Tiki Oasis III Bartending

This was my second Tiki Oasis and it was a blast! Loved the music, especially APE!!
The vendors had great stuff too! But how do you have an exotic weekend with such horrible drinks?? I had a pina colada that had sweet and sour and triple sec in it!! The saddest part is I drank it!! A good idea for next year would be a pina colada contest. Was it just me or is Frenchy Fontaine extremely tasty?

[ Edited by: Monkeyman 2017-04-03 07:50 ]

Yeah...no kidding. That's why you should "have bar will travel". That bartender needs anger management classes too, or a career he's happy in.

my .000000005 cents

Last year they sold drinks by the bar that were terrible too. But last year they tried (in vain) to stop people from bringing their own drinks to the pool. Fortunately they didn't fuss with that this year. Perhaps part of the Reef's evolution will be a new bar menu with a focus on good drinks. It's really the glaring problem at the Tropics. That's why those in the know hit tha 1-3-5 and the 2-1-1 fo shizzle.

-martin

Bad bar? I missed that-I don't drink.

Man oh man - the drinks were TERRIBLE. The bartenders seemed inexperienced to say the least. When I ordered a Mai Tai, one of the bartneders had to ask the other guy how to make one. I heard him say "Just put whatever in it!" My "mai tai" had a lot of pink grenadine and ammeretto (?!) in it. It had no dark rum and cost NINE dollars.
Needless to say, I did not return for more. This wil definitely need to be worked out for the future.
I must say here, though, how PLEASED I am that the Reef Bar is at least open for business. It's looking pretty cool and certainly has some potential for greatness. - once they get some competent bartenders!

Sorry to hear about the bad drinks. At Mondo Tiki the first drink I had was a Mai Tai and was very good. The bartender (at the bar by the vendor tables) made it with Appleton rum, fresh lime pre-squeezed into a plastic bottle, orgeat, curacao, and a float of Myers'. Unfortunately, the rest of the drinks I had later were made by different bartenders (in a different bar as the vendors bar was closed) and ranged from bad to worse. The next Mai Tai I had was made with Bacardi and lots of pineapple juice. What happened to the Appleton? Considering the high cost of the drinks I was pretty disappointed. Obviously the quality of drinks is an important thing to most tiki revelers, but the managers of the events never seem to be able to make it happen (with the exception of the events at Trader Vic's in Emeryville).

They could have done a better job at serving drinks if they were not prancing around behind the bar so much. They only had one blender, they ran out of rum by 8:00 on Friday night. Now anybody can get caught short but running out of rum at a BIG ASS TIKI GATHERING????? If we knew that they did not know how to mix drinks we could have made little recipe cards for them to follow. The one guy was busy being Madonna, holding up two pink tiki mugs to his chest. Definately something that needs to be revised for next year. Other then that everything was cake. Thanks all.

Trustar

Always good to see the Trustar with the the Trufamily- rollin' in tha Trupassat.

I had no idea it was that bad. I'm really glad I didn't get a drink there. It's definitely starting to come together nicely inside, decor-wise.

Plus, there's now an original Shag illustration on the wall inside. (har)

-martin

After hearing the Mai Tai horror stories as soon as we arrived, I stuck the the best drinks at the event - Room 135 - fully stocked with fresh lime and lemon juice, mixers and an array of fine rums.

Doctor Z also made me one fine ass Mai Tai Saturday night.

Why yes, the Doctor was turning out the finest of Mai Tais! Sorry I was such a lightweight and couldn't finish mine. I promise to practice more heavy drinking prior to the next Oasis.

Amen to room/travel bars!...I wouldn't have mind supporting the Reef Bar more but the lack of quality in the drinks, the $9.00 factor and the bartending skills ("just put whatever in it..")left alot to be desired. BTW, how about those mortgage interest rates...

Trustar, are you talking about this guy? Nice guy, real friendly. I still have no idea how this picture got on my camera.

Spike
http://www.kikatiki.com

[ Edited by: Luckydesigns on 2003-05-12 18:55 ]

[ Edited by: Luckydesigns on 2003-05-12 18:56 ]

I remember that guy. I liked him, he was fun and he made a good Blue Hawaiian. Now, where are the rest of your pictures?

Lucky: that guy was the BETTER of the bartenders there. The bar scene at the Reef was indeed atrocious (aside from the decor). I kept thinking to myself, "if ElJab was here, he'd start whooping some ass".

They had a little chalkboard outside the window with a few drinks on it-- incorrectly assuming it was "the list", I ordered something from it-- a Planter's Punch. The guy had no idea how to make it-- so the other bartender told him, in front of everybody there, "just put in some light rum, some dark rum, some pineapple juice, and maybe something else". Still charged me $9.

This of course was after the 15-minute wait. Which wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't been only the third person in line, with TWO bartenders working.

The girl ahead of me ordered "a strawberry daiquiri with vanilla vodka". Sounded pretty yummy to me! But apparently very difficult for the bartender to comprehend. After incorrectly pouring, blending, and then dumping out TWO blenderfuls of some sort of concoction, he finally produced a drink that was the color of white-out and sheepishly asked her to taste it. She asked where the strawberries were, and he didn't have an answer... she finally just took it, even though he still charged her the $9 and had blown about ten minutes to come up with the wrong drink.

Next year, I'm going to bring a hundred of those plastic tiki drink cup thingies, and sell them to everybody at cost.

-mig

[ Edited by: mig on 2003-05-12 19:02 ]

Hope somebody is telling the management about this so next year the problem will be fixed. If I go next year I sure as hell am not going to pay 9 clams for a crappy drink, and I expect the bartenders to have a professional manner. Forget that. I'll cajabuz in my room first then hit the bars, maybe smuggle in some rum and order cokes. Hell I wasn't even there and I'm gettin' pissed off.

The first crappy drink in the plastic tiki mug was $9 and if you wanted a re-fill of the same crappy drink in a regular plastic cup then that was $6.50 if I remember right what I was told by the drink server at the pool. I'm not sure, I think after the 1st one I bought, I just went and made my own.

I gave up on the bar the second night. Thus was born, punk-rock-coors-light-night at the Bamboos' room. I had a great time there and to be honest, at that point, if I had any more rum, I don't think I'd be typing this right now.

An event like the Oasis and a bar like the Reef should have the correct drinks. You don't have to be that British guy in 'Cocktail' in order to make a mai tai correctly.

Ha! I guess I kinda forgot to ever even go IN the Reef Bar! The Humuhumu, Formikahini, and Cajeannetiki room had all the refreshments I needed. I think I had something somewhere else, too...maybe room 135? (Not much left in our little fridge after I left, I can say that much.)

Oh, well, sounds like I didn't miss much at the bar!! But somebody made my drinks WAAAY too strong - oops, that was me. Nevermind.

See if you can tell who had a cocktail from the Reef Bar :( and who had one of Al's Room 135 Cocktails :)

(photos courtesy of Mig)

SugarCaddyDaddy's Schedule!

[ Edited by: SugarCaddyDaddy on 2003-05-14 10:38 ]

CLASSIC!

I ordered a pina colada that tasted like crap, but I thought it was because I was drunk. Oh well, now I know.

SCD, that's some funny sh*t!

Ladies and Gentlemen-
Thanks for your comments. At the very least, I THINK YOU ALL DESERVE THIS EXPLANATION. It is obvious we don't know a whole lot about running a food and beverage operation, which is why we were soooo apprehensive about re-negotiating the bar BACK from La Casita Restaurant, at a HUGE cost, so we could have this guest amenity available, and have some control. Aside from our one part-time bartender (and someone please tell me which one was rude) and two part-time servers, we had no other staff in place for TIKI OASIS III--Friday was a surprise, to say the least. So, other than those three part-timers, everyone who had anything to do with the bar "service" was NEW when they showed-up on Saturday--and we didn't hire any of them until Friday night when we realized what a disaster we had brewing. I think that pretty much explains the poor service and crummy cocktails (although, a few "lucky" guests commented on how great the cocktails were). Moving on, the liquor license is held by La Casita. When La Casita closes, the REEF has to close (which is always by 9:30pm, at the latest). We have already negotiated with La Casita to have the restaurant open until midnight in 2004, meaning the REEF can stay open as well. And, BY LAW, when a business holds the type of liquor license "we" have, outside beverages are not allowed in any of the licensed areas (pool or Tahitian Lanai). We have already consulted with a seasoned Beverage Manager, to help with the process of bringing the REEF up to our guests' expectations. We sincerely regret our inability to find someone of this caliber prior to our opening on March 28 of this year. With all of this experience behind us, WE EXPECT THE REEF TO BE OPERATING AT FULL-TILT COME JANAURY 2004. Our goal is to operate the REEF in a manner that compliments the outstanding artful makeover executed by Ski, Crazy Al, and Bamboo Ben. WE ARE EXTREMELY GRATEFUL THEY, AND ALL OF YOU, HAVE WELCOMED US INTO THE WORLD OF TIKI. We feel blessed and very fortunate to have this kind of support! Thank you all! Casey Jones; Director, World information Center

Ha ha ha ha ha
You guys are killing me.
Chongolio

Casey,

I thought you all were trying hard to make us Tiki Freaks happy. Life is usually about trial and error - we all learned a few things that we can apply next year.

Ok, all kidding aside, even though alot of people didn't get very good drinks, I must say that Casey is right about La Casita. They did pretty much have the Caliente's hands tied on operations and quality control. The taller of the two bartenders, Robert, actually said outwardly that he was not a bartender, but, in order to help out, he stepped into help ease some of the pressure off of the "main" bartender, who also admitted that he really wished he had a Grog Log or Intoxica book to go by since the drinks being requested were totally foreign to him.

Robert was very helpful. The other bartender, I believe, just didn't know what he was getting into.

Most people were, understandibly, expecting top-notch drinks at this event. I would too. With all the really hard work that BambooBen & CrazyAl did on the bar, I was hoping that all of that would not be overshadowed by the lack of tasty drinks, but unfortunately, I think that's what happened.

I will be returning to The Tropics, not only because of Tiki Oasis IV, but because I know that Casey really does everything in his power to accomodate his guests, and I support any business that believes and practices customer service. Yeah, you can't change what already happened , but believe me, Casey will do anything and everything possible to ensure that next years drinks will be better.

Casey's always open to suggestions to make The Tropics better all the time, so maybe a drink consultation with Beachbum Berry, Big Al & Martiki? As an addition or backup to next year, why not get the bartenders from Trader Vic's to come down like they did at Tiki Farms Tiki Bash in San Clemente in 2002?

Just my 2 coconuts worth

I'm glad that Casey is actually concerned about the bar situation. Anywhere else, and we could have easily been shrugged off. At least there will be an effort to improve things and maybe we'll be lucky enough to get tropical drinks made the right way - with fresh mint, fresh lime/lemon juice, etc. Other than TV's (and the Lagoon Room), who's really doing that anymore? Here's a chance to setup the bar right! If so, a return trip for a weekend to Caliente Tropics would be worth the trip - on my own without having to be coaxed out for a big event like Oasis.

hmmm, sounds sincere to me, I mean he didn't have to respond, but he did.

and we didn't hire any of them until Friday night when we realized what a disaster we had brewing

Casey Jones, you're cool. How long will it take till we get our own indie movie? The scene of the Caliente Tropics managers pulling people in off the street on Friday night to bartend, classic!

This was the best one I heard:

Patron: I would like a Mai Tai.

Barkeep 1: Oh, my Mai Tais are not that good he (Barkeep 2) makes the best Mai Tais.

Barkeep 2: I don't know how to make a Mai Tai.

Barkeep 1: So what do I do.

Barkeep 2: Just put whatever in there.

(Patron leaves for Rom 135)

No joke on the above exchange.

TB

Casey
Thanks for the reply and explanations. I know you didn't have to say a thing but you stepped up to the plate. Your candor is refreshing. I shall return! Maybe you should also look into security in case those "ball poppers" return. Also get some WD-40 for those trash carts that your guys push through the parking lot at 7:45 am...those are obnoxious at that hour with a hangover... Aloha!

The wifey and I actually got some good drinks although from a stressed out overworked bartender. It was hot in that bar, really hot!
I suggest for next year we get some fans in there to cool things off, more bartenders and a seperate set of turntables in the bar so that people can lounge and sip their drinks to some cool exotica tunes. I would even bring some cool lights to hang up and stuff. Whaddya think?

Hi Guys and Gals!

There seems to be some discussion regarding the drinks at Tiki Oasis and, by association, some speculation about the drinks at the upcoming fabulous Hukilau.

On Saturday night, the Mai Kai's drinks will speak for themselves. Anyone who's been there can attest that it doesn't get much better than that. But the question is: what of the Friday night event at the host hotel??? Can a hotel baquet bar deliver a beverage worth calling "good grog"?

I spoke with Doug, the F&B Director at the Holiday Inn. Turns out he used to own a Polynesian restaurant in New Jersey for 19 years. It was called East Winds and was located in Scotch Plains on Route 22 (any New Jersyites ever been to it?). Anyway, this boy knows Tiki dinks and is going to work up a couple of choices to go with the usual banquet bar offerings. When he gives us the lowdown (choices, prices, etc.) we'll be sure and post it.

I suspect that with a seasoned tiki drink maker, we'll be in good hands.

As always, if anyone has questions or concerns, please email me at: [email protected]

Thanks!
Tristan, humble Hukilau coorganizer

Unfortunately myself and Mrs. ModMana ordered a couple of the $9 Mai Tais. The bartenders were very friendly and seemed to genuinely be trying very hard to please...but we watched in amazement as they seemed to just dump whatever was handy into our glasses. Clearly they did not have a clue how to mix a Mai Tai (arguably the most common tropical drink we could have ordered). You could see his brain work as he was mixing...."uhhhh, put a bunch of rum in it, then fill it up with 2 or 3 other random liquers and, bam!, it's a Mai Tai, right". Well, no, they were horrible. However, we weren't about to waste $9 drinks, so we choked'em down anyway. On a positive note, they were incredibly strong. One of those was all it took to kick our ass for the entire afternoon. After that, we chose to mix our own in the "room bar".

Having said that, I really appreciate what CaseyJ had to say in his explanation of the situation. I'm confident that this year's event was a good learning experience for them and next year we will all enjoy great drinks from the Reef.

ModMana :drink:

Casey, using the Grog Log would be good but the Reef at the Tropics should have it's own signature drink. You could call it The Reefer.

[ Edited by: johnnievelour on 2003-05-16 14:35 ]

"The Reefer"

Hee-Hee-Hee