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Doc and Sam Return to Zombie Village

I’m fine with calling this the event of the year because if something else tops it I might not survive! Thursday night was a special event at Zombie Village featuring Doc Parks and Sam Miller from the opening day staff. Sam brought his SLC Ramora Bar partner Mikey Edwards and there were DJs Woody Miller, Ship Rex, and Principal Ponder. We saw so many people, some coming from Sacramento, San Jose, and Los Angeles, plus the return of former Villager Adrián Castañeda who came from Barcelona.

Doc Parks

This was billed as the last stop on the Doc Parks Encore Tour, offering an array of cocktail specials in the upstairs Voodoo Lounge that’s only occasionally open these days. We love hanging out amongst the skulls and of course Parks’ cocktails are always on point. Return of the Doc was a creamier version of the Disco Banana and the Pink Pony Club featured botanical notes and just of hint of smoky mezcal. Both of these were truly outstanding.

Mikey and Sam

Sam and Mikey were set up downstairs with standard ZV drinks available at the entrance well. When we arrived early Mrs. Mai Tai and I did our usual order of a Coco Pandan and Disco Banana, both day one cocktails and still so good. Both of us thought the Slam Wagon was a great uplift of a Painkiller template, but the Mai Tai riff called Muxu Muxi featured espellate orgeat and while I’m familiar with orgeat I wasn’t with espellate (it is a French pepper) and so the cocktail was way too spicy for me. I did enjoy the burst of orange and fruit flavors.

DJ Ship Rex

The venue was packed all evening and the rotating DJs meant there were various style of music along the way. We saw so many industry folks including people from other local tiki bars past and present. For one night only it reminded us of the glory days of 2019 at the Village. We hope this means ZV will continue do more to create mind share and that the end of Parks’ tour means he has a regular gig coming up soon.

Disco Banana
Adrián Castañeda
Muxu Muxu / Slam Wagon
Return of the Doc / Pink Pony Club
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The Fink in Napa: Saturday Night’s Alright for Cocktails

We rolled into The Fink in downtown Napa around 7:00 on Saturday, hoping to find a seat even though we knew it would be busy. Thankfully, we found a couple spots at the bar and had ourselves an amazing cocktail experience.

We must heap massive praise on The Fink crew, led by the namesake owner Judd Finkelstein who welcomed us, but even more notably our bartender Alyssa who’s hands never stopped moving and whipped up cocktail after cocktail. Manager Andrew Salazar was also on hand to check on orders and deliver drinks, plus another bartender and server. It was really busy as you’d expect and the staff was really moving.

OG Mai Tai

I’ve previously highlighted The Fink’s OG Mai Tai that is balanced and creamy thanks to their house-made Orgeat and rums from Jamaica and Martinique. It was really an amazing Mai Tai, the best so far this year, and the best in Napa at any price (IYKYK). I also tried the tiki classic Reverb Crash that was made with fresh white grapefruit juice that burst with flavor. The Fink has many tropical cocktails and in my opinion has the best tiki drinks between San Francisco and Portland.

Mrs. Mai Tai loves her coffee drinks and the New Orleans inspired Mocha Milk Punch made me a convert, including Bourbon, coffee liqueur, cocoa, milk, and topped with dalgona. This rich cocktail had everything you’re looking for including an incredible presentation and rich flavors. That was followed by an incredible New York Sour that features some tasty claret wine. With cocktail sections covering regions from Latin America to the Caribbean to a set of house classics, we remain impressed by the selection and execution at The Fink.

Mocha Milk Punch

Our night ended with a short tour of the upstairs Commodore’s Cabin, available for private parties up to 25 people and itself nicely appointed with great views of the stage on nights where there’s music.

Reverb Crash
Commodore’s Cabin
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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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Rum Curious Summit 2025

I’m really excited to share I’ll be heading down to Long Beach for the Rum Curious Summit on Memorial Day. The event is a “rum fest” with over 20 rum brands plus cocktails, where attendees can experience and learn about over 80 different expressions. This is a medium sized event where you’ll have plenty of opportunity to learn about rum and learn from the various rum producers and brands.

I’m very interested to attend the educational seminars from luminaries including Tiki: Modern Tropical Cocktails author Shannon Mustipher, Doc Parks of Zombie Village fame, and self-proclaimed Rum Champion Bryan Inman who is also organizing the event. I’ve tried a lot of rums over the past few years but I always learn something new when experts such as these are providing context to the material. I’ve attended several seminars from Mustipher and Inman and they do a great job presenting material that’s interesting to both novices and experienced spirits consumers. While I haven’t attended any seminars from Doc Parks, I’ve seen his magic from across the bar so I have high expectations. #docparksismyhomeboy

The Rum Curious Summit will be held in downtown Long Beach at Altar Society Brewing, across the street from Secret Tiki Island, and ought to be a lot of fun. Tickets are available now, but don’t delay in securing your spot as there is a limited availability. We’ll see you in Long Beach on Memorial Day.

Shannon Mustipher
Doc Parks
Bryan Inman
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Rum

Picked up this at Stuff Vintage Modern in Albany which is a multi-seller vintage store and successor of the store of the same name that previously was in San Francisco. The vendor for this item was 13 Palms Vintage who we’ve bought from before, and you can see there’s plenty of other midcentury modern items for sale. Check their profile for more cool items.

I don’t really need another rocks or Mai Tai glass, but I couldn’t skip this one featuring everyone’s favorite spirit (that’s rum, folks, duh). The glass’s mouth is wide enough for some of my larger ice cubes, which means it’ll actually come in really handy.

The rum in the glass is Holmes Cay Belize 2005, a now vintage bottle I picked up in 2021 and still have some left.

13 Palms Vintage at Stuff