This is a very serviceable Mai Tai that would be a pretty good destination if not for the fact that it is four doors down from Dr. Funk on San Pedro Square in downtown San Jose.
Trader Bob’s Mai Tai features the excellent Smith & Cross Jamaica rum, but whereas Dr. Funk pairs Smith & Cross with Appleton 12 year, District pairs it with the underwhelming Planteray Original Dark. So, this is just an okay rum blend. The lightly garnished cocktail also features homemade Orgeat plus Falernum, though I thankfully didn’t get a ton of spice notes that you sometimes get from Falernum. Overall, the flavor profile leans light and something a bit more than mild, and it is well balanced.
District seems to have a lot of focus on wine but also has a nice cocktail menu including this 1944 style Mai Tai. It is another quality destination in downtown San Jose.
Monday was a good night out in downtown San Jose, with Dr. Funk hosting Risky Quizness doing Friends trivia. This is Mrs. Mai Tai’s favorite show, and I expected her to a lot better than when we went to Office trivia and I didn’t really do very well (reminder: I used to cohost an Office podcast!). Unfortunately, the questions posted were, well, let’s just call them deep cuts and we didn’t do much better this time. Considering the level of difficulty, we’re not sure we’ll do more of these trivia events.
Nonetheless we did have a good time, thanks to more rums from the Dr. Funk Rum Asylum Level 1 list. As with my previous post about choosing a trio of easy sippers, this time I went thematic again with three white rums that show how diverse unaged rums can be.
The three rums are:
Wray & Nephew White Overproof Jamaica Rum
Kō Hana Kea from O’ahu
Rhum JM Agricole Blanc from Martinique
What a fabulous way to show how diverse rum can be with these three unaged rums. The Wray & Nephew is made from molasses and is a flavorful high-proof fruit bomb, whereas the Rhum JM is made from sugar cane juice and features grassy and vegetal notes. My favorite in this group was the very pleasant and mild Kō Hana Kea that has balanced flavors from the Hawaiian cane.
Meanwhile Mrs. Mai Tai knocked off another from her Rum Asylum list by having a Bacardi Ocho in the Daiquiri format. So clean and definitely more flavorful than the standard Bacardi.
Our sons enjoyed some classic Dr. Funk cocktails including the Shipwreck, Saturn’s Sunrise, and Phoenix Rising – plus some great Nacho Fries and Coconut Shrimp, but our entire table disliked Dr. Funk’s version of the Jungle Bird that uses the Cruzan Black Strap rum with its overbearing maple syrup flavor.
San Jose’s “hidden tiki bar” remains anything but, thanks to a thematic shamrock light display that all along San Pedro Square can see. Monday was pretty busy thanks to the trivia and also Dr. Funk’s stellar drinks.
Working my way through the Dr. Funk “Rum Asylum” Level 1 list and popped over for a quick visit early on Saturday. This seemed like a good opportunity to compare and contrast some of the lighter leaning rums that can be used in cocktails but also offer a good sipping experience. Being a veteran rum drinker, I typically like to sip higher proof expressions so I can really get a lot of flavor, but that can be a turnoff for those new to sipping rum.
All are pretty good in this format, and since I’ve tried them all before I asked for shorter pours just to not have to drink so much in one sitting. The Bacardi and Santa Teresa have small amounts of sugar added, not uncommon in column still Spanish heritage rums, but neither is overly sweet, thank goodness. Santa Teresa uses Solera style aging so is probably less overall age than the Bacardi, resulting in less overall character. Very approachable, though, and as much as I dislike Bacardi Superior white rum I do enjoy the Ocho when I’m looking for something that isn’t a gigantic flavor bomb. Very pleasant flavors from both.
The Barbancourt is a little different and in this group leaning more into an assertive flavor profile. Made from sugar cane juice, the aging means that you don’t really get those vegetal notes common in rums from that source product. Instead, it is a flavorful and rummy taste that works especially well over an ice cube.
Dr. Funk’s Level 1 rum list presents a great introduction to the variety of popular and consistently available rums.
When downtown San Jose’s Dr. Funk opened in 2021 it came with the moniker “Rum House / Kitchen” but to date there hasn’t been a lot of emphasis on rum itself apart from a well-stocked back bar. That changed this week with the lunch of a rum club called the Rum Asylum.
Taking nods from the legend of Doctor Bernhard Funk, the club features thematic levels including the starting level called “Inpatient” that features twenty notable rums including one flight. The booklet that you keep with you includes a graphical map of your journey and places for the crew to stamp the spot after you order your item. Rewards and future levels are slated to be revealed soon.
Shockingly, Mrs Mai Tai decided to start the list herself, so we both ordered the rum flight that provides a nice intro to rum with Planteray Pineapple, Paranubes cane rum from Mexico, and Appleton 12 from Jamaica. Each rum on the list can be ordered as a Daiquiri for a $3 up-charge, and Kō Hana Kea was a big hit for Julie in format. Meanwhile, I went to “oak town” with Appleton 21 and Privateer Queen’s Share, each of which feature tons of wood aging notes.
This new program is just getting off the ground, but look for rum-related events and additional levels with some interesting and unique rewards to be announced soon. In the meantime, now is a perfect time to explore the initial list that includes a very nice variety of mainstream rums all under $50 for a 1½ oz pour (most substantially less). The list includes Dr Funk’s unique blend of Myers’s Single Barrel Select and rums from Martinique, Barbados, the United States, and more.
Thanks to Amanda Hastings for hosting the launch event and helping customers get acquainted. Note: nurse Amanda will not be appearing nightly.
We had a pretty good time at a romance themed Office trivia event at Dr. Funkand 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.
The Beetlejuice and Grinch pop-ups at Dr. Funk must have done great, because downtown San Jose’s premier tiki bar is dipping into another themed menu and decor for Valentine’s Day. The pop-up launched on Saturday and runs through February 22nd.
The interior is a symphony of reds and pinks, with some nice lighting on the backbar so that you can actually see the rum and premium spirits, plus a cool lighting package on the outside of the bar that draws you into the theme (as an aside, can we please stop calling this a “hidden tiki bar”, Dr. Funk?). There’s even a “kissing booth” that’s designed for social media.
We felt that previous two special cocktail menus were only okay, but the crew did a wonderful job with the specialty cocktails this time. Most come with a strawberry-based garnish to remind you of a heart and some conversation heart picks.
Our favorite was the Lovebird, made with the same Jamaican rum blend as Dr. Funk’s Mai Tai, strawberry-infused Aperol, and juices. This rich and bold cocktail has a ton of flavor and isn’t too sweet.
Shot to the Heart was less sweet than you might have expected from the ingredients including a sugared rum and honey, but instead the light touch of passionfruit meant this was balanced well and had a great mouthfeel.
Heartbreaker is essentially a Painkiller with lighter rum and some raspberry added, still not overly sweet and a great option for tiki newbies who want something approachable.
The most crushable of all the cocktails was the Mad Love that has gin, vanilla liqueur, strawberry, and juices. This was very, very easy to drink but still has a lot of flavor.
I was impressed by the special cocktail menu, though I do hope to someday visit Dr. Funk when it is just a plain old regular tiki bar. We also had dinner last night and the staff couldn’t have been nicer and were very attentive even though it was fairly busy. We even caught a bit of DJ Ship Rex’s set as we were leaving.
LovebirdMad Love and Shot to the HeartHeartbreaker
The cocktail shows that this isn’t our usual haunt, but we had a great time doing the mid-week suburban drinks and golf thing in downtown Sunnyvale. Tipsy Putt has a nine-hole traditional mini golf setup, plus a nine-hole 1-2 Putt tabletop format. It’s all indoors and there is a large selection of beer and cocktails on tap, plus pretty good bar food too. There are several Tipsy Putt locations in Northern California and there are leagues and trivia events as well.
The On the Green cocktail seemed appropriate and it was nicely matching my ball, too. It contains Midori, of course, plus vodka and lemonade and turn out to be not too bad and certainly helped me get into the mood. Thanks to Michael and Holly for invite, Tipsy Putt was a lot of fun.
