Category: Tiki Bar

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Appleton 17 Mai Tai at Wilfred’s Lounge

Last week’s “last Appleton 17 Mai Tai” post now seems to be very ill-timed, thanks to the opportunity to try The Legend again. Mrs. Mai Tai and I landed in Napa for dinner in advance of strolling the city to check out the Lighted Art Festival. Consistent with previous visits, we had a great meal at Wilfred’s Lounge including a quite good Sesame Wonton Salad and Wilfred’s famous Pineapple Fried Rice as entrees and a really great Cheesecake with Ube Whipped Cream and toasted coconut.

We made reservations for dinner and so were seated inside rather than out on the patios out front or up on the roof, and our service was efficient and friendly. Things were a bit chilly in Napa, but the mellow mood inside was truly relaxing.

Appleton 17 Legend is top shelf

When Wilfred’s originally obtained the Appleton 17 Legend rum they would let you have a 1 oz pour for $100 but would not make a half-sized Mai Tai, something we griped about fairly loudly. Thanks in part to that pressure, Wilfred’s announced they’d offer this amazing rum in a small Mai Tai so that more people could actually try the rum that was made to recreate the Wray & Nephew 17 rum from the original Mai Tai. Once again this amazing rum shines through in a cocktail, though Wilfred’s version had a little bit too much lime and not enough orgeat. Still very good but not, you know, ultimate.

Mrs. Mai Tai loves the Maximum Aloha cocktail which is still expertly made, as was the Batten Down the Hatches with potent rums and spices. So, an overall good cocktail night at Wilfred’s.

Batten Down the Hatches
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Future Trader Vic’s West Hollywood Location

Some photos of the future West Hollywood location of Trader Vic’s, slated to open toward the end of the year or thereafter. The venue is located at the corner of Santa Monica Blvd and N Doheny Drive, across the street from the border of Beverly Hills.

These photos were taken just before New Year’s, and as you can see there is plenty of work needed. There are so many people who are looking forward to the return of a full blown Trader Vic’s location in Southern California for the first time since 2017. We’ll hopefully learn more soon.

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Monday Trivia at Dr. Funk

We had a pretty good time at a romance themed Office trivia event at Dr. Funk and hosted by RiskyQuizness a couple weeks back. RiskyQuizness seems to have a regular gig on Mondays, in addition to hosting pop culture themed trivia events at bars throughout the South Bay. Mondays also coincides with Mai Tai Monday at Dr. Funk, where their excellent Mai Tai is only $8!

RiskyQuizness runs their trivia via a web app, which means they can offer both write in questions as well as multiple choice. Each team has about a minute to answer each question but you get extra points if you submit the correct answer faster. I’m of mixed mind on this format and having to do this on a device meant that one player at a table kind of needs to be doing most of the work. Questions were pretty reasonable – some hard and some easy. Some that were easy but we missed anyway. Alcohol was involved.

Trivia events start at 7:30 and run for about 90 minutes with two large rounds of questions. We didn’t place, even though this writer used to cohost an Office podcast, thanks to neither of us watching and rewatching episodes constantly. We’ll do better when it is Friends trivia and Mrs. Mai Tai will be my ringer.

In addition to the Mai Tai I got to try the Worthy Park Overproof rum which I found to be excellent. I’m looking forward to Dr. Funk’s upcoming Rum Asylum checklist, starting February 27. See you there.

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Smuggler’s Cove Cargo Crate Mug

These interesting mugs were launched late last year but I finally got around to ordering. They’re based on the crate tables that are scattered throughout Smuggler’s Cove and designed by Aaron Seymour. Each mug was scanned and reproduced and the lid includes a rubber gasket so you could display them on the side or use them for actual storage. The mugs were produced by Beeline Creative with a large but limited run of 500 mugs per design with all designs currently still available.

The mugs ship in a gorgeous box by Tidbit Design with details about the mugs and the collection, and the mugs are tightly placed into styrofoam for safe shipment. My mug of choice was “Ship to SF” and there are ten designs to choose from. While these mugs aren’t ideal for carrying around at a party, they do feel nice and look even better.

Smuggler’s Cove did a special last month that was a two-for-one sale if you bought the “Sugar” mug. They’re now doing the same thing with the “XXX” mug, so these are much more affordable if the $70 price was a barrier to entry. Get them now before they’re gone by visiting Smuggler’s Cove or going to www.smugglerscovesf.com/store.

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Dr. Funk Valentine’s Affair

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.

Lovebird
Mad Love and Shot to the Heart
Heartbreaker
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Bamboo Room Takeover at Trader Vic’s Emeryville

The Bamboo Room by Trader Vic’s recently opened in the Esmé Hotel in Miami, positioned as a drinks-focused tropical lounge featuring original cocktails and some Trader Vic’s classics. This concept is one of Trader Vic’s Hospitality Group’s venue concepts and isn’t a tiki bar but leans towards a cozy chill nightclub vibe, often featuring jazzy live music or DJs.

On Friday, Trader Vic’s brought a little bit of Miami beach to Emeryville by setting up the Lanyu Island room as the Bamboo Room featuring mood lighting and a special cocktail and food menu. Wait service was provided and the chairs and decor were drawn from items formerly in the Trader Vic’s London location.

The four cocktails were drawn from the Bamboo Room’s original cocktails and all were very good with Date in Dubai and The Park Lane being the best overall.

  • El Polinesio with Brugal 1888 rum, Vic’s grog mix, mint syrup, and lime is served in a fab flamingo class and has fruity notes.
  • Date in Dubai with date-infused bourbon and pistachio orgeat was a delight, a rich mouthfeel thanks to aquafaba and the blend of nuttiness and fruitiness was perfect.
  • The Park Lane with Tea-charged Tanqueray, amaro, coconut, passion fruit, white chocolate leaned the closest to traditional Trader Vic’s cocktails, but the light touch of coconut and rich flavors were truly outstanding.
  • Hinky Dinks is a clarified Mai Tai with Zacapa 23, lime, orange curacao, and orgeat. We spoke with some folks who didn’t really care for this but I found that this was a good midpoint between a traditional Mai Tai and the overly silky mouthfeel of many clarified cocktails. But having a more flavorful rum than Zacapa would definitely improve this.
Hinky Dinks

We didn’t try the food options as we had dinner in the restaurant. The Bamboo Room drinks could only be ordered in the lounge so I had to carry some back to our table. The chill music made the vibe in the room truly relaxing and provided a sense of what visitors can expect in Miami.

The Park Lane
El Polinesio and Date in Dubai
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Raid the Cove Rum Night at Smuggler’s Cove

Had a great time visiting the City on a chilly Wednesday evening to participate in a special discount program at Smuggler’s Cove. “Raid the Cove” meant that all rum pours were 20% off, a sizable discount especially for some of the Cove’s legendary rare (and, yes, expensive) rums.

The event ran smoothly considering the need for staff to gather all the rare and obscure bottles from within the tight confines of the venue. The staff really worked hard to fill orders and I saw many of the Rumbustion Society members working hard to add more rums to their checklist and saw numerous bottled drained!



I took the opportunity to try Appleton Joy for the first time, finding it quite good and definitely a lot more rich and funky than some of the other longer aged Appleton rums (especially Appleton 21). I compared Joy to Appleton 15 and definitely thought it was so much better, thanks in part to this blend of rums all being aged 25 years or longer.

We also took the opportunity to order a couple of Smuggler’s Cove’s famous original cocktails. Mrs. Mai Tai had Dr. Barca’s Fluffy Banana and I had the Rongo Rongo, both so rich and full of flavor (and booze!). Thanks to Melissa for making great cocktails despite all the chaos.



This probably wasn’t the best night for newbies to visit but for experienced rum nerds who are participating in the Rumbustion Society it was quite a good night for some less expensive rum pours.