Everyone’s favorite Mai Tai inventor was born on this day in 1902. Victor Jules Bergeron had a difficult childhood, losing a leg to tuberculosis when just six year old. Early adulthood was no better until he scrapped some money together to open a small restaurant and bar at named Hinky Dinks at 65th and San Pablo avenue in Oakland in 1934.
A visit Don the Beachcomber’s convinced Bergeron to adjust the theme of his venue. The Bamboo Room at “Trader Vic at Hinky Dinks” opened as initially as an exclusive ladies’ lounge. Later, it became a co-ed destination and eventually the Trapper Lodge theme of Hinky Dinks gave way entirely to a Polynesian theme. The venue eventually got a shorter name, simply Trader Vic’s in 1938.
This photo shows Bergeron in the midst of that transition, sporting a Pith Helmet that never became his trademark and was soon forgotten. One guesses that Bergeron thought a hat would add character to his persona, as it did for Donn Beach. One also guesses that Bergeron got fed up wearing such head-ware and might have even thrown it into the trash accompanied by colorful profanity.
Bergeron’s fame soon spread as a restaurateur and cocktail developer, a celebrity chef of sorts. That fame as the Gordon Ramsay of his day was one reason he was asked to develop a cocktail menu for the Matson hotel properties in Waikiki where the Mai Tai became a viral sensation starting in 1953.
Bergeron died in 1984 at the age of 81, but today let’s remember the young man who was about to shake up the restaurant and cocktail world. Raise a glass of rum or brandy, or maybe a famous Trader Vic’s cocktail such as the Fogcutter, Eastern Sour, or a Mai Tai. Cheers and happy birthday to Trader Vic Bergeron.
We had a great time at Forbidden Island last Saturday taking one of Mrs. Mai Tai’s work colleagues for their first tiki bar experience. Nicely busy but not too crazy until a party bus full of revelers showed up wearing holiday costumes (we think we even saw Buddy the Elf), though thankfully they were seated in the patio. We enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere inside in our booth, thank you very much.
I’ve decided to start another Kill-Devil Club 1.0 rum list at Forbidden Island. We’ll see how long it takes without the to-go option that helped me accelerate the exploration of rum in 2020-2021, but I’m looking forward to trying some new rums and old favorites. Nice to be able to try these rums in a Daiquiri or Mai Tai for a nominal upcharge.
I really enjoyed the Mai Tai with Smith & Cross Jamaica rum. The bold and boozy rum really played well with this finely prepared cocktail, definitely one of the best of 2023.
Thanks to Michael for always appreciated hospitality and also to Justin for a great suggestions for a nearby Sushi restaurant.
Light rum, dark rum, and orange curaçao sounds good. A little orgeat would sound better, but alas isn’t noted.
Also not noted is the bubbly carbonation of this canned cocktail. It isn’t good, I’m afraid, since it doesn’t taste like a Mai Tai and the bubbles make this feel more like a Mimosa than a cocktail.
The Search for the Ultimate Mai Tai was relaunched on Instagram on this day in 2017, reviving the brand started way back in 1998. 2195 posts and counting, chronicling experiences with cocktails, connections with people in the community, and world’s leading feed of Mai Tai minutiae.
We had some great adventures in the last 12 months. A few are chronicled in the photos including some travels with Mrs Mai Tai to far off places such as Honolulu, Las Vegas, Minneapolis and various locations in California including Sacramento, Disneyland, and Napa. I attended Tiki in Waikiki and presented at Trader Vic’s as part of the SF Rum Festival.
42 different tiki bars in the last year. We said goodbye to ones in Minneapolis and Oakland but found new ones in Orinda, Petaluma, and Las Vegas. I was featured on the Make & Drink channel on YouTube and my Ultimate Mai Tai was added to cocktail menu at Tiki Tom’s.
So, thanks to so many fellow Mai Tai fans I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with over the last year. I appreciate your follows, likes, and comments here and in real-life, including the discussion of very important topics such as the best orgeat and whether or not fun can be had in a tiki dive bar.
We picked this up at a craft faire in SF last month. Yes Cocktail Co. has a number of syrups and also has sugar cubes with infused bitters. We won’t be doing a full review of the latter except to say that as sugar cubes they don’t dissolve easily all, rendering them unsuitable for “saving a step” by including the bitters.
More successful is Yes’s Orgeat. This craft syrup tastes great just by itself and is pretty good in a Mai Tai. I made a Mai Tai based on the recipe on the label, using Appleton 8 as the blended aged rum. This recipe only uses ¾ oz lime juice and omits any additional sugar syrups. It made a good Mai Tai, albeit more milky in consistency than some orgeats, though I think I’d have preferred a heavier pour of orgeat and a full ounce of lime juice. Comparable in taste and consistency to Liber & Co.
Heads turned when San Francisco’s Trad’r Sam bar closed mysteriously in late summer. The legendary bamboo bar has been in operation in the Richmond district since 1937, the oldest continuously operating tiki bar in the world. The closure was due in part to a complicated and multifaceted ownership dispute among a brother and sister/niece, along with lease issues. The dust settled with John Munguia taking over operational duties for the first time in many years and the venue reopening in early November.
Aside from settling the lease and operational disputes, the downtime resulted in noticeable updates to the seating and decor inside the neighborhood hangout that in true dive bar fashion still only accepts cash. The bamboo booths named for tropical islands were long in disrepair and have been removed, replaced by new tables and chairs. The blenders and barstools are all new with the bar surface and floor refurbished as well. We noticed there was a greater emphasis on some cheap but well-placed tikis, which I think accented the many historic bamboo elements still in place inside. The previously graffiti-filled men’s restroom has been completely repainted, perhaps the first time in history where white walls were welcome in a tiki bar.
In the previous regime the hours were notoriously inconsistent, but after last week’s SF Standard article that said that bar opens early on Mondays I took advantage of a “wellness day” at work and decided to see how things are before noon in the Richmond. We saw Munguia tending bar with a few regulars who were drinking shots and beer and not the Polynesian Drinks referenced on the iconic sign outside. These regulars were already in party mode when we walked in and soon were treated to a whiskey shot bought by a customer for everyone in the bar. Another regular knew the inside of the venue better than Munguia, running behind the bar to find the remotes for the jukebox and TVs.
Which left it up to this writer to keep up the tradition of Polynesian Drinks at the Polynesian Drinks bar, ordering a Mai Tai. Trad’r Sam features a vast cocktail menu, though on a previous visit it wasn’t clear there was a substantial difference between a Mai Tai and Zombie aside from the garnish. But most the cocktails are just $9, indicating this is a place for inexpensive imbibing and not for refined reflection of craft cocktails. Indeed my island Mai Tai was prepared exactly like the one on my last trip in early 2022 and was so similar it evoked the “they’re the same picture” meme from NBC’s The Office.
But I come to praise Trad’r Sam, not to bury it. The Mai Tai wasn’t too bad, and I had even better luck when I ordered a Singapore Sling from bartender JJ who had recently arrived and really began the bar setup. The Sling contained a mix of rum, sloe gin, a couple cherry liqueurs, and a bit of juice and honestly was the best Singapore Sling I’ve had in a while. Meanwhile, a group of young men came in for some socializing and a couple rounds of tequila shots. I wandered over to the jukebox and immediately found some Gerry Rafferty and Gary Wright songs that tickled JJ and the group of young men. I kept looking and eventually found some Ventures and even a few Martin Denny tunes.
Sitting in the world’s oldest tiki bar listening to “Quiet Village” while sipping a tropical cocktail at 2:00 in the afternoon wasn’t a bad way to spend my “wellness day” after all.
Hardcore tikiphiles certainly have better options in The City, home to at least half a dozen top-tier destination tiki bars. But I think Trad’r Sam is worth visiting as well. True, one minute you might be relaxing with a drink and the next an inebriated regular will be hugging you while sliding over a whiskey shot. It’s that kind of place. It isn’t unsafe, though, and I’d have trusted those regulars to have my back in the event of any trouble. We can only hope that continued upgrades to the interior and maybe the cocktail program will follow with a resurgence of business and the ability to focus on hospitality rather than the judiciary.
