’s glass seems right on point for the castaway theme and I enjoyed this cocktail. Pineapple and Kahlua make a good pair, and this cocktail still has plenty of booze. That Beachbum did it all right.