Mai Tai Monday at Trader Vic’s Emeryville

This was the fantastic Original Mai Tai that I had at Trader Vic’s Emeryville  a couple weeks back.

Did you know that 2024 is the 80th anniversary of the creation of the Mai Tai, and the 90th of the Trader Vic’s restaurant franchise? The 90th anniversary logo on the Mai Tai glass looks really sharp.

Look for a lot of discussion about this into the spring and of course for the annual Mai Tai Day celebration in late August.

Satisfying Salmon Bowl and Cocktails at Trader Vic’s San Jose Airport

I’m traveling to Seattle for business next week and it’s always nice to fly out of San Jose to have lunch before the flight at Trader Vic’s Outpost at San Jose Airport. The Teriyaki Salmon Bowl here is really great, including mango, edamame, carrots, and avocado.

The signature cocktail for this Vic’s location is the Pilo Pilo, which is served in the mug they made just for this location. The recipe isn’t out there for this cocktail but I tried to watch them make it and it seems like it has lime juice, pineapple juice, passionfruit syrup, Vic’s grog concentrate, dark rum, gold rum, and 151 rum. It is a pretty good cocktail, though I was the only one at the bar drinking Vic’s cocktails as others were defaulting to common drinks like Margaritas or just choosing beer and wine.

Salmon Bowl and Pilo Pilo

There’s a scant amount of premium rum at this location, including things like Zaya and Brugal which are sweetened and not really my thing. But there’s a very nice Mount Gay Master Select 1703 from Barbados. This is a blend of rums aged from 10-30 years and issued at 43% ABV, so it is very easy to drink but still has a fine blend of Barbados rum flavors. The price isn’t bad, $22. Wish they had a few more premiums to go along with the bottles of bourbon and Scotch on the back bar.

Delicious Dinner at Trader Vic’s Emeryville

Had a delicious meal at Trader Vic’s a couple weeks ago. We always start with the heavenly Peanut Butter spread that has a unique flavor and pairs well with crackers. We almost always have the Cheese Bings or Crab Rangoon as appetizers but skipped them this time.

The feature entree for me was the Island Fried Rice, which includes chicken, char sui pork, and pineapple. I would say that I’m not the biggest fan of fried rice generally but Trader Vic’s version is really great. There is a very nice blend of ginger and garlic flavors with a balanced amount of egg. It also worked really well to soak up the Mai Tai and Fog Cutter that I had that evening.

Dinner in the Lounge at Trader Vic’s has a certain energy, especially on the weekends when it’s busy and as they did for us they sometimes seat you here in order to get you seated more quickly. And there’s plenty of eye candy in the lounge, too. We probably do prefer the dining room for a longer meal, though, even if we have to wait a little longer to be seated.

Samoan Fog Cutter Modified

I got this Tiki Tolteca mug at the Alameda Point Antiques Fair (thank you @smuggler_steve), so wanted to make a drink in it. I had a great time visiting Tiki Tolteca in New Orleans in 2018, now sadly shuttered.

The drink was a Samoan Fog Cutter, though I misread the ingredients and ended up switching the ratio of Lemon and Orange Juice. I also used a Cara Cara Orange, so this ended up quite a bit sweeter than it would have been otherwise and I think was a more balanced ratio. I also used a lot more Sherry than what the original recipe calls for and to me is better for it.

I thought this tasted great, and I did find that even the small amounts of Brandy and Gin were providing a more complex blend of noticeable flavors than if this just used light rum.

Samoan Fog Cutter Modified
2 oz Cara Cara Orange Juice
1 oz Lemon Juice
½ oz Orgeat (heavy pour)
½ oz Gin (Beefeater)
½ oz Brandy (Korbel)
1½ oz Light Rum (Trader Vic’s)
1 oz Sherry (Harvey’s Bristol Cream)
Shake ingredients with ice, saving the Sherry for a float.

Fogcutter Friday

There’s been quite a bit of conversation happening lately in some of the blogs and YouTube channels that I watch around the classic Trader Vic’s cocktail The Fog Cutter. This was one of Vic’s breakout cocktail hits in the 1940s, based on a reputation for being extremely potent and also for being served in the signature mug. The cocktail contains, rum, gin, brandy, and sherry, along with citrus juices and Trader Vic’s signature sweetener, orgeat.

We were a Trader Vic’s Emeryville last week and thought I’ve give the modern day Samoan Fog Cutter a try. This version from the 1950s has slightly less booze than the original Fog Cutter but still features plenty of the citrus that folks often feel makes the cocktail unbalanced. And with all that juice it sure looks like it would be too tart, but I’ll tell you I thought the balance was just fine, especially once that sherry float began to be incorporated into the drink.

Samoan Fog Cutter
2 oz Lemon Juice
1 oz Orange Juice
½ oz Orgeat
1½ oz Light Rum
½ oz Brandy
½ oz Gin
½ oz Cream Sherry, floated

Possible that the orange juice they’re using at Trader Vic’s leans sweet. Or perhaps they used a little more orgeat. I’ve made some Trader Vic’s cocktails at home and indeed did find them leaning tart, but that wasn’t the case for me at the restaurant last week.

Atahi A Kai Mug by Reesenik for Trader Vic’s

Fun time at Trader Vic’s last night for a little informal discussion with Matt Reese (Reesenik) and Chris Shima who recently designed mugs for Trader Vic’s. There was a little panel discussion with the artists and you could purchase a mug. Trader Vic’s has been partnering with artists for a few years now and while some of the previous products were hand-crafted, limited edition, and expensive, these were more affordable but still very nice for the price/scale of production. The Kia’i mug from Shima is in the Trader Vic’s online store and I’d expect the Reesenik mug to be there any day.

I was really interested in this unusual design of Atahi A Kai mug that’s so easy to hold in the hand and is so thin it’s only about 15 oz, which means you can fill with a normal drink and not have five times more ice than you normally would. I picked one up and you can see Matt posing with his work.

We also got to see a sneak preview of the movie Cabali & the Tiki Mug Obsession with the director Josh Dragotta and the subject of the movie Doug “Fini” Finical (co-owner of the new Cabali tiki bar in Tuscon). This documentary includes interviews with numerous mug makers and tiki bar owners and is on track for a release later in 2024.

Trader Vic’s Las Vegas

It is always sad passing by Sammy Hagar’s Cabo Wabo Cantina at the Miracle Mile shops at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino because for a short time this was a Trader Vic’s franchise location. The lifespan ran from Fall 2007 to summer 2009, making this one of the shortest lived Vic’s locations. Patrons noted an emphasis on vodka drinks, though we stuck to the classics such as the Mai Tai (made with the Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Concentrate mix) that were wonderful. That’s us on two visits in 2008.

The vast space was sparsely decorated, perhaps as an intentional choice to go for a modern look or perhaps due to a limited decor budget. It definitely didn’t have the same vibe as most of the Trader Vic’s locations I’ve visited, but you could get a Mai Tai to go in a plastic cup thanks to Vegas’ liberal open container laws. Traditionalists griped about the food menu but it got a great review in the Las Vegas Review-Journal in early 2008.

The venture was not successful, due in part to the great recession that started in parallel with the restaurant’s opening. After closing, the restaurant’s parent company Boulevard Bar LLC filed for bankruptcy listing no assets – and liabilities of $14.267 million! The restaurant generated revenue of $1.368 million in 2007, $5.961 million in 2008, and $2.033 million in 2009 according to those filings.

Today’s burgeoning tiki scene in Vegas shows that the most successful ventures of this type are immersive experiential venues such as The Golden Tiki or Frankie’s Tiki Room. But fifteen years ago it is easy to understand the design decisions made to go with a modern design. I guess this shows that the escapist nature of these spaces is timeless and that today there is a lot more interest in exotic cocktails and tiki bars in general.

Las Vegas is always a gamble and sometimes you don’t win.