Tag: DiscoBanana

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DJ Ship Rex at Zombie Village

We’re sending healing thoughts to our buddy DJ Ship Rex who is recovering from hip surgery. Rex’s latest gig was at Zombie Village last week, so a few of us went up to San Francisco on a weeknight to listen to some amazing music and wish our friend a speedy recovery. We arrived a bit before Rex’s set started and were seated in one of Zombie Village’s huts but we knew when we heard energetic retro music that Rex’s set had started. So many great tunes, including “Found a Child” by Ballin’ Jack which features the guitar riff sampled in Young MC’s “Bust a Move,” and Rex’s sets always mix up various genres and styles but still feels cohesive.

Our cocktails at Zombie Village were pretty good, meeting our high expectations. Brian and crew really did a great job, including a really great individually-sized Scorpion that was orange-forward with some flavorful spirits. Mrs Mai Tai’s Disco Banana was outstanding, and I really enjoyed the Jungle Bird Milk Punch (J.B.M.P.) once again. Our son Quinn has dug a few Grog cocktails, so Zombie’s still-excellent Doc’s Grog was very well received. Quinn and I both felt the Mai Tai was lacking a certain rummyness, but Mrs. Mai Tai really loved the curry spices in the Curry’d Favor. Overall a very good hit rate during our visit.

Sorbet shooters have been a thing at Zombie Village for a while and the Lava Flow Sorbet Shooter continues the tradition with aplomb. The strawberry flavors of the shooter were an excellent pair for the delicious sorbet. These are great and a unique option for this venue, so look for it on your next visit. We also have to provide a hearty mahalo to Brian and the team who handled a drink mishap really well.

Zombie Village was hopping on Thursday, thanks to some great cocktails, an energetic crowd, and DJ Ship Rex’s toe-tapping tunes. We hope that Rex is on the road to recovery and that he will be back behind the deck in the near future.

Disco Banana
Curry’d Favor
Scorpion
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Incognito Mode at Zombie Village

Our planned couples night had dinner at China Live and then drinks at Starlite, so I dressed for those locations. But as things often work out in San Francisco, we soon found ourselves at a tiki bar since Zombie Village is just a short walk from Union Square. The village was medium full and we found seats at the bar since there was a large, loud group in the ice cave.

In addition to the previously discussed Pumpkin Spice Colada shot, I made sure to get my all time favorite in this venue – the Disco Banana. The villagers are still making this the way it should with a special blend of funky rums, banana liqueur, and a real banana – blended. It has an anchored location on my tiki cocktail Mount Rushmore list. Meanwhile Mrs. Mai Tai had her favorite, the Coco Pandan that features an ube popsicle.

Disco Banana

The large group in the ice cave were playing some sort of game and literally twelve of them were huddled around the small table, so I never really go to see what it was that they were doing to make such a racket. And look, it’s Friday night and there’s nothing wrong with blowing off some steam. But you need to pick your venue accordingly and when you enter a darkly lit tiki bar playing vintage Les Baxter and Martin Denny exotica music, well, that’s not the place to be hollering nonstop. San Francisco has better tiki bars for that, such as Bamboo Hut, Tiki Haven, or Trad’r Sam. We left annoyed.

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Is Zombie Village Making a Comeback?

After a round of cocktails at Smuggler’s Cove we Lyfted over to Zombie Village for more cocktails and to soak in the atmosphere Saturday night. In some past visits over the last couple years the venue hasn’t been that busy even on Saturdays, but we were pleasantly surprised to see that the space was very well attended this week including a large group that seemed to be holding some sort of convention over in the ice cave area. This was Maggie’s first visit and the huge tikis and special effects do continue to amaze guests.

The cocktail menu continues to have a nice selection of cocktails, almost all of which are from the venue’s launch in 2018 (thank you Doc Parks and crew!). We started with our two favorites: a Disco Banana for me and a Coco Pandan for Mrs. Mai Tai. Both were well-prepared, especially the Disco Banana that was frozen and had a great texture. I followed that up with a delicious and fassionola-forward Village Punch that still uses a fragrant gardenia as a garnish.

There were still a few of the amazing Woody Miller mugs for sale, one of which Joe snapped up to take home. There was a great energy and cool music at Zombie Village during our visit, and it was also so nice to see Carlos Jimenez (ex-Kon-Tiki) behind the bar as a new Villager. Things are looking up for this wonderful tropical oasis in San Francisco.

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Disco Banana Dip

It isn’t just a fabulous cocktail, one of our favorites. It comes with a Banana Chip and you can use the cocktail as a dip!

Our drinks on Saturday at Zombie Village were just as great as we’ve come to expect, including that blended Disco Banana with cinnamon and potent rums. The place was medium busy around 9:30 and in addition to the Disco Banana Mrs. Mai Tai also had the Coco Pandan that comes with an ube popsicle.

Meanwhile, I tried the Over the Garden Wall from the seasonal cocktail menu. This has Indonesian rum, elderflower, absinthe, coconut, citrus, and spice. I will say this leaned very close to being too spicy hot for me, but overall I liked the complex flavors. It was pretty good, but I should have ordered the Disco Banana.

Disco Banana and Over the Garden Wall
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Disco Banana Article in Exotica Moderne

The new issue of Exotica Moderne arrived, with my article about the Disco Banana cocktail by Jeanie Grant.  Haven’t heard of this amazing cocktail? That’s why I wrote the article! It is one of my all-time favorites.

The article includes Jeanie’s original sketch for the cocktail, so check out the article to learn more about how this cocktail got its name. Thanks to Jeanie for telling me the origin story!

The typo in the captions for the two photos came from me. Minor dyslexia.

Copies of Exotica Moderne are on sale at House of Tabu, so be sure to order the issue now before it sells out.

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The Kon-Tiki Holiday Bazaar

One of the aspects of The Kon-Tiki that I made sure to include in my recent Exotica Moderne article about the bar was their participation in community events and partnerships with businesses and organizations in Oakland.

Such was today’s Holiday Bazaar. Several local vendors were set up inside and there was a small holiday cocktail menu and burgers available from the bar. Not really tiki, except for Woody Miller.  I bought the lovely green glass tree from Arcadian Stained Glass and some goodies from The Disco Greenhouse. And I bought some rum from the Kon-Tiki Bottle Shop.

The cocktail menu was quite festive, including a drink riffing on the bar’s Krampus themed decor. I sampled the tasty Disco Banana riff “Bad Banana” that dialed back the cocktail’s harder funky notes in favor of a fruitier blend that likely played better with the non-tiki crowd.

Cheers to the Kon-Tiki crew for putting together a great community event.

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Perfect Disco Banana at Home

Finally cracked it. After numerous attempts at making the beloved Disco Banana at home, I finally made one that compares at least a tiny bit to the cocktail made fresh at Zombie Village or The Kon-Tiki Room.

The secret?

I got a tip from the drink’s creator Jeanie Grant to freeze the crushed ice, and use more than you’d typically use due to the higher proof rum. And sure enough, the crushed ice that was left in the freezer was certainly dryer than ice directly from the ice crusher.

Disco Banana by Jeanie Grant
⅓ Banana
¾ oz Lime Juice
¾ oz Cinnamon Syrup
¼ oz Demerara Syrup
¼ oz Creme de Banana
¾ oz Unaged Agricole Rhum
¾ oz Unaged Jamaican Overproof Rum
Blend with ice
Garnish with grated cinnamon and a banana chip