Tag: ContraCostaCounty

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Premium Cocktails at Tiki Tom’s

We made an impromptu visit to Walnut Creek after drinks and dinner in Orinda hoping to catch at drink at Tiki Tom’s. We found two low seats near the end of the bar immediately and scanned the menu for something to try.

As I’m want to do, I ordered the Ultimate Mai Tai to make sure Tiki Tom’s is still making this correctly (they are) and also just because I was in the mood for a great Mai Tai. Those special funky Jamaican and Demerara rums are worth a couple bucks extra.

New to us was the Walnut Creeky Tiki, a Tiki Tom’s original featuring Ron Zacapa rum and Tanduay spiced rum, plus coconut, banana, lemon, walnut butters, and cocoa bitters. This is a really rich cocktail with a ton a flavor, but note that it’s pretty heavy and also kind of boozy (limit two per customer, as they say). This original creation is worth the premium $26 price and can function as a sharable drink for two.

We found the staff to be working well together, even after one of those drink mishaps behind the bar that happen sometimes. The music inside was also on point and we continue to enjoy the thunderstorms and festive atmosphere.

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Return to Kaia’s Tiki Bar in Danville

We returned to Danville for a family dinner and cocktails, finding Kaia’s Island Kitchen and Tiki Bar to be running smoothly and with quality service and offerings. The restaurant recently enabled a reservation system, making planned trips even easier. We also saw that the shaded outdoor patio has been expanded.

During our visit we once again enjoyed the island style food, including a delightful poke bowl that I loved. The preparation and delivery of food was very quick once again, and our server was super prompt in following up and getting us set up with a second round of cocktails.

The cocktail menu has expanded a bit since our first visit, and we found the cocktails to be overall better balanced this time as well. The Ipanema Breeze leans a little tart with cachaca, passionfruit, and falernum but is still pretty good. The standout drink for me was the Ohanapod Mai Tai, a riff on the Monkeypod Mai Tai from Hawai’i. This cocktail features Koloa coconut rum, Coruba Jamaican rum, plus honey-lilikoi foam. The coconut rum wasn’t overpowering and this Mai Tai leans sweet in a good way.

Kaia’s remains a pretty good suburban tiki option, especially if you want to include kids. They also offer a variety of merchandise including mugs and glassware that look great.

Ohanapod Mai Tai and Ipanema Breeze

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Rum Club Launches at Boo Loo Lounge

Orinda’s small but well-received tiki bar Boo Loo Lounge  is launching a rum club called the Restless Spirits Club. Similar to other venues, the club allows you to taste spirits and accumulate credit for those purchases on a checklist. The club is inspired by Boo Loo’s location inside the Orinda Theater complex, so it is a nice touch that your punch card looks like a movie ticket.

The process at Boo Loo is pretty simple and more open than some other spirit or rum clubs in that you can pick any rum on Boo Loo’s list and then they punch your ticket that stays at the bar. A list of rums will be generated periodically and you can take that home with you to track your progress or plan your next tasting. The reward system is still completing development but you’ll get coupons for discounts after 25 rums and there are plans for a wall of fame as well.

The rum list for October 2025 shows a nice variety of brands and styles, all of which are value priced lower than another local tiki bar that has a publicly available price list.

It is really nice to see this development at Boo Loo Lounge, and I am a fan of choose-your-own rum lists so I can avoid rums/style I don’t like or already tasted (or owned), allowing me to focus on things I do like or something I’ve never tried before. While nobody will confuse this with the elaborate rum clubs at Smuggler’s Cove or Forbidden Island, this does provide focus on Boo Loo’s pretty nice selection of rums and should be a gateway opportunity for casual visitors that make up a large portion of Boo Loo’s clientele.

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New Menu at Boo Loo Lounge

It’s been a few months since our last visit to Orinda’s small tiki bar, Boo Loo Lounge. Of interest on our latest visit is the new and expanded cocktail menu that launched a couple months back and the first revision since the venue opened in 2023.

The menu format takes inspiration from Boo Loo’s location in the Orinda Theater complex, laying it out like a screenplay with red editorial notes in the margins. It’s a clever way to draw in many of the patrons who are new to tiki and visiting due to the proximity of the theater or the local restaurants and shops. There are 14 cocktails plus three NA options, plus beer and wine, and is a nice mix of classics along with a few originals and some good options for tequila, gin, and whiskey drinkers.

I’d heard the Mai Tai’s rum blend was reformulated but after scanning the menu I couldn’t help but get a Donnie’s Element, a banana/coconut/coffee cocktail with spiced rum that was developed by Chris Day and served at The Kon-Tiki during Day’s tenure there. It’s a truly fantastic cocktail and am so glad to see Boo Loo Lounge serving it. Mrs. Mai Tai ordered the Voodoo Grog that surprisingly is pretty heavy on the Rhum Agricole and so not really to her liking (or mine, really), though she did love the Donnie’s Element.

Those were the only cocktails we tried on this visit, though was interested in the special Halloween menu from Kriss “Cucuy” Gonzalez that’s also movie inspired. Check it out while you can.

Boo Loo Lounge is doing a lot of things right given the confines of their small space and sleepy suburban location. We arrived on Friday well before 5:00 and had the place mostly to ourselves but by the time we left there were several parties inside and there was a lot of great energy from the crowd and surf music playlist.

IYKYK
Donnie’s Element and Voodoo Grog
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The Worlds Best Mai Tai Contest Regional Qualifier

I had a blast attending one of the regional qualifying events for the relaunched Worlds Best Mai Tai contest held last week at Tiki Tom’s. The event is relaunching after the organizers of the previous contest withdrew from organizing the event during COVID. I attended the last competition held in Kona in 2019, so this new event was of great interest.

The contest is sponsored by Myers’s rum and Bols liqueurs, a step up from when it used to be sponsored by Bacardi. As such, the event participants had to incorporate products from the sponsors, such as Bols Curacao, Myers’s Dark, and the underrated Myers’s Platinum – but weren’t limited to those product and many contestants infused ingredients and created custom rum blends. The finals for the Worlds Best Mai Tai will be held in Las Vegas at the Palms Casino on August 25 with the winner receiving $15,000.

There were several rounds during the qualifying event at Tiki Tom’s, plus a small selection of appetizers and Tiki Tom’s Mai Tais available for purchase. Though the Ultimate Mai Tai was not on the menu, the standard Mai Tai was pretty good even when served in a plastic cup. There were brand reps from Myers’s so we got to taste a selection of rums including their Signature Cask Collection (I found the Rye casks expression to be the best), plus pins and other swag.

There were a number of interesting Mai Tais made, and unlike the 2019 competition most of them actually did resemble Mai Tais. We had a soft spot for Kriss from Boo Loo Lounge who barely missed the podium by two points and finished third. The top two spots were Jenn Crider of Tiki Tom’s who did a spam-washed rum with maple orgeat, and mobile bartender Julie from Ravendark Cocktails who reacted with emotion after finishing first.

I’m really pleased to see this competition relaunching, with an even more elaborate program in line for 2026. View the recap video.

Julie
Jenn
Kriss

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Kaia’s Brings Tiki to the East Bay Suburbs

Located in downtown Danville, Kaia’s Island Kitchen & Tiki Bar recently opened serving Hawaiian inspired food and tropical cocktails in a family-friendly space filled with tiki decor. We found the food and drinks to be pretty good, along with friendly and fast service that made our stay very pleasant.

Having recently converted from a previous concept, there are still some growing pains for Kaia’s, including a website that’s under construction and no reservation method. Nonetheless, we drove up to Danville on a Saturday evening and were seated after about a 25 minute wait. The restaurant features plenty of bamboo features around the booths and tables, along with a separate bar area and nicely appointed lounge that is more dimly lit.

Our food order was delivered very quickly and I absolutely loved the tropical Cobb salad, with teriyaki chicken that was so delicious. Mrs. Mai Tai ordered the poke plate which included an elaborately carved avocado. Our server was friendly and very attentive, even with the restaurant running at capacity for the entirety of our visit. There is nice music playing though when it is really crowded you will have a hard time hearing it.

I’m pleased to report the cocktail menu includes legit classic tiki cocktails, including a Zombie, Planter’s Punch, and Navy Grog. The ’44 Mai Tai is pretty good and uses Appleton rum that is balanced and approachable for Kaia’s suburban audience. Mrs. Mai Tai’s Jet Pilot was also very good, as was our son’s Jungle Bird. Our other son had a Saturn that seemed to be a bit off balance, relying too much on gin in the mix.

Kaia’s is a legit tiki-inspired restaurant that seems to be doing many things right, including branded glassware, mugs, and apparel. We look forward to a wider variety of cocktails, as hinted on the menu.

Mai Tai
Jet Pilot
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Orinda’s Boo Loo Lounge Keeps it Going

We had a very nice visit to Boo Loo Lounge, a small tiki bar located in the sleepy bedroom community of Orinda. Visiting on Friday evening was no problem since the BART station is a four minute walk away and we avoided rush hour traffic.

There have been some management changes at Boo Loo, but I’m pleased to report that the team remains committed to high quality cocktails and great hospitality. The venue’s small size next to the Orinda Theater means that there are ebbs and flows as guests come and go, but the team worked well to take drink orders and deliver them to the tables. We were treated to a great music mix from DJ Shy Hulud  that was a blend of exotic, psychedelic, and Latin tunes.

The cocktail menu at Boo Loo hasn’t changed, which means that their Saturn, Ruby Daiquiri, and Lady of Singapore are still great. Bartender Kriss knew me from The Kon-Tiki and suggested a Mai Tai made with a rare Nha Terra Grog rum from Portugal, and this had a really interesting flavor with white wine flavor notes.

Even better was Boo Loo’s standard Mai Tai that’s made with a blend of rums and just a bit of a grassy lean from the Rhum Agricole. It’s a really good Mai Tai, highly recommended, and Boo Loo continues to have a very nice rum selection if you’re looking for something new to try.

Mai Tai