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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.

Smuggler's Cove in Pictures and Words

Smuggler's Cove, the San Francisco tiki bar by "Shoeless" Martin Cate, opens in San Francisco on Tuesday, December 8th. I got a sneak preview along with other members of the press on Thursday night. To give you an idea about the level of excitement around this bar opening, some cocktail nerds drove up from Los Angeles or flew down from Portland to witness it in person, assuming they'd see it now before it is packed for the next few months as the very enthusiastic tiki crowd swarms in.

Smuggler's Cove has a gorgeous menu featuring 80 mostly rum cocktails and will have over 200 sipping rums. There are incentives for drinking them all. Join the "Rumbustion Society" and work your way through the rum list to gain access to samples from very rare bottles. Or join the "Voyager of the Cove" club and try all the cocktails for unspecified super secret perks.

Ah, but what does it look like? Sort of like the entrance to a theme ride at Disney World. Rather than being a design theme or decor, the three-story (yet small) bar is filled with props and sets. The giant anchor that hangs menacingly over the main stairway is thankfully not made of solid metal, nor is the canon that threatens to squish the bartender. Giant rocks poke out from the walls, some sort of tribal spears adorn a wall, and rum crates are used as tables in the basement. It's like drinking on a movie set, not that I've ever done that.

It's all very unreal, except for where it's not. The bar is actually packed with historic artifacts from tiki bars around the country- the the ship's wheel and Boathouse sign above the downstairs bar, vintage tiki mugs, totem polls, and other flotsam and jetsam once adorned the walls of various Trader Vic's and other bars. The three display windows at the entry level bar are mini-museums dedicated to past San Francisco tiki bars, including one where the first tiki mug was created. There is so much history in the place I'm considering asking Martin to train me as a docent to give regular tours.

So here are the pictures.

The top floor is a bamboo hut lounge where journalists take notes about the bamboo hut lounge on the top floor.

 

The street level bar is small and backed by endless bottles of delicious rum.

Recent LA transplant Matty Eggleston was working there on preview night.

 

The ceiling in this room is tall and packed with barrels, boxes, and other stuff held up with ropes and pulleys. 

In the basement, Dominic Venegas works the bar.

No wait! That was a pufferfish lamp. This is Dominic Venegas working in the basement bar.

And this is the guy who built this magic playground for us, "Shoeless" Martin Cate. Congratulations Martin!

The Great Tiki War of San Francisco

This week is Tiki Week at Heaven's Dog in San Francisco. Naturally you'll assume that with the opening of tiki bar Smuggler's Cove next week that their evil plan is to run the bar out of business before they even open. It's true!

Okay, that's totally not true. In San Francisco everybody is so darn nice to each other that this week's tiki celebration at Heaven's Dog is actually being held in honor of Smuggler's Cove. Hugs!

The secondary reason for Heaven's Dog's tiki celebration is a pre-release of two new Small Hand Foods products- the cream of coconut and passionfruit syrup. They're not available in bottles yet but will be soon. Small Hand Foods has already changed the landscape of San Francisco cocktails as the orgeat and pineapple gum syrup are used in cocktails all over town, so needless to say many bartenders are anxiously awaiting these new products.

Heaven's Dog will be serving a menu with five drinks (plus a few surprises): The Montego Bay, Painkiller, Trader Vic's Mai Tai, the Sidewinder's Fang, and the Sea Shanty Panty Dropper.

So if you can't wait until next week to get your tiki on at Smuggler's Cove (and who can wait to try the Sea Shanty Panty Dropper?) head to Heaven's Dog this week. 

The Smuggler's Cove Rumshakers

Smuggler's Cove, the new San Francisco tiki bar in the former Jade bar space, run by "Shoeless" Martin Cate formerly of Forbidden Island, will open December 8th to much fanfare. 

The word on the scene is that the rum selection is going to be ridiculously large. The staff are in training now to make the probably very long menu of undoubtedly complicated and delicious tiki drinks. They've already announced they have a rum, and wine, and a beer made exclusively for the bar. And it keeps getting better- I just got word on the staff.

The Smuggler's Cove rumshakers will be:

• Christine D'Abrosca-England (ex-Malo, Seven Grand in LA)
• Matty Eggleston (ex Varnish in LA)
• Reza Esmaili (Conduit)
• Melissa Garcia (ex-Trader Vic's)
• Jacqueline Patterson (Heaven's Dog)
• Alex Smith (soon-to-be-ex Ramblas & Thirsty Bear) manager
• Dominic Venegas (83 Proof, John Walker & Sons, Appleton Rum ambassador)

The other folks in the picture are barbacks and a door person. Aloha! See you in December.

History of the El Diablo Cocktail in Trader Vic's Books

I was trying to find the first reference to the El Diablo cocktail recently.

Mexican El Diablo

1/2 lime
1 ounce tequila
1/2 crème de cassis
Ginger Ale

Squeeze lime juice into a 10-ounce glass; drop in spent shell. Add ice cubes, tequila, and crème de cassis. Fill glass with ginger ale.

Searching the web, the earliest reference I read to it was from Trader Vic's books of 1946 and 1947.

I asked tiki expert Martin Cate, who has these books, if he knew if the drink was a Trader Vic original. After his research it's still not entirely clear, but the research is interesting in itself.

Martin says:

IT IS in the 1946 TV Book of Food and Drink- It is called a "Mexican El Diablo" and it IS singled out as an original cocktail.

 

IT IS in the 1947 TV Bartender's Guide again as a "Mexican El Diablo", but does not declare it an original- although that book does not specify.

 

It's not in the TV Kitchen Kibitzer 1952

 

IT IS in the TV Pacific Island Cookbook of 1968, but now called "El Diablo" only

 

IT IS in the TV Bartender Guide Revised 1972 as an "El Diablo", but does not say it's his.  This edition DOES call out original drinks.

Thanks Martin!

If anyone finds an earlier reference to the El Diablo or Mexican El Diablo, please let me know.

Tiki To Go

The launch of new and cool iPhone drink apps continues with this one from Jeff Beachbum Berry and the guys from Cocktails+.

It's called Tiki+ and it costs $3.99 for about 150 recipes. Granted, that's a lot for an iphone recipe app, but keep in mind that these recipes are all actually good.

 Check it out here.

Where's Martin?

As many of you now know, Martin Cate of the fabulous famous tiki bar in Alameda, Forbidden Island, is no longer of Forbidden Island. He parted ways with his business partners recently and will no longer be working/managing there.

Martin says he's at work on another venture but won't tell me anything about it. Is it a new bar? A book? Gender reassignment surgery? I don't know because he won't say. Feel free to add your theories in the comments.

This secrecy is cruel and unusual treatment, since I knew about his departure from FI before I was permitted to tell anyone. Keeping the secret was burning holes in my brain! I like sharing, is that so wrong?

Anyway, for all y'all who may want to pay Martin millions of dollars to design your bar menu or have him make drinks at your tiki wedding or be the brand ambassador for your rum, you can find him at MartinCate.com. That's a secret he doesn't mind me sharing.