After all the rum lists I’ve completed over the years I have to applaud my wife Julie for giving the rum list thing a shot with the Level I of the Rum Asylum list at Dr. Funk. This curated list of twenty mainstream rums covers a variety of styles and countries of origin and is a fantastic introduction to rum. Even better for folks like Julie who aren’t used to drinking spirits neat, Dr. Funk allows participants try to the rums in Daiquiri format. Pusser’s was the last rum and Julie said the Xaymaca Daiquiri was her favorite.
After completing the list, Justin walked her through the materials for Level II, she took a little rum pledge, received her completion pin, and then got to ring the bell. A soon-to-be bride sitting nearby was so inspired by the ceremony that she jumped up and threw a flower lei over Julie’s head. Ringing the bell *and* getting lei’d, it was quite a night.
Dr. Funk is hosting a Rum Asylum meetup on June 22, which Julie will be attending. I’m not sure how far she’ll get on the level II, but completing the first level is still a great accomplishment. Congrats.
San Francisco’s Zombie Village launched their first major menu refresh since they opened in 2018, offering several new cocktails and also adding in some classics such as the Port Light and Three Dots & a Dash. Thankfully, our favorite Zombie Village favorites including the Disco Banana, Coco Pandan, and Doc’s Grog remain on the menu.
Many of the new cocktails include coconut, including the creamy Catamaran that features pisco, Jamaica rum, and apricot. This cocktail isn’t too sweet and is supposedly inspired by the Tradewinds cocktail, but the apricot is more in the background. We also liked Over the Garden Wall that has rum, elderflower, coconut, and absinthe – again very balanced and not too heavy on the absinthe or coconut.
Over the Garden Wall
Our favorite new menu item was the Beach Hopper, with rum, cacao, mint, and coconut – this isn’t your grandfather’s Grasshopper but it’ll give you a lot of those same vibes. The balance for drink like this can be tricky and Zombie Village has it dialed in perfectly. We were impressed by the new menu that features 17 cocktails and seems to have a little bit of something for everyone, including cocktails based on bourbon, tequila, and mezcal plus a few well-known tiki favorites including the Mai Tai and Painkiller.
The new menu includes interior illustrations by Tony Canepa and is available for purchase. The menu launched on Wednesday with a low-key launch party that included a DJ set by Woody Miller who is also one of the artists who contributed to the venue. We think this is a great step forward for Zombie Village which previously had been resting on the laurels of the original cocktail menu and hopefully sets the place up for a fresh round of tropical cocktail converts.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The purpose of our trip to SoCal was largely to attend the inaugural Rum Curious Summit in Long Beach, the brainchild of self-proclaimed Rum Champion Bryan Inman along with partners Ari Ralston and Shane Conrad. The event was held in the event space at Altar Society Brewing in downtown and was a massive success with over 500 attendees and dozens of rum producers and brands.
A main floor included rum tastings with over 100 expressions of rum, plus many tables offered the rum in a cocktail format. We were particularly impressed by the Pearl Diver from House of Bamboo’s Shelley Bowers in partnership with Tanduay rum who also filled up a goodie bag for VIP ticket holders.
Among the noteworthy rums, Holmes Cay is an independent bottler and always has interesting and rare expressions, Privateer had some rums that were new to me, and new independent bottler Mainland Rum showed off their range of cask strength releases from a wide array of American distillers.
Upstairs from the main floor there were several seminars available to attendees, including an interesting and thought provoking session about tiki by Doc Parks and a fab introduction to rum from Bryan Inman who demonstrated the diversity of rum with five tasting samples and some facts about production.
As a brand new event there were a few growing pains, including a check in system that was over-engineered. But by and large there were very few issues that weren’t directly related to the popularity of the event – a good problem – and we’d be remiss without acknowledging the exemplary work of the staff and volunteers to help guests make the most of their experience. It sounds like there are plans to expand Rum Curious Summits to other cities and if so it will be something to watch closely. Cheers.
