Post #530083 by donhonyc on Thu, May 13, 2010 8:40 PM

The long and the short of it? This place will do well.

Now here are the details according to me, your humble fellow tikiphile:

Drinks: I had a Mai Tai and a Zombie. While the flavor of the drinks was superior, I did have a problem with preparation. The Mai Tai had waaay, waaay too much ice in it. I'm not kidding. Almost more ice than drink. When I pushed my straw into the glass the ice overflowed onto the bar. It was served to me in a clear Disney/Polynesian Village style (without the logo) goblet, that was, sorry to say, chipped on the edge. Plus this style of tiki mug..if you want to call it that, is not my favorite style. But that's just me. The Zombie was served in a Fumanchu mug. After I ordered the Mai Tai I went to the restroom to wash my hands so I didn't actually see how it was done, but one thing I noticed with the Zombie was that the bartender, as cool and friendly a guy as he was, put all of the ingredients into the mug, and then just threw ice on top of it. He didn't even put it into a cocktail shaker and mix it up!! Now, since I am not a bartender, I am totally willing to give this the benefit of the doubt, but to put all of your drink ingredients together and NOT shake them? Maybe that works for a Martini, but what's up with that? I mean maybe it was just this particular bartender, but I know the place is brand spanking new and the employees are just getting used to it. Here's the good news though; both drinks tasted better than any other Tiki drinks I have tasted in this area, and the Mai Tai tasted very similar to the ones served at Mai Kai. So as far as that goes, this place has the very slight potential to rival Tiki Ti out there in L.A. as an east coast counterpart. Sorry but again...the bad news. The Mai Tai was $12, and the Zombie was $16!!!! But now the good news again: both drinks, while delicious, were so freaking potent I couldn't order another. Ya know...I have sh*t to do tomorrow!!!

Decor: Very well done. IMHO, they need to find a way to keep the ambience, but not keep it so dark. It hides all of the cool stuff they have in there. Put some low lighting on the artwork and show the world what you invested in to make the interior so interesting in the first place! One other observation: the construction of the bar was just a little awkward. The bar itself was just a little too high. That I could live with. What I couldn't live with was the bar stools that were bolted into the floor. If you sat upright..comfortably, the edge of the bar was wedging into your chest. The bolted stools were too far under the bar. My suggestion? While the stools as they are were nice and cushy, I would just scrap the bolted-in situation altogether and get free-standing stools that can be moved around.

Service and location: Like I said the bartender was a pretty friendly guy if not a little pre-occupied with what it was he was supposed to be doing. In between mixing and talking to the customers there was chat between himself and another bartender and the mangers about how stuff was priced and how they were being mixed, but I think that's just a function of a new place. People are just getting their bearings. No big deal.

The bar itself is located on Essex and Grand near Chinatown. It's not right in the cluster(f*ck) of the now trendy lower east side but sort of on the outskirts which is pretty cool. I'd rather see it there than see it smack dab in the middle of Ludlow St.

Some of my comments might appear nit-picky, but believe me, I want any new Tiki bar that lands in New York to work. I'm not just criticizing for the sake of criticism. There has been a serious lack of Tiki here for way too long. So the more cool tiki there actually is here in New York, the better a place it will be. Overall Painkiller beats out, with no problem, Otto's Shrunken Head at least in terms of drink quality, and it does seem to have very good potential. They just need to work out the kinks.

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[ Edited by: donhonyc 2010-05-13 20:57 ]