Category: Mai Tai

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Tiki Tuesday at The Cellar

We were tipped that The Cellar in Fullerton has been doing a special tiki menu on Tuesdays, with a new cocktail as a featured item each week. We’d visited The Cellar for dinner and drinks a few years back and enjoyed the old school charm and immersive experience of dining in an imagineer created faux wine cellar.

Hawaiian Room and Kingston Negroni

As we arrived right at opening and sat at the bar, we saw the featured item for our visit: the Hawaiian Room, a 1940s cocktail from the Hotel Lexington in New York City. This balanced cocktail was Mrs Mai Tai’s choice and has pineapple, lime, orange curaçao, apple brandy, and white rum. I looked at the rest of the cocktail menu and picked the Kingston Negroni, also quite great and using Smith & Cross Jamaican rum as it should.

Shortly thereafter, the bartender showed us a Tiki Tuesday menu of classics such as the Scorpion, Jet Pilot, and Navy Grog. I mentioned I was surprised there wasn’t a Mai Tai listed on this or on the main cocktail menu, but he pointed out the $45 Vintage Mai Tai that includes Foursquare 2011 rum from Barbados, along with marcona almond orgeat and Martinique rhum. He then suggested that people know they can get a good Mai Tai here anyway, at which point I suggested that it never hurts to list it explicitly because sometimes even craft cocktail bars can’t make it, when they don’t have orgeat, or sometimes they make it with pineapple or orange juice.

Mai Tai

Nonetheless, the confidence of the bartender made me think that ordering a Mai Tai would be worth it, so I asked for it with Planteray Xaymaca rum that I saw on the back bar. As I watched the prep I could see the inclusion of another spirit and I determined that they are so used to including Martinique rhum that they didn’t consider I wanted a single rum Mai Tai. I braced for a difficult conversation but after tasting the cocktail I decided that Martinique rhum did actually improve it after all, resulting in a fabulous Mai Tai that had a great orgeat and rum flavor.

A few more regulars started filtering into the bar, we decided two drinks were all we needed before going back to Disneyland for the evening. Tiki Tuesday at The Cellar was really fantastic.

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The Wooden Pearl

The Wooden Pearl is a new restaurant and cocktail bar now open in the Anaheim Packing House, with an enclosed space that’s fairly immersive considering its location in a food hall. We went in for cocktails and enjoyed the vibe and shells placed as decor.

My cocktail was That Koko is So Hot Right Now, described as “Blue Steel? Le Tigre? No. KOKO” and contains Mijanta Blanco Tequila, Yuzu, Lactose, Guava, and Strange Water Sparkling Coconut. It’s served on fire, though without the extravagant display common at tiki bars, and I sure love a good Zoolander reference. Even better was the taste, tropical and refreshing.

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Bourbon Mint Julep at Disneyland

One of my earliest memories of Disneyland is trying their Mint Julep, a non-alcoholic version that’s sold at the Mint Julep Bar in New Orleans Square. It’s basically minty sugar water on ice but it made an impression on me.

All of the table service restaurants in Disneyland now include beer, wine, and a speciality cocktail on the menu. We had a pretty good Hurricane at the Blue Bayou last year and this trip we made reservations for Cafe Orleans where a Mint Julep with bourbon is on the menu. It’s pretty good, with a better mouthfeel and texture than the Mint Julep without booze. Still, it was nice to try the comparison.

In terms of potency, this didn’t have the same level of bourbon that’s usually called for in a Mint Julep, but otherwise I enjoyed it with lunch.

Captain Jack Sparrow tried to break into the cafe, but we told him there were no rum drinks and so he decided to move on.

Melon Salad
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Bamboo Club Revisited

After an exciting day of tasting and socializing at the Rum Curious Summit we decided to keep the party going in a more relaxing fashion by going over to Long Beach’s Bamboo Club for a meal and drinks. The team was able to let us have a larger table for our group and between us and others from the event it was sort of like a final farewell with friends.

There was a DJ playing some great retro tunes including lounge and exotica favorites, and we enjoyed the atmosphere inside this tiki bar with dive leanings. There’s a Bamboo Mai Tai that uses 122 proof Copalli aged rum, which I’m sure would have been my preference had I not been looking to limit alcohol. So I went with the standard Mai Tai with Jamaica and Martinique rum and found it to pretty good especially on a Monday when it is only $8!

We’d only visited once before but Bamboo Club was a fun time and we enjoyed exploring all the little rooms and patio outside, featuring eclectic artwork and cool lighting.

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Strong Water Anaheim is Orange County’s Preeminent Tiki Bar

We had another amazing visit to Strong Water Anaheim, coasting on Nav’s reservation for a totally relaxing Sunday evening over superior cocktails. While reservations are especially important here and can limit spontaneity, it is nice to be able to get them and plan your day around the time. Mrs. Mai Tai and I arrived a bit early and had dinner at the Packing District Food Hall, a short walk away.

After overindulging the previous night I stuck to one cocktail, so I made sure it counted by having Strong Water’s excellent Mai Tai – rich and nutty with some flavorful but approachable rum. It is one of the best Mai Tais of the year so far, once again. Mrs. Mai Tai’s Pearl Diver was also top-notch.

This was the first visit for Nav and Alissa, and the crew made a great impression by being so responsive to food and additional drink orders. We hardly had to wait when the mood struck, but at the same time we were never pestered, a delicate balance. Alissa was impressed by the merch for sale and went home with a mug and the staff took care to fulfill the order. Music was relaxing exotica and vintage music, totally appropriate and setting the mood for great conversation.

Strong Water’s commitment to high quality never seems to waver, making it one of the best examples of the genre. But as with the best tiki bars where quality is a concern, there’s never any snobby attitude from the staff who know you are there to have a great time. And that’s how it went for us, once again.

Pearl Diver and Strong Water Interior
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Lucky Tiki Still Going Strong in West Hollywood

We Lyfted over from Downtown and made it to our reservation at The Lucky Tiki in West Hollywood in the nick of time, just as our friends Alissa and Nav arrived to join us. With a small space and high demand it is nice to be able to score a reservation on a Saturday night. This was our first visit since New Year’s Eve and they’re still serving the same cocktail menu that has a little something for everyone.

I’ve been on record saying I don’t love the standard Mai Tai here, but the staff told me they were working on a new formula. Though the one I received wasn’t the final version thanks to Dave and crew I’m pleased to report it was a lot better. Meanwhile Mrs. Mai Tai got her favorite, the New York Sour riff called Elvis in Hawaii featuring peanut butter whiskey, creme de banana, and a cabernet float. Delicious. As first timers, Nav and Alissa enjoyed their drinks including the Grog, Mai Tai, and Daiquiri.

The “Ghost of Jim Morrison” was playing the part of trickster this evening, as the cocktail of the same name was quite delicious but also super potent – I’m sure the Doors frontman held his liquor better when the L.A. Woman album was recorded in the same building.

It seems like the patio section is a little bit more elaborately decorated since our last visit, and remains a fairly enclosed space where you can hear the music a little better and get a little bit more of that fresh Los Angeles air. But we really like the dark and traditional tiki environment inside where everything is a bit of a higher energy yet still relaxing. The Lucky Tiki concept has been so popular there are plans for a second location which we are eagerly awaiting.

Mai Tai
with GM David Ray
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Eye Candy at Clifton’s Pacific Seas

Pacific Seas is the exotic travel and South Seas themed bar inside Clifton’s Republic in downtown Los Angeles, but since it is only open on weekends and has an up and down return from COVID it has been many years from our last visit. We made sure to visit on this trip, securing a reservation right at opening at 6 pm Saturday.

None of the speakeasy or dress code rules of years past are enforced at opening, but we still wore aloha wear and joined the line to get in. We made our way upstairs, eventually finding the secret entrance and then exploring upstairs until we found the venue. The interior here is of the same quality as a Disney queue with so many items to look at and so many tikis too. Ambient music with an electronica lean was playing, a precursor to the club music that plays later in the evening.

We were seated on the floor at a table, rather than in the more decorated booths – a disappointment. But, our server was very friendly and efficient, working solo during the first hour across the entire floor. Also working solo was a young bartender who wasn’t exactly killing himself to work through orders so our drinks took some time to arrive.

The venue asks if you’re there for drinks only or for “drinks and snacks” – yet some of the menu items included a burger and the very large chicken sandwich that I had, so “snacks” is a weird label. The food here was pretty good and was delivered before our drinks were.

It appears all the cocktails are batched, which meant that Mrs. Mai Tai got the last Jet Pilot during service even though it was only just after opening, so one wonders if they’re batched only on Fridays. The Himalayan Mai Tai includes some mango liqueur but is actually a pretty good Mai Tai since it includes overproof Jamaican rum and Copalli rum. However, the Saturn did not taste like any Saturn I’ve ever tried. So the cocktails were hit and miss, and going off menu seems very risky.

Mai Tai

Still, the eye candy in here is amazing and Clifton’s Pacific Seas is a must-visit for any tikiphile. We really enjoyed the energy and overall our food and service were pretty good. We hear the people watching can be good later when it is a nightclub vibe, if that’s your thing.

Saturn
Jet Pilot