While attending brunch we saw that Hula Hoops has a couple seasonal offerings and the Witches Brew was recommended. The ingredients are black rum, citrus, and charcoal syrup meaning this leans tart but overall pleasant. It’s served in a little cauldron and contains a little dry ice inside a metal tea bag, so it bubbles ever so subtly as you drink it!
The presentation is pretty interesting and the hanging witches hats throughout the venue make for fun photos. Check it out in South San Francisco while you still can.
Many bars are celebrating Halloween with a specialty cocktail menu and decor, but few have as many interesting cocktail options as Strong Water in Anaheim, no surprise since they already have a stellar reputation for consistent quality. The Halloween menu is a series of nicely designed tarot cards that are also available for purchase.
My first cocktail was the Black Magick, a nod to the Mai Kai’s famous Black Magic, made with Jamaican rum, blackstrap rum, cinnamon, honey, grapefruit, lime, espresso, and bitters. Cruzan’s Blackstrap rum is not my favorite due to its weird maple syrup flavor, and you can taste it in this cocktail – but just a hint. This is a pretty good cocktail and not as coffee forward as some drinks, more of a coffee leaning grog.
Even better for me was the Dead to Port, featuring bourbon, Jamaican rum, and spiced cranberry. The wonderful blend of flavors were highlighted by the cranberry, making this seasonally appropriate and really delicious. Mrs. Mai Tai tried the Devil’s Corn, which reads as a Painkiller with candy corn syrup, but somehow manages to not be sickly sweet and is balanced well. Also delicious, with a fun presentation.
The interior of the bar has some spooky elements but this is a restrained overlay. We made a reservation for Saturday with a large group celebrating a birthday, and I had the pleasure of sitting the Beachbum Berry booth. Strong Water’s food and cocktails remain consistently great, and this Halloween menu is no exception.
We had free time on Saturday and Bamboo Club was already on our short-list but after seeing that the Hardcore Tiki Marketplace was happening we made sure to visit for lunch and some shopping. It is a nice vibe for the marketplace, including a DJ and about 15 vendors, and is set up on the first Saturday of the month. I ended up purchasing a small PNG mask and a Tiki Tolteca mug.
Nightmare in Anaheim Street
Bamboo Club is decorated for Halloween under the moniker Tremble Club and we felt the overall aesthetic was pretty good. The immersive feeling is best if you’re seated in the booths like we were, though the decor on the patio is pretty nice as well.
There’s also a special cocktail menu and I really enjoyed the Nightmare on Anaheim Street, a nod to the horror classic and Bamboo Club’s street address, which is a whiskey sour with amaro and Campari. Our cocktails were balanced very well and I also had burger that was fantastic.
Dr. Funk did a Beetlejuice overlay last October and the tiki bar is back with a new theme this year: Killer Klowns from Outer Space. If you’re not familiar, this is based on the “cult classic” film from 1988 – and there are few things scarier than aliens that resemble clowns! The decorating committee certainly did a fantastic job, including a circus themed light display outside, plus decorated booths, giant mutant popcorn kernels, and a few Killer Klown figures.
There’s a special menu available including a deep fried Twinkie that I wanted to hate but I can’t lie – it’s amazing. There are also four speciality cocktails:
Peanut Gallery – if you’re looking for something that’s more traditional for a tiki bar, this is the item to choose. It has a balanced approach including rum you can taste plus banana flavors from the liqueur and the “circus peanut elixir.” This was my favorite, though regular readers know I’m a nut for circus peanut flavor.
Peanut Gallery
Chubby’s Fix – this clarified cocktail has mild rum flavors and a bright blue passionfruit float. It tastes great and the foam sort of melted into the cocktail to make the whole thing blue, making this another standout.
Chubby’s Fix
Cotton Candy Cocoon – Coconut leaning and not particularly spirit-forward, and very heavy on the matcha-pandan milk syrup. Mrs. Mai Tai likes pandan and appreciated it much more than I did.
Cotton Candy Cocoon
Human Puppet – a lighter cocktail featuring Cocchi Americano, so a wine-forward taste, and includes a flashing cube inside. Again, not very rummy.
Human Puppet
Dr. Funk is getting pretty good at the pop-up/overlay thing and Killer Klowns is no exception. The theme is interesting and unique, something to seek out this month in downtown San Jose.
Our SoCal trip continued with another visit to the horror-themed bar The Cauldron near our Knott’s Berry Farm Hotel, with an offer of a discount if you come costumed as witches or vampires. They don’t offer reservations for large groups but Brenda booked the secret room for our larger group. It would be perfect for sacrificial ceremonies but we stuck to appetizers and cocktails.
The Cauldron definitely puts an effort into making interesting drinks, even if their rum selection leans sweet. I ended up going with the Devil’s Margarita that has a float of red wine that looked great and tasted quite amazing. The staff were even able to make a cherry-leaning cocktail that David tried on an earlier trip, and generally we found the cocktail game to be pretty good here.
Inside, the spooky vibe was in full effect thanks the every day decor and also to other groups getting the memo on the dress code – lots of witches or just people in pumpkin gear.
The Fat Pigeon seems to be the Tri-Valley’s go-to venue for cocktail pop-ups, previously hosting Miracle at Christmas, Golden Girls, and Alice in Wonderland themes previously. Since spooky season is upon us, there’re now running a Halloween theme.
The setup includes a special cocktail menu including low ABV and mocktail options, plus fun and fairly elaborate decor. There are no special costumes or wildly immersive soundscapes, though, just fun drinks in a welcoming venue.
I enjoyed the 13 Stabs Later, a refreshing drink with soda and blood orange apéritif that leans fruity. Meanwhile, Mrs. Mai Tai tried the Offering which is a clarified drink including bourbon and pumpkin spices. It’s served with a Biscoff cookie which you’re supposed to take a bite of before taking a sip.
13 Stabs Later
The highlight for us was the Spooky Tini Flight, with an okay Espresso Martini but amazing Bad Apple and Pumpkin Spice variants. The little tiny martini glasses are a fun delivery method and we enjoyed rotating the display to get to our favorite item.
Spooky Tini Flight
As pop-ups go, Fat Pigeon seems to have the format and execution locked in. The atmosphere is fun and the quality cocktails offer something for nearly everyone.
Still catching up on somewhat old news, but I didn’t want to skip highlighting the fabulous tiki takeover weekend at California Gold in downtown San Rafael. This was appended to the weekend after Halloween and was a tiki/horror theme with a special menu of exotic cocktails. The overall decor was a pretty nice overlay on the “history of California” theme that California Gold already has and which I enjoy.
We’ve always had great experiences with the cocktails here, and their rum collection shows they know and appreciate our particular favorite cocktail genre. The takeover featured a number of classics but also recently created tropical tipples mostly from California Gold’s Isaac Shumway. The Mai Tai features a nine-rum blend. Not two or three or four, but nine! The flavorful blend was full of flavor and one of the best of the year for me.
We hear California Gold is considering doing this menu occasionally starting in 2025, so keep an eye out and make plans to visit San Rafael’s charming downtown.
