Post #670023 by Quince_at_Dannys on Wed, Mar 6, 2013 5:55 PM

I'm a little surprised at how dismissive everyone on this board is of the drink portion of the Tiki experience. Maybe it's because I spent a good chunk of the 1990's in my buddy's Milwaukee home bar slugging drinks from the old Trader Vic book while listening to Les Baxter; but I think the whole tiki thing is 33% decor, 33% music, and 33% drinks. Rare is the place that pulls off all three--the Mai Kai for instance--but there's an awful lot of places that have no clue about the non-decor 66%. Even the Tiki Ti fails miserably in the music part of the equation, but no one would question their excellence. Because DRINKS.

We all owe Beachbum Barry a HUGE debt of gratitude for keeping the drink thing alive--and for that matter inspiring the cocktail renaissance of the last decade. Without the Good Drinks Appreciation part of the equation, the Mai Kai would have been bulldozed years ago.

I feel like I'm talking to myself here--this is the same board where everyone SAVAGED the new Beverly Hills Luau (which had fantastic drinks by the way) because the decor dared to be less than 100% derivative of every Polynesian restaurant you've seen a million times. But that's another topic for another thread... End rant