Plus: A Spirits Project Sunday Satellite:
One Ounce Taste of Rhum Clement Homere for $3 (Retail $99).
We will open one bottle at 6PM. When it's gone, it's gone.
I was tempted to title this something like "come get leid," but it was just too obvious. We're roasting a pig on Sunday with pineapple and tropical fruits and island spices. We're also having a tiki party with one of the best Rums on the planet. Tiki was a faux-Polynesian pop culture movement, the cocktail component of which, was probably the last great American cocktail movement. Tiki jumped the shark in the late 1960s, just as vodka was ascendant, sour 'mix' started coming out of a gun and Mr. Boston fell into a period of senescence.
The seeds of Tiki were laid in the 1930s. Don The Beachcomber was opened in Los Angeles 1931 by a man who would be known as Donn Beach. Victor Bergeron opened Hinky Dinks in 1934. He changed the name to Trader Vic's in 1937 and the rest is history. Things in the Tiki world were on a slow simmer and then WWII came and went. That's when Tiki really started to heat up. American drinking tradition and expertise had never really fully recovered from that monumentally stupid idea called Prohibition and lot's of returning GI's were looking for a bit of the exotic. Many had served in the Pacific and felt a resonance. In the black and white, increasingly suburban world of the 1950s and early 60s Tiki was the perfect escape. Sure it wasn't really authentic. That's not what it was about. Even Donn Beach's given name was Ernest Gantt. He legally changed it after the bar became successful. Even the man himself was a faux Donn Beach.
But while the food was a lousy (though sometimes tasty) approximation of some imagined Polynesian cuisine, the drinks had to be invented. Vic Bergeron, Donn Beach, their staffs and the many enthusiastic adherents to this movement were some pretty talented people. Rum was cheap and good and they really knew how to use it. Tiki was the last great epoch of American bartending to be revived and it is currently undergoing quite a renaissance. You may have had crappy renditions of the classic Mai Tai or Singapore Sling. The originals were actually really great drinks and modern mixologists have added to the category.
Rhum Clement is one of the finest rums on the planet. The distillery is in Martinique and therefore governed by French AOC laws. Unlike most Rum in the world, Clement is a Rhum Agricole, which means it's made directly from sugarcane and not molasses. It speaks of the soil on which it is grown and it's earthy complexity makes Tiki cocktails sing. It is not an inexpensive rum. Sunday, we're putting a whole pig on the coals, slathered in pineapple and island spices and making a butt kicking sauce therefrom. We're putting a complimentary lei around your neck and a Rhum Clement Tiki drink in your hand to welcome you. As well, we're offering several libations made with clement for just $8.
Tiki Time
- Ti Punch (Vieux, Lime, Sugarcane)
- Mary Pickford's Sister (Blanc & Vieux, Maraschino, Pineapple)
- Blackberry Honi (Blanc & Vieux, Creme de Mure, Lemon)
- Coconaut (Blanc & Vieux, Lime, Coconut)
- Pamplemousse Punch (Creole Shrub & Vieux, Grapefruit, Cinnamon, Pastis)
Our full menu will be available and we'll be seating in our lovely sidewalk cafe. Fun times on Livingston Avenue. Sunday Beginning at 3 PM.
Make a reservation for dinner here or just come by the bar and get leid. It's about escapism - So come escape!
(More info: The modern inheritor of the mantle of both Donn Beach and Victor Bergeron is Jeff "Beachbum" Berry. For more info on him, including great books and a fantastic Tiki drink app, check him out here. Jeff is the leading authority on Tiki today.)
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Trader Vic |
Beachbum Berry |