Official Hukilau 2010 Room Crawl Thread

I just posted another album to Facebook with 100+ photos from the 2010: A Cocktail Odyssey Room Crawl and Master Mixology Cocktail Challenge. Not the best photos, but taken while judging room decor and cocktails, with a little buzz on (with a new camera that seemed to switch modes on its own).

I'm also about to post another 100+ taken at the Mai Kai Saturday night.

I don't have the patience to upload them to my gallery, so feel free to view them on Facebook. Chances are we're already friends, and if not, let's be. If you're not on Facebook, get with the program. It's the 90's now

On 2010-06-17 05:03, JETSETTER wrote:
I just posted another album to Facebook with 100+ photos from the 2010: A Cocktail Odyssey Room Crawl and Master Mixology Cocktail Challenge. Not the best photos, but taken while judging room decor and cocktails, with a little buzz on (with a new camera that seemed to switch modes on its own).

I'm also about to post another 100+ taken at the Mai Kai Saturday night.

I don't have the patience to upload them to my gallery, so feel free to view them on Facebook. Chances are we're already friends, and if not, let's be. If you're not on Facebook, get with the program. It's the 90's now

Tried to find you on FB and couldn't? Can you post a link? Here's mine:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Zerostreet-Illustration/173648555732?ref=ts

On 2010-06-17 05:14, zerostreet wrote:

On 2010-06-17 05:03, JETSETTER wrote:
I just posted another album to Facebook with 100+ photos from the 2010: A Cocktail Odyssey Room Crawl and Master Mixology Cocktail Challenge. Not the best photos, but taken while judging room decor and cocktails, with a little buzz on (with a new camera that seemed to switch modes on its own).

I'm also about to post another 100+ taken at the Mai Kai Saturday night.

I don't have the patience to upload them to my gallery, so feel free to view them on Facebook. Chances are we're already friends, and if not, let's be. If you're not on Facebook, get with the program. It's the 90's now

Tried to find you on FB and couldn't? Can you post a link? Here's mine:

Sorry, there might be a few Mike Joneses on there. I'm not the rapper dude BTW.

Here I am facebook.com/imikejones

Thanks Mike! Just sent a friend request.

Hey, Room Hosts...... any of you care to guess as to about how many revelers passed through your rooms on Thursday?

Does anyone have the recipe for the Grotto drink from the room crawl?
Thanks

On 2010-06-17 15:42, TikiRenee wrote:
Does anyone have the recipe for the Grotto drink from the room crawl?
Thanks

It's posted above this in the thread along with photos of the winners.

On 2010-06-17 15:17, Chip and Andy wrote:
Hey, Room Hosts...... any of you care to guess as to about how many revelers passed through your rooms on Thursday?

Well, we served over 300 drinks. Some folks had seconds but not that many. We were open longer than we were supposed to because the lines were long and we wanted folks to be able to get in and sample our wares. We went through an obscene amount of Seven Tiki rum.

Robotiki
Mira Mar League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

[ Edited by: robotiki 2010-06-18 12:53 ]

Participants: Feel free to post any of the other non-winning recipes. They were all top-notch. And more room crawl or contest photos (or links). It would be nice to keep this thread going.

I'm working on an official press release that I'll be posting along with the official photos when they're available. I'll also be sending it out to cocktail press. Beachbum Berry will be posting a story on his blog as well.

Mahalo!

On 2010-06-17 15:49, JETSETTER wrote:

On 2010-06-17 15:42, TikiRenee wrote:
Does anyone have the recipe for the Grotto drink from the room crawl?
Thanks

It's posted above this in the thread along with photos of the winners.

Oops! My mistake. Hubby asked for the recipe for the Grotto drink and I did not realize that was the name of the room. Guess I had to many drinks that night, all of them very good.
Thanks for the info.

Recipe for winning room decor:
Step 1. Be presented with a theme that you know you've got the goods for. When we heard the theme included space & space age, we knew we had the props to pull it off.
Materials needed: 1 big-ass robot

Step 2. Find out the hotel is sold out, but get lucky and have Tiki Kiliki contact you with a cancellation.

Step 3. Road trip. Like any good art director, I scouted the location. Took a trip earlier this year to Ft Lauderdale to see the room and take measurements. I knew it would be small, and if the bed was attached to the floor, we'd be sunk as far as really doing anything of worth. Luckily the bed was not, and I measured an alcove off the bathroom and made sure all the furniture would stack up in there. Our room was 10'x12'. Very small for what we could have brought

(I had planned on bringing Chip but we did not have the space). http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=32959&forum=5

Step 4. Work out a scale plan.

Step 5. Make props. Sticking a robot in a hotel room with it's yellow walls would look like a robot in a hotel room. We wanted to really transform the space. We sought out to find something to cover the walls with that would be easy to set up and not damage the hotel room in any way. A few trips to Home Depot and we discovered 4x8 panels of insulation foam that had a silver reflective coating on one side. It was light, and it's size meant we'd only have to make 9 panels. Excess from a short panel was cut up to go around the door frame. There was too much silver in it's raw form, so we painted them turquoise on the bottom 40"
Materials needed: 4x8 panels, lot of double faced tape, paint and wreath forms.

(My big Tiki Farm Moai fire pit oversaw the painting)

We made portholes for the right hand wall out of styrofoam floral wreath forms. My helper did the painting.

The bar we already had. It was one I custom made for our clubhouse last year. It's been on my back porch since we lost the building to development.

Step 6. Strip Trader Ricks back porch of his bigger tikis, and grab a bunch from my back yard.

Step 7. Load up two SUV's and a cargo trailer stuffed to the brim, including crap strapped on top. A investor stopped as we were packing asking if my mid-century house was going to be for sale--looked like we were stripping the place.

BTW, we are AWFULLY GLAD we decided to take the bikes! It was the best way to get around.

Step 7. After damn near killing ourselves loading and unloading the goods, we stuffed the entire hotel room into the back alcove and installed the wall panels.

Step 8. Fill bar
Materials needed: A couple dozen bottles of rum and untold quantities of various mix ingredients.

Step 9. Add fountain, lighting and tikis.

Step 10. Prepare for guests.

Step 11. open the door and pour, repeat as needed.

And yes, to edit my post, as Jetsetter mentioned below: Step 12: Take care of the folks patiently in line. We stayed open an hour and a half longer to accommodate everyone. Trader Rick was drenched to the bone with sweat furiously mixing each drink (no punch bowl for us!) Luckily we had a big picture window folks could watch Robby singing in the "blue fishbowl" whilst waiting their turn.
BTW if anyone has any additional pictures of our room, please PM me as we were too busy to take more than a few after we opened.

Robotiki
Mira Mar League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

[ Edited by: robotiki 2010-06-19 17:30 ]

On 2010-06-19 07:58, robotiki wrote:
Recipe for winning room decor:

---

Robotiki
Mira Mar League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

[ Edited by: robotiki 2010-06-19 08:50 ]

Don't forget Step 12 (in the 12 step program ;) - Take good care of ALL the people on line!

Did anyone lose a pair of sunglasses during the room crawl? Let me know...I may have them.

FYI, the glasses were found in the "Skylounge" penthouse where the Master Mixologist contest took place.

Now, check out a gallery of photos from 2010: A Cocktail Odyssey courtesy of Bill Dillard and Go11Media.com (plus a few others) ...

http://www.slammie.com/hukilau/roomcrawl/photos/2010_room_crawl/

Master Mixologist Cocktail Challenge recap, recipes and photos

Five competitors, four mystery ingredients, just 20 minutes to make a taste-tempting Tiki drink that will impress our expert judges and earn one winner the title Master Mixologist of Hukilau 2010. This was the challenge thrust upon the contestants in the first annual Master Mixologist Cocktail Challenge.

The contest was the highlight of the opening-night party at Hukilau 2010 in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday, June 10. Hundreds gathered at midnight in and around the beachside "Skylounge" penthouse to see this first-of-a-kind competition inspired by such Food Network contest shows as "Iron Chef" and "Chopped."

The penthouse's centrally located, sunken kitchen was transformed into a mixology "arena" as spectators gathered on all sides to watch the thrilling competition. The five competitors assembled at their workstations with all the tools they needed to create a memorable exotic drink.

The contestants bravely raced the clock and ignored the surrounding chaos. Hukilau organizers and Tiki celebrities were right on top of them in the crowded kitchen as King Kukulele hovered on the counter above offering his distinctive running commentary and zany comments.

But the mixologists were unfazed. All five did an amazing job of completing the drinks and samples before time ran out and they were all received warmly, albeit with some criticism, by the expert panel. They all presented professional, fully garnished cocktails in one of the specialty glasses available to them.

The judges rated the drinks on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest). Here are the official results, including contestant name, drink name and score.

• Ken MacArthur, "Atomic Rust," 2.7
• Al Nagas, "Aqua Velva," 3.0
• Samantha Kuras, "Just Drink It," 3.0
• Ken Kanaka, "Lewa Lumi (A Recipe for Disaster)," 3.3
• Grady Johnson, "Hell in a Handbasket," 4.3 (see photo below)

Here are the recipes for the the runner-up and winner:

Lewa Lumi (A Recipe for Disaster)
Ken Kanaka

• 2 ounces fresh-squeezed orange juice
• 1 ounce Bacardi 8 rum
• 1/4 ounce Trader Tiki's Don's Mix
• 2 ounces Seven Tiki spiced rum
• 1/2 ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice
• Dash Angostura bitters

Shake with ice and serve in a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cinnamon stick gently wrapped with a long orange twist.

Hell in a Handbasket
Grady Johnson

Main drink
In a cocktail shaker, combine:
• 2 ounces Seven Tiki spiced rum
• 1 ounce El Dorado 15-year-old Demerara rum
• 2 ounces fresh-squeezed orange juice
• 1 ounce Trader Tiki's Don's Mix
• 1 ounce Trader Vic's macadamia nut liquor
Set aside

Shot
In a second cocktail shaker, combine:
• 2 ounces Bacardi 8 rum
• 1/2 ounce Trader Tiki's cinnamon syrup
Muddle with fresh mint
Set aside

Garnish (assemble handbasket)
• Fresh lemon: Slice in half widthwise. Core flesh from one lemon half, leaving rind intact and about 1/8-inch of flesh
• Fresh orange: Cut in half widthwise. Cut circular slice from center. Cut circle in half, removing flesh from half-circle. Use peel as a handle for lemon basket. Secure with toothpicks and garnish with cherries.

Pour drink
• Shake main drink with ice
• Rim a wide-stemmed glass with brown sugar, fill with ice
• Strain main drink into glass
• Quickly suspend "handbasket" over rim of glass with toothpicks
• Strain shot into basket and float Lemon Hart 151 Demerara rum
• Ignite and serve

To drink
• Blow out flames
• Do the shot
• Cool your jets with the main drink

Welcome to Hell!

HAYWARD'S SUGGESTED SUBSTITUTION:
After playing around with both drinks, I'd suggest 1 ounce of fresh-squeezed lemon juice in lieu of 1 ounce of orange juice in both drinks. The sour lemon gives Lewa Lumi an extra layer of flavor and cuts back on the overload of OJ. And it counter-acts the over-the-top sweetness of Hell in a Handbasket.

If you sample these two drinks, keep in mind that they were created in battle conditions. Try this challenge at home in see what you can come up with in 20 minutes or less featuring Bacardi 8, Seven Tiki, Trader Tiki's Don's Mix and a fresh orange. Our contestants handled the challenge admirably.

Click on the link below to see a photo gallery of all the highlights of the contest (photos courtesy of Go11Media.com and Mike Jones) ...

http://www.slammie.com/hukilau/roomcrawl/photos/2010_challenge/

[ Edited by: Hurricane Hayward 2010-07-08 00:05 ]

[ Edited by: Hurricane Hayward 2010-07-08 00:16 ]

i lost a pair of brown maui jim shorelines at the hukilau, but i wasnt at the room crawl.

mr. ho

Congratulations to the Crazed Mugs' Ken Kanak... oh wait - he got second?

You're out of the band.

No, really congrats braddah.
Looking forward to tasting some of that as I am heartily intrigued by the Trader Tiki mixers.

Oh, by the way.

robotiki - I can't decide whether you're a benevolent or evil genius. But the genius part isn't in dispute.

Wow.

Haven't seen enough photos yet? Go11Media.com has more than 700 from Thursday night's festivities ...

http://photos.go11media.com/Hukilau/Hukilau-2010/Hukilau-2010-Thursday-Night/

On 2010-06-26 17:55, pablus wrote:

Oh, by the way.

robotiki - I can't decide whether you're a benevolent or evil genius. But the genius part isn't in dispute.

Wow.

When I am good, I am very good, but when I am bad, I am verrrry bad......

While I coordinated the decoration, The room was a team effort and it would have been a sad state of affairs without Trader Rick and Anthea, No one wants to drink anything I'd mix up. And without Miss Congeniality, we'd just be a couple of middle aged guys sloshing out booze. I just wished a couple of our absent members could have been there to complete the picture... though I am not sure they would have fit.

Actually, the credit should all go to Bahi Hut mai tais, because it was after a few of these and some goading from Trader Rick that the hair brain scheme to drag Robby to a dinky hotel room in SO FL begin to hatch. After we sobered up I kept waiting for us to come to our senses, but that hasn't happened yet...

Hey Hurricane et al,

any issue with me adding those recipes to the Trader Tiki site?

On 2010-06-29 12:56, Trader Tiki wrote:
Hey Hurricane et al,

any issue with me adding those recipes to the Trader Tiki site?

None whatsoever... make 'em famous!

seeing how it was done has made me even more impressed. We were so tired by the time we even made it to the crawl, but seeing Robby made it all worth it!

Well documented Robotiki ! You guys did a great job !

Here are a handful of pics we took during the room crawl!
~Cheers!

Complete room crawl recap in words and photos:

http://www.thehukilau.com/roomcrawl/