Post #426573 by woofmutt on Wed, Dec 31, 2008 8:28 PM

This seems as good a thread as any for this story...

I was at a bar (non-Tiki) last night and there was some discussion of Seattle restaurant history and Polynesian restaurants among a couple of us at the bar, including the bartender.

The subject of the Mai Tai came up and the bartender said "We use Vic's recipe here." He then grabbed the laminated bar guide which had a recipe on each page and a picture of how the drinks should look. He flipped it open to the Mai Tai and set it on the bar.

The picture of their Mai Tai showed a drink which was light orange/pink in color. I knew right off it wasn't Vic's original but before I could shoot my mouth off the woman next to me said "That's the wrong color. It shouldn't be orange."

I just about fell off my bar stool. Apparently her husband is a Mai Tai fan and has been working on making the ideal Mai Tai based on Vic's recipe.

I looked over the recipe in the bar guide and was surprised to find no pineapple juice or grenadine. What apparently gave their Mai Tai its pinkish cast was the inclusion of Angostura bitters. Other than that their recipe was pretty much like Vic's, they even use freshly squeezed lime juice.