Category: Tiki Bar

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Oakhana Summer Swizzle Silent Auction – Opens Friday, Register Now

A small charity focused tiki bar crawl is happening on Saturday, organized by the Oakland-based Tiki Ohana – the Oakhana. This two bar crawl has limited capacity and tickets are sold out, but even if you’re not attending you can get into the action by participating in the silent auction. There are some great items available, with proceeds going to Stephen and Ayesha Curry’s Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation.

In addition to tiki mugs, gift cards, books, and fashion items, there are a couple experiences available. I’m pleased to include an Ultimate Mai Tai Happy Hour at Jeff Hall’s Dragon’s Den home tiki bar in Oakland.

Ultimate Mai Tai Happy Hour:
3 hours, from 4-8 attendees

Taste three different Mai Tais to appreciate how different rums and other ingredients can help you develop your own personal ultimate Mai Tai. The Mai Tai was born with a long-aged rum from Jamaica, and Kevin will be bringing some rare and potent rums to demonstrate the variability when using different rum styles.

Depending on who wins the auction, we can customize the rums being brought and definitely will prepare something awesome for the attendees.

The registration for the silent auction is now available, with bidding starting on Friday at Noon Pacific time and closing Saturday August 19 at 7:30 pm Pacific.

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Tiki Tom’s Pre-Dinner Apps and Cocktails

Had a great time over at Tiki Tom’s for some pre-dinner cocktails and appetizers on Saturday. They only serve you in the bar if you’re just having drinks, so we ordered some appetizers to justify a table seating.

Drinks were well done, consistent with our recent visits. I made sure to check on the quality control of the Ultimate Mai Tai and can confirm they’re still making this very well (not sure about the offer of a rum float, though…). And our two guests thought their Ultimate Mai Tais were really great.

Mrs. Mai Tai ordered her favorite, the Ohana Punch, still really great featuring green apple and walnut. She also had the Pineapple Whip with dark rum – so wonderful when you mix the rum in with the dairy desert.

Our friends went with a couple Tiki Tom’s favorites, the Blowfish Intoxica and the Song of the Siren. Two very good options for those who haven’t been to Tiki Tom’s before. They really enjoyed Tiki Tom’s amazing decor.

We enjoyed the apps, including the Tiki Spamsubi and Prawn Skewers, and our service was super prompt and friendly. As is common on our last few visits, the waitress did a good job making sure that orders with specific ingredients would be okay for the guests. Tiki Tom’s doesn’t take reservations on Fri/Sat and there were plenty of people there but the tables turned over quick enough that no guests seemed to need to wait long.

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Heather and Tim Complete the Kon-Tiki Rum Expedition

Congratulations to Heather and Tim for completing the 100 rum list as part of the Kon-Tiki Expedition. The ceremony Wednesday included a special menu of Heather and Tim’s favorite cocktails, plus cheering as they banged the gong to celebrate.

The Kon-Tiki was really buzzing in downtown Oakland on Wednesday. The place was quite full, though the service staff and bartenders were doing a great job getting drink and food orders filled in a timely fashion. The Kon-Tiki’s world’s best cheeseburger was in amazing tip top form, and we tried the very intriguing new desert item Vino Pears a la Mode. This is wine-soaked pears served with vanilla ice cream and this was truly interesting and delicious.

We must call out the excellent musical playlist from Kon-Tiki’s @not_carlos. The playlist featured a variety of mostly instrumental songs that leaned in a soul and afrobeat direction. This felt retro (even though some songs are very recent) and groovy, and since they were instrumental this still felt appropriate for a tiki bar.

Kon-Tiki Burger
Special Menu
Vino Pears a la Mode
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National Daiquiri Day at The Kon-Tiki

I’m doing Kon-Tiki’s Rum Expedition list of 100 rums again, and decided to Daiq it up last night for National Daiquiri Day.

I tried three rums in this format, all light/clear and I believe all unaged.

Copalli White – this pot/column blend from Belize is made from sugar cane juice but is very approachable. Not as much character in this one compared to the other two, but it is very serviceable in this format.

Père Labat Blanc 59 – a high proof rhum had more oomph and the traditional Martinique grassy notes were somewhat tempered in this format. I liked this, not just for the 59% ABV but because of the terroir of the island of origin.

KōHana Hawaiian Agricole Rum KEA – by far by favorite from this list. I absolutely love Kea for the savory qualities, even at only 40% ABV. Not grassy like the Martinique, instead this flavor bomb had a really lovely and long finish in the daiquiri.

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Atomik Tiki Lounge Luau and Grog Contest

We had a great time on a warm Saturday attending the annual luau at the Atomic Tiki Lounge. Big thanks to hosts Chad and Jenny who opened their home, backyard, patio, and rum collection to the party attendees. Their tiki bar is comfy and covered wall to wall with fab artwork, and the patio outside is covered and comfortable as well.

There’s a cocktail contest each year that Chad organizes. Last time I attended it was a Mai Tai contest and I came in second to a really awesome Mai Tai and this year’s fiesta was a Grog contest. I’m pleased to report that my Turkey Grog was the winning entry, and I won a bottle of Amrut Two Indies rum from India. These contests are a lot of fun and I tasted some of the other entries and they were all worthy of consideration with strong merits.

Photo credit: Josephine Bjellqvist

Turkey Grog by Kevin Crossman
¾ oz Lime Juice
½ oz Ruby Grapefruit Juice
½ oz Honey Syrup (1:1)
½ oz Velvet Falernum
½ oz Don’s Spices #2
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
¾ oz Smith & Cross Jamaican Rum
1½ oz Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon
Shake with ice, garnish with mint. Serve in glass of choice.

Don’s Spices #2: Equal parts Vanilla Syrup and Pimento Dram/Allspice Liqueur.
If you have non-alcoholic Falernum syrup then drop the amount to ¼ oz.

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Kon-Tiki Oakland Mid-2023

Had a great time at The Kon-Tiki Oakland on Wednesday. I’m still off dairy for the time-being so I ordered the Kon-Tiki Burger sans-cheese. Definitely still very good, but clearly not as awesome without cheese. Service tonight was really great.

Kon-Tiki is in between major menu changes, so the current menu is via a paper menu with about ⅔ of the cocktails from the last published menu. I did order the premium Golden Gong which I found to be rich and complex, consistent with previous orders.

I also ordered a Mai Tai made with Paranubes Aguardiente de Caña, a rum from Oaxaca, Mexico. This sugarcane juice-based spirit is quite flavorful and savory, not unlike some of the Clairins I’ve enjoyed from Haiti. Not grassy at all. Combined with the Kon-Tiki’s excellent base Mai Tai ingredients, this was an awesome Mai Tai.

Mai Tai with Paranubes
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Laki Kane: London’s Most Cohesive Tiki Bar

Everyone said to be sure to check out Islington’s Laki Kane, so we made sure to make a reservation and brave rush hour on the Underground to get there. We arrived a few minutes early and staff saw we were dressed up in tiki attire so they let us in a couple minutes early.

Laki Kane is a tiki-leaning tropical cocktail bar that also has a good Thai food menu. There are a few tikis inside, with the music being mellow Afro beats. Staff can be summoned via the button on the table, though our sever was right on top of everything so we never had to use it. We were given welcome drinks that were absolutely fantastic and then we were off to the races.

My Mai Tai was quite assertive, using Appleton 12 and Plantation OFTD rums. I’d have liked this to be a little richer/sweeter, but it was by no means bad. I had a Purple Haze for a second round, featuring three rums including La Hechicera Columbian rum, Clément Canne Bleue, and Equiano Light rums, plus kiwi, dragon fruit, grapefruit liqueur, and orange juice. The small flowers used as a garnish were lit on fire to smoke a bit, adding to the texture. This was a really good drink.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Mai Tai had the Pinup Zombie, a formidable riff that includes Bacardi Cuatro, Plantation Isle of Fiji, Pusser’s Gunpowder proof, cherry and mountain pine liqueurs,  exotic syrups, falernum liqueur, and citrus. Served flaming in a very cool pinup mug. This was a truly outstanding tropical cocktail. Her second drink was a clarified cocktail from a special menu that also was rich, complex, and delicious.

Our Thai food was outstanding. I loved the pork dumplings and we both had the Sweet and Sour plate (mine: chicken, hers: tofu). Really great combination.

Laki Kane does put many pieces together for fans seeking a tiki experience in London. Highly recommended.

Welcome Cocktail
Mai Tai
Sweet & Sour Chicken, plus Pork Dumplings
Purple Haze