Ran into local tikiphiles Amanda and Jill, along with their friend Megan, at Dr. Funk last night for the Traditional Tiki Tuesday with DJ Ship Rex. What a hoot of an evening, thanks to Rex’s upbeat vintage tunes and plenty of great cocktails from the good doctor. Justin and crew really did a great job with the drinks and service.
The rum pictured is The Funk, a 100 proof unaged Jamaica rum. I had this a few years back and didn’t love it but it suited me better this time. Plus a Mai Tai which is only $12 all day Tuesday. Gotta love it.
The Funk on a Rock$12 Happy Hour Pricing all Day Tuesday
It has been a minute since we ventured north to Petaluma to visit their excellent tiki bar, Kapu. We really enjoyed the scene inside, including a totally fantastic music playlist that incorporated exotica (including some deep cut Don Tiki tracks), surf, 60s pop, garage, Hawaiian, and Latin. The decor remains immersive and our service was outstanding.
We went for dinner and enjoyed the food we ordered, though wish the menu was a little bit larger and had some more obvious vegetarian offerings. The Poke Bowl was very filling and can be ordered with rice, wonton chips, or both. We really liked it, as well as the Pork Lumpia that had a lot of flavor.
Being a tiki bar in a wine town, there are some cocktail nods that work well here that might turn off some purists. The presence of slushy machines could be a red flag for cocktail snobs, but Kapu’s Lava Flow was really popular during our visit. Meanwhile, the Mai Tai has plenty of flavor but since it leans a touch sweet it means it’s quite approachable. We loved the creamy Pearl Diver and spice leaning Jasper’s Punch with plenty of Jamaica rum flavor.
The staff at Kapu were super friendly and the hospitality approach was fully in view when there was a small issue with the availability of one of the menu items. They totally addressed the issue with aplomb. Kapu is a real gem and a noteworthy destination for anyone seeking a high quality tiki bar.
Congrats to San Diego’s Bali Hai Restaurant, a longtime institution located on scenic Shelter Island. The venue’s infamous Mai Tai is known to be extraordinarily potent, advertised as not being made with any juice. It’s basically rum in a glass with little splashes of traditional Mai Tai ingredients.
The 3 millionth Mai Tai was recently sold at Bali Hai, which has a ticker inside the restaurant showing how many they’ve sold. Quite a milestone for such a noteworthy entrant in the lore of the Mai Tai.
People often ask how this is made, so we present the recipe that tastes like the real thing.
Bali Hai Mai Tai ½ oz Sweet and Sour Mix (or ¼ oz Lemon Juice and ¼ oz Simple Syrup) ¼ oz Orgeat ¼ oz Triple Sec 2½ oz Cruzan Light Rum 2½ oz Coruba Dark Jamaican Rum Shake with ice
South San Francisco’s Hula Hoops recently introduced a tiki passport / cocktail checklist. This tiki bar and restaurant has been doing Hawaiian food and fine cocktails for over five years, with the quality of the cocktails being far better than you’d expect for a suburban location that’s more restaurant than bar. They started strong with a couple Doc Parks cocktails and the Buz-Tai from local luminary Buz Deadwax, along with cocktails that pair well with the food offering such as the Ube Martini.
The Tiki Passport is a checklist of 15 cocktails, including the aforementioned Buz-Tai and two other Mai Tais. Plus some tiki favorites and a few that lean creamy such as the Coco Banana. Once you complete all 15 you get a Hula Hoops branded King Kong mug that includes a basketball carrying Wahine that’s a nod to the venue’s logo. The mug is made by Tiki Farm and looks pretty nice as long as gorilla mugs are your thing. You can see a version of this mug in Hula Hoops’ tiki room where it was made into a lamp.
The Lilikoi Tai is pretty great and nicely balanced, if you like passionfruit cream topping on your Mai Tai. Certainly better than the famed Monkeypod Mai Tai since the topping at Hula Hoops is sweeter.
Hula Hoops seems to be doing very well with business since it has been busy every time I’ve visited the last couple years, especially for brunch on the weekends. Reservations are recommended.
I’m not a huge mug collector but when this one came back on sale I thought I would pick it up. This is the second mug from Doc Parks Designs and pays homage to Donn Beach and also the blowfish that lived in the tank by the front door at Park’s old haunt, Pagan Idol. That fish had a name which especially this week is no longer a fun nod, so we won’t note it here. See the photo of me with the puffer back in 2017.
The mug comes with a few Doc Parks swag items so this was a pretty good deal and quite unique. The mug was produced by the Kon-Tiki Tiki bar and sculpted and glazed by Tiki Koa in Mexico. Really good quality and it continues my desire to have mugs that tend to be smaller and more suitable for single-serve cocktails.
This mug is sold out but keep an eye on docparksdesigns.com for tshirts and future merch offerings. And then check out the dates for the Doc Parks 2024 Tour stops. We loved the Doc Park Tour stops in the past year so don’t sit on these if they come to your town.
Mrs. Mai Tai and I rolled into Dr. Funkon Monday for drinks and dinner on our way to run errands elsewhere in San Jose. The Coconut Shrimp and Chicken Skewers were prepared very well but the highlight was the excellent Dr. Funk Mai Tai that’s only $8 on Mondays.
As with Dr. Funk’s Happy Hour menu, the Mai Tai is not a sub-par version even when priced at $8. It’s the standard version that uses Appleton 12 and Smith & Cross rums from Jamaica and is quite delicious. One of the best Mai Tais I’ve had so far this year and the best value by a mile.
The turnover of bartenders here seems to have stabilized and the quality of the cocktails seems to be back where they should be again. Music on Monday was peppy but still a mix of exotica, surf, and other retro genres, meaning that Dr. Funk maintains their tiki bar aesthetic and hasn’t ventured into nightclub territory.
The Kon-Tiki Oakland has really been killing it with their special menu cocktails, including last Wednesday when Carlos and Kriss put together a special menu themed to Fallout. This franchise was new to me, but from I hear is very popular. There was a special menu for the night and even a few costumes that I’m sure made sense to viewers of the show or video game. Putting “East Bay” and “Wasteland” on the cover was appropriately pointed.
The Glowing One cocktail was a Zombie variant including irradiated melon, pineapple, citrus, honey, spices, and plenty of absinthe. This was absolutely fantastic, even with a heavy pour of absinthe that sometimes makes the flavors unbalanced. More than okay, this really made the drink.
Congrats to the Kon-Tiki team for continuing to try new things and most importantly to keep the quality of the exotic cocktails high. Keep checking their socials for upcoming special events.
