Tiki Bars Which Don't Provide Pineapple or Tiki Mugs

At the risk of being too much of a purist, is it too much to ask that a tiki bar serve cocktails, with pineapple, in tiki mugs?

I liken it to being served a martini, but-in a room-temperature glass, or being served champagne, but in a highball, as opposed to stemware.

In a recent survey, I have noted the following:

Tiki-Ti: Many tiki mugs behind the bar, but none served. (Tiki-Ti does, however, allow special customers to keep their own special tiki mugs there).

Purple Orchid: Tiki mugs, but no pineapple (apparently they used to, but the practice has been discontinued).

Lava Lounge: Freshly cut pineapple (with outer skin), but no tiki mugs.

Lucky Tiki: Pineapple, but no tiki mugs. (However, they have had "off the shelf" tiki mugs for sale previously - unfortunately the very same type that Purple Orchid previously selected).

Point Moorea: No tiki mugs.

I have learned to roll with with my own tiki mugs, now I may have arrive strapped with my own cans of pineapple (Ralphs'- 100% Hawaiian, not Dole which is from Thailand)!

Well when you get this urge, why don't you just go to Trader Vic's and get it over with. :drink: :)

Fresh cut pineapple daily by yours truly at Vic's SF.

You can experience it in it's full glory at:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=16790&forum=4&3

The Mai Kai has the answer for your libation fixation. Pineapple, Tiki Mugs and Rum Barrels.

Up until a few months ago, Tiki Ti did serve drinks in the Giant Ku mug from Tiki Farm. You just had to ask for it. It was $20 for the mug and any drink. mmmm Zombies....

I can vouch that Psycho Suzi's Motor Lounge, in Minneapolis, MN, serves cocktails, with pineapple, in Tiki mugs. I can't say what brand of pineapple they use, however.

Much of there mugs are Dynasty Wholesale mugs but they have ever changing special cocktails that come in special mugs that are only available for a limited time. Most of the mugs you can buy for an additional $4 ($6 if it is large mug). I got hooked on Tiki mugs because of that deal.

Maybe I'm crazy but I remember seeing a tool that cuts the center out of a pineapple so you can use it as a mug. Did I see this or have I finally slipped into eternal Mai Tai land......

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/601-8301127-9583350?asin=B0009SS6CC&AFID=YahooSSP&nAID=14934801&ref=tgt_adv_XSY10001

Thank you to everyone for mentioning the Purple Orchid in the company of such icons of tiki as Tiki Ti and Trader Vic's

We used to do the pineapple on the glass at the Purple Orchid but we stopped. We use mugs from Tiki Farm and the pineapple wedge does not stay on the edge of the mug because the ceramic is too thick. If we used a regular glass it would stay on better but that would make Holden very sad. We tried cutting a slice out of the pineapple wedge and putting it over the edge but they still kept falling off. We also tried placing the pineapple on top of the drink but people would just take it off and put it on the bar in the service area creating a cleanup problem when we are busy at the bar.

A pineapple wedge also makes the garnish quite tall when used with a parasol. We use a 12" straw in a 7" glass and the parasol is still often above the top of the straw. You may notice that we also put those little plastic monkeys on top of the parasol, and with a pineapple wedge the monkey's tail is perilously close to the eye.

It is not a cost problem or aesthetic ignorance for us; it's an engineering consideration.

We have resorted to a parasol with a lime wedge and a cherry. We sink the lime wedge into the drink and the weight distribution is better, the height is lower, the lime wegde takes up less room and people leave it in the mug.

Doing tiki drinks on a commercial level is more complicated than serving them at home. We are also a higher volume bar than the others mentioned. When we peak on Friday and Saturday nights we often serve well over 200 drinks in an hour using only two bartenders. This is a difficult if not impossibe challenge when the bartenders have to #&@!* around with underengineered pineapple garnishes. They are trying to serve an average of one drink every 30 seconds. Try serving 40 or 50 tiki drinks in an hour at home plus 50 beers and another 100 random cocktails and see how long you use pineapple in the garnish. It's just not very realistic on a commercial level.

While I'm thinking of it, we also modify the usual Mai Tai recipe TCers tend to love by adding pineapple juice. We don't do it because we think it's better. We do it because Mai Tais are basically booze with just enough syrup and lime juice to cover the flavor. Serve three or four of those in a 13 oz. tiki mug to 50 to 100 strangers in your house and you bet your ass there will be pineapple juice in your Mai Tais by the following weekend.

People also ask why we use grenadine in our Mai Tais instead of rock candy syrup. We are located in El Segundo, only a mile from the Hyperion water treatment plant. Look at the color of your Mai Tai and ask yourself how many you would sell. In this town, it needs to be pink, not brown!

Mahalo,
Dave

[ Edited by: Wersmo derinc 2005-10-13 00:49 ]

DawnTiki,
Thank you!!!!

TTT

Wersmo,
200 drinks an hour!!!! Damn bro, that's cookin!!!! Well, I only occasionally get over the Purple Orchid because of how far away I live from it, but I have thuroughly enjoyed myself every single time I've been! Cheers!

On 2005-10-12 10:02, Wersmo Derinc wrote:
Thank you to everyone for mentioning the Purple Orchid in the company of such icons of tiki as Tiki Ti and Trader Vic's
. . .
A pineapple wedge also makes the garnish quite tall when used with a parasol.
. . .
It is not a cost problem or aesthetic ignorance for us; it's an engineering consideration.

Who knew? I, for one, never appreciated the engineering intracacies involved.

Even without the pineapple, the mana at Purple Orchid is very strong.