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More London Barhopping

Another two days in London meant another bunch of bars visited. Here's a brief summary. 

We stopped into the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel for a sampling of many of their classics. The drinks we tried were simple, elegant, and of course expertly crafted by Erik Lorincz and his team. 

The American Bar has an odd L shape, with the bar the small part of the L so only part of it is visible from the main seating area. From a bar as famous as this one, you'd think it would be all TA-DA front and center but I guess they didn't need to. 

(American Bar bartenders at the Savoy Hotel)

Later that day (or maybe another day, who can remember?) we hit up Hawksmoor Seven Dials for dinner and drinks.

I've been to London three times and each time to Hawksmoor; a chic steakhouse. Pretty weird as I'm a vegetarian and all.  The place has a steakhouse-meets-gentleman's club feel to it and is located a level down from the street. 

(Hawksmoor Seven Dials)

I don't have pictures of it, but we also had a dinner at Cotton's Rhum Shack, Ian Burrell's restaurant and rum bar. Great food and a great vibe with a live singer in the front, 200 or so rums available, and Caribbean food. 

We also briefly stopped into Danger of Death bar, a members club located on Brick Lane that is owned by the folks from Milk & Honey. Some pictures are here, and as you can see it has the pressed tin walls, lots of booths, and that international speakeasy look. 

The final night in London was capped off by a visit to Mahiki, where I've also been before. Mahiki is a tiki nightclub with lots of booths for private groups. They serve tropical drinks in pineapples and a giant treasure chest. For a nightclub, the drinks are excellent. It's cheesy good fun and we stayed for hours.

 (Treasure chest drink at Mahiki.)

(Pineapple drinks at Mahiki.)

I'll post better pictures later (these are all cell phone snaps) but for now it's off to Barcelona!

For the Love of Orgeat

In my latest post for FineCooking.com I talk a little bit about orgeat as a segue into posting the recipe for Dominic Venegas' Mi Ruca cocktail that helped him win the SF regional 42Below vodka cocktail world cup.

(Photos courtesy of 42Below Vodka.)

Most of what I know about orgeat comes from the research for a huge Mai Tai story I wrote for Mixology Magazine in Germany. And much of that information comes from Jennifer Colliau of Small Hand Foods, whose orgeat is so labor-intensive she only sells it to select clients, and Blair Reynolds, whose Trader Tiki orgeat now comes in regular almond and hazelnut versions.

Venegas' Mi Ruca cocktail is simple to make at home as long as you have the delicious 42Below Manuka Honey vodka; and you can use commercial orgeat and skip the bee pollen if you don't have any around.

The recipe for the Mi Ruca is on Fine Cooking here.

(Photos courtesy of 42Below Vodka.)

I am out of Manuka Honey so I made a rum version of this drink- dark rum, pineapple, lemon, and orgeat. It tasted like a simple rum punch and was good on its own though crying for some champagne to give it fizz.

So shopping list: champagne, manuka honey vodka, bee pollen. At least I've got orgeat in the house.

Many Mai Tais on the Menu at the reopening Trader Vic's in Emeryville

Trader Vic's in Emeryville, the large water-adjacent spot in the East Bay of San Francisco with some of the artifacts of the original Trader Vic's Oakland location, is reopening September 28th after a remodel and menu update.

Part of that update is of the drinks. A Trader Vic's representative told me that the new drinks on the menu are:

1944 Mai Tai (which is a Mai Tai from scratch)
Maui Mai Tai
Guava Mai Tai
Mango Mai Tai
The Wave (three of the flavored Mai Tais in one ride)
E’ville Awa (E’ville – Emeryville and “Awa” means “port” in Hawaiian)
Tears of the Tiki
Shanghai Lotus
Cosmo place

That's a whole lot of Mai Tais! It reminds me of a Caipirinha bar. 

The other drinks are described in the image below.

(Click to expand menu in a pop-up window.)

 You can also buy the Mai Tai surfboard and glasses set for $75- including the drinks. I love bar souvenirs. 

 

Bar Eras in San Francisco and Beyond

I have a great-looking four-page story in the August Eat + Drink issue of 7x7 Magazine. 

The story splits up old bars and new bars inspired by old bars into five types/eras: Barbary Coast, Speakeasy,  Martini Bar, Tiki Bar, and Fern Bar. In each category I list some identifying factors and a few era-appropriate drinks. 

 There are also tons of great pictures by photographer Erin Kunkel, including these yanked from the 7x7 website. 

Read the story online here or pick up the magazine on the newsstand for even more pictures than on the website. 

  
 

Tiki Drinks in Fine Cooking Magazine

Oh hey, my latest story for Fine Cooking magazine is online already. 

Tiki Time

Showstopping tiki drinks are back on the menu, and they’re causing quite a stir. Here’s how to create these tasty cocktails at home—don’t forget the swizzle sticks and umbrellas.

by Camper English

Sipping from opposite sides of a cocktail served in a hollowed-out pineapple, a young couple poses for a photo by a waterfall. This isn’t a scene from a Hawaiian vacation in the 1960s, but one I observed earlier this year at Smuggler’s Cove, a buzzing new San Francisco bar. This establishment, and the many others just like it springing up across the country, is a tiki lounge, serving classic Polynesian-themed cocktails. These once-out-of-favor joints and their kitschy cocktails, like the mai tai, zombie, and planter’s punch, are making quite a comeback.

So what makes a cocktail a tiki cocktail? These drinks have several common characteristics.... 

Read the rest of my feature on the return of tiki. 

     

 
 
Not only does it contain thrilling information on tiki, it has recipes from three people you may have heard of:

• Lift Off! by Blair Reynolds, alias Trader Tiki
• Chi Chi Pache by Martin Cate, alias Shoeless Martin Cate
• Barbary Swizzle by Jeff Berry, alias Beachbum Berry

Painkiller NYC: A Quick Sneak Peak

Hello from New York!

Last night I went to the friends and family preview for Painkiller, the New York bar from some of the people behind Dutch Kills. It turns out that they have a lot of friends and a very big family, because the place was packed! I didn't even make it to the back of the room.

 
They're going for an urban tiki thing, with graffiti art, brick  walls, and bamboo accents.

 They have skull shot glasses that are pretty awesome. (Aisha Sharpe gives her kiss of approval.)

 And a few kinds of tiki mugs (and the mug of Gina Chersevani of Washington, DC) but I've read they have some custom designed scorpion bowls on the way.

  I didn't get a look at the menu, but I did have the Painkiller, which was delicious. 

How Beachbum Berry Saved Easter

 

My friends were throwing a zombie-themed Easter party (raising from the dead, get it?) and planned cocktails to serve at it. They had a Painkiller, Hemmingway Daiquiri, and Dark n' Stormy on the menu. Obviously something was missing: the Zombie.

As they went shopping for booze and mixers, my friend kept texting me about specific ingredients. Grenadine? Oh just make that with POM Wonderful and sugar. Cinnamon syrup? You can borrow mine. Passionfruit syrup- wait a minute, that's not in my Zombie recipe...

The Zombie is one of those drinks with a long history and an obscured recipe due to secret ingredients, as tiki bar owners back in the day had to prevent staff poaching by not even sharing their drink recipes with their own bartenders. They'd have to use "Don's Mix" in certain quantities rather than grapefruit-cinnamon syrup, which is what Don's Mix turns out to be. Because of this, every bar offered its own take on the Zombie so even in the 1940s there were tons of recipes for one drink. 

How do we know this, and the real Zombie recipe? Because Jeff Beachbum Berry tracked down people who knew the recipe, and the history of this and other tiki cocktails.

I used the Bum's latest book, Beachbum Berry Remixed, to find the recipe for the Zombie served at Easter. I actually made two different versions; the original (3 rums, 2 liqueurs, 2 syrups, bitters, lime) and the Simplified Zombie (2 juices, one syrup, two rums). There are three other Zombie variations listed in the book, but I figured two were plenty. The drinks were a hit and Easter was saved.

Another classic tiki drink with many variations is the Mai Tai. Beachbum writes in the book about the history of the drink, which was contested by Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic. It may be the case the Trader Vic's recipe was inspired by one of Don's, but not Don's Mai Tai. It's an interesting history, and one that the Bum speaks about at different events.

He'll next be at Smuggler's Cove in San Francisco giving the talk April 24 and 25. The tickets may be sold out already: check here.

Montego Bay, By Way of Heaven's Dog

I can't stop thinking about the delicious drink I had during Tiki Week at Heaven's Dog. So I asked bar/general manger Erik Adkins for the recipe and he was nice enough to share.

"The Montego Bay is listed in Beachbum Berry's 'Intoxica'.  He says that it is a Don the Beachcomber Drink from the Hotel Sahara in Las Vegas 1940's."

The version they made at Heaven's Dog is this:

Montego Bay

(adapted from Beachbum Berry's Intoxica by Erik Adkins of Heaven's Dog)
1/2 oz lime
1/2 oz grapefruit
1 oz honey syrup (1 to 1 dilution with water)
2 dashes Angostura bitters
4 dashes absinthe
1/4 oz all spice dram
11/2 oz Smith & Cross Jamaican rum

Shake all ingredients and strain over crushed ice.

This is one of those drinks where Smith & Cross completely makes the drink. So funky.