Post #516543 by ikitnrev on Thu, Mar 11, 2010 11:38 AM

I do love the amazing cocktails served at the Mai Kai, and look forward to return visits during the week of Hukilau. But in one sense, all of their drinks are mystery drinks, as you can't watch the drinks being made, nor personally interact with the person actually making them. There are many good things about the Mai Kai, but there are reasons I often prefer other cocktail establishments.

I contrast the Mai Kai with some of the other wonderful bars that are part of the new hand-crafted cocktail scene. At my favorite places in D.C., I love to sit at the bar and actually watch the cocktails being made. There may or may not have a current menu of unique/newly created cocktails to offer you. I like ordering from such menu, or looking at the liquor bottles on the shelf, and being able to identify some relatively obscure liquor tucked away in the shadows, and asking the bartender "Hey, what can you make me with ingredient X?" and see their eyes light up. I like it when they, on the spot, try some new combinations of liquors - shaking, stirring, perhaps sampling with a straw one or more times, adding a little more of this, until the final cocktail is ready and served to you. I like being able to say "this was a bit too ----- for me, could my next drink be a bit ----- instead", or "I really liked the ---- in that last cocktail - what would you recommend as a good transitional follow-up?"

Many of the above interactions you don't get at the Mai-Kai. But the Mai Kai makes up for this with its menu of time-tested cocktails, its wonderful setting, and you get to have your drinks served to you by a beautiful women - it is the fantasy of a late 50's exotica LP come to life. There certainly isn't anything nearly like this in the D.C. area, and it should rightfully be appreciated in its own way.

I bring this all up, because although you could call the unseen persons who mix the Mai-Kai cocktails 'mixologists' - they certainly aren't bartenders who reside at the bar and interact with customers - I contrast them to the type of cocktail creator I mentioned above. We know so little about them. Are they cheerful people? Shy? Do they like to explore and create their own cocktails, or are they content to simply recreate the same proven menu drinks over and over again? Do they make their own Jet Pilots at home, or do they prefer a simple Budweiser? Do they ever get a wild devilish impulse to add two shots of rum X in a drink instead of one, and secretly giggle at what possible effect it will have on the unseen person receiving that cocktail?

As to the term 'mixologist' I understand why people use it - to distinguish their mixing skills to the generic 'Bud/Miller/gin and tonic' focused bartenders. And people who are amateurs, who enjoy creating new recipes in their own kitchens and bars, can use the term 'mixologist' with pride - even if they might have rather gruff personalities or not wish to interact with the public.

But the persons creating the drinks in front of me above? Most of them prefer to be referred to as a bartender, rather than a mixologist. They see their main responsibility as pleasing the customer, and they take deep pride in this.

So long live the good bartender, the amateur mixologists, the Mai Kai, the Mai Kai cocktails and those who make and serve them, and long live all of us who touch upon the whole tiki/cocktail cultures.

Vern