Post #777626 by Hurricane Hayward on Sat, Jul 8, 2017 12:38 PM

Mahalo to Spike Marble and The Hula Girls for this cool recap and photos from The Hukilau, with lots of eye candy from The Mai-Kai ...

http://thehulagirls.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-hukilau-and-tour-of-mai-kais-dining.html

And of great interest here is his rare video of manager Kern Mattei giving a tour of the back service bar. It was the Sunday afternoon following the busy Saturday night, so the bar was not in service. But it offers a rare glimpse behind the scenes ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKOI5dF1ygk

Among the new tidbits of info that I've never heard before:

• There are up to 12 bartenders working on busy nights: 4 in The Molokai and 8 in the back bar.

• The logistics of the back bar would be up to 3 bartenders on each window (where the servers pick up the drinks and garnish them), plus up to two others in the back area (most likely prepping and backing up the main bartenders).

• There are two distinct types of bartenders working two different stations: A "blender bartender" who makes the blended drinks (Derby Daiquiri, Pina Colada, etc.) using the jug/jar blender, plus all the standard drinks that people are bound to order. Then there's the "tropical mixer" who makes all the specialty drinks using the top-down mixer. Kern also mentioned that those drinks spend no more than 5 seconds in the mixer.

You can take a look back at my photo tour from 2011 for more on the back bars:
http://www.slammie.com/atomicgrog/blog/2011/12/28/behind-the-magic-a-backstage-tour-of-the-mai-kais-mysterious-bars-and-kitchen/

Okole maluna!