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Pau Hana Studio Open House in the Oakland Hills

We had a grand time yesterday for the first of two open house events for the new Pau Hana Studio in the Oakland Hills.

The project is the brainchild of Laura and Woody Miller and the venue serves as a production studio for Woody’s burgeoning mug and tiki art business. Pau Hana will also host arts and crafts classes on various topics including ceramics, mugs, plant hangers, and tiki lamps. The space includes warm accent touches, skylights, and a wonderfully colorful tropical pattern on the back wall. Some of Woody’s lamps and other art from the defunct Kon-Tiki Room at Palmetto are present to make the space inviting and also providing a showcase for Woody’s diverse portfolio of projects.

Pau Hana includes a great deal of storage for Woody’s various tiki mug projects. We saw mugs in various stages of production including the fabulous event mug for the Sacramento Ohana Home Bar Tour event, and another one that this author thinks is even better and set to debut at a San Francisco tiki bar in the near future. Stay tuned… There’s also storage for wood and other materials.

The registration for some upcoming classes are sold out, but look for more classes to be announced soon. Pau Hana will be hosting another open house on Saturday August 17 from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, 11144 Golf Links Rd, Oakland, CA.

Woody and Laura Miller
Mrs. Mai Tai made this with stamps
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San Diego’s Mothership is a Tiki Bar Turned Sci-Fi

We missed Mothership on our last trip to San Diego so we made sure to snag a reservation when their 30 day window opened. This immersive bar draws from Science Fiction and presents the concept of a crashed space ship on an alien planet. The concept is the space counterpart to “crashed ship” tiki bars: a little bit of metal and glass, plus a little bit of rocks and strange alien plants. All with haunting and electronic music as the background.

None of that immersion would be worth the hype without good food and drink options. Mothership has a few small bites, including some soft-serve ice cream options. Each has an interesting flavor twist, such as Ube, which we thought help reinforce the concept of exotic flavors. There’s also a nice selection of non-alcoholic cocktails.

Heliotropic and Homing Beacon Cocktails

On the cocktail menu, everything is space themed and there is a booziness scale. So, the Saturn is represented in classic form as a lighter option. The Mindkiller takes obvious nods from a Painkiller but includes Tangerine, Amaro, and a Tang cordial. The Heliotropic is the very good Mai Tai riff, including tangy Kumquat, Piloncillo Orgeat, and Mole bitters. We really liked the cocktails here, but our favorite was Star Raider with rums, Crème de Cassis, Crème de Banana, Cynar, and a raspberry grenadine. So fruity with complex flavors.

Reservations are nearly essential for Mothership, though there’s a standing room area across from the bar that might allow for last minute entry. Our service was super friendly and efficient at providing multiple rounds during our 90 minute reservation. They even offered to split the check three ways for our part of five. The outside of Mothership looks like yet another Mission Style building but inside there’s so much more.

Star Raider
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The Penultimate Mai Tai

Derek from the Make & Drink YouTube channel asked me to come up with a two-rum Mai Tai as simpler version of our four-rum Ultimate Mai Tai. This was actually harder than you’d think, and I decided that using Appleton 12 and Smith & Cross from the Ultimate Mai Tai blend was sort of a cop out (though those two rums are fabulous in a Mai Tai). I ended up going with some newer rum expressions that are among my favorites.

The Penultimate Mai Tai by Kevin Crossman
1 oz Lime Juice
½ oz Latitude 29 Orgeat
¼ oz Demerara Syrup
½ oz Quality Orange Curacao
1½ oz Worthy Park 109 Jamaica Rum
½ oz Kuleana Rum Works Hawaiian Rum Agricole
Shake with ice and garnish with lime and mint.

The Worthy Park is a boozy and flavorful dark rum, similar in style to the punch rums from the 1950s. There is a little bit of the “funk” common to many Jamaica rums but there’s also a charred backbone as well. This rum is becoming more widely available and there’s literally nothing like it on the market today. Subbing an 80 proof dark Jamaica rum like Coruba or Myers’s isn’t going to provide the same results.

There’s a tradition of using Rhum Agricole in Mai Tais, so I thought I’d include a cane juice-based rum. My favorite in this style are the cane rums from Hawaii, which aren’t as grassy as those from Martinique but also have more flavor than some of the delicate Cachacas from Brazil. If you can’t find Kuleana or KōHana, then Copalli from Belize is a good sub.

Thanks to Derek for having me back on the channel to talk about Mai Tais once again. Look for a super interesting collaboration coming soon.

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Mai Tai Trivia at The Kon-Tiki, August 21

Kick off Mai Tai anniversary weekend with the ultimate Mai Tai Trivia challenge coming to The Kon-Tiki Oakland on Wednesday August 21 at 7 pm. Mark your calendars and join us for Mai Tai and Tiki Bar trivia, plus drink specials and prizes. Work as an individual or team to win bragging rights for life as the winners of the first and maybe only Mai Tai Trivia night.

Mai Tai Trivia is hosted by Kevin Crossman from Search for the Ultimate Mai Tai and Derek from Make & Drink YouTube.

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Trader Vic’s Outpost Updates

Some things remain great at the Trader Vic’s San Jose Airport location, including the continued availability of To-Go Cocktails including the Original Mai Tai. That was a great way to kick off our travels to San Diego for Tiki Oasis. Staff here remain super friendly, though their ability to guess my cocktail choice might have had something to do with the shirt I was wearing and not clairvoyance.

Trader Vic’s Hospitality Group’s corporate site labels this location as a Trader Vic’s Outpost, same as the Oakland Airport location that continues to be confirmed as coming soon. These Outpost locations are intended for airports and lobbies, an obviously less immersive location that nonetheless offers travelers a great option to experience Trader Vic’s culinary and cocktail legacy; it’s a great marketing opportunity as well.

At San Jose, the restaurant and bar sits opposite a grab and go location that sells salads, canned drinks, and Trader Vic’s mugs and merch. In the past, the Trader Vic’s Canned Mai Tai was available here, but I confirmed that unfortunately the product is no longer being produced. A variety of beers and RTD cocktails are available here instead, notably not including a Mai Tai from On the Rocks or Cutwater for obvious reasons.

The Outpost Grab and Go location now includes some pretty nice looking bowls that are on-par with the restaurant across the way, plus some Salmon and Short Rib plates that look delicious. This is a big improvement in terms of the grab and go items.

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Frozen Mai Tai at Tommy Bahama Marlin Bar

The bad thing about the Search for the Ultimate Mai Tai is that you sometimes have to take one of the team and try a cocktail that isn’t the best. Sometimes they’re the very worst. But sometimes these expected bad Mai Tais aren’t bad at all, in fact they’re great.

Such was the case at the Tommy Bahama Marlin Bar at the Fashion Valley Mall in San Diego. This bar and restaurant is attached outside to the Tommy Bahama clothing store and the mall is right behind the hotel where we’re staying for Tiki Oasis. “Why not, I’m on vacation” was the concept for ordering the Frozen Mai Tai and this cocktail was a total delight. Really good flavors that actually resembled a Mai Tai along with plenty of Trader Vic’s Dark rum meant this was plenty boozy and totally satisfying.

For lunch I did the Poke Bowl and this too was quite good with plenty of ingredients and complex but approachable flavors. The lunch was so good we made a second visit on the trip and found the results to just as great.

I didn’t have “Top 20 Mai Tai of the year” on my bingo card, but the Tommy Bahama Frozen Mai Tai is now in the running.