My Trip To The Mai Kai & Wreck Bar

The Mrs & I finally made it the Mai Kai last Saturday at the end of our Florida vacation. We rented a nice house on Marco Island for a week. There's nothing tiki to be found on Marco or in nearby Naples at all, so we set up a nice bar at the house, and spent the week lounging in the pool, listening to music (including a lot of exotica) and drinking cocktails

We had a fantastic time at the Mai Kai. We got there an hour early for our 8pm reservations so we could enjoy a few drinks and some appetizers at the bar before dinner. We started off with a Jet Pilot and a Mai Tai. Both were really great, especially the Jet Pilot.

We shared a Sidewinder's Fang with dinner. It's a great drink for two, and was a perfect accompaniment to our dinners (which were wonderful BTW).

The floor show was awesome

we moved back to the bar after dinner (we were taking a taxi, so why not!), the Mrs had a Kona Coffee Grog and I had a Black Magic (the only drink that I didn't care for-it was well made, just not my cup o' tea).

We went to the gift shop and bought a Mai Kai Bowl, some other mugs and some jewelry for the wife. Then we went back to the bar and finished up with a Yeoman's Grog and a Zombie. We took a taxi back to the hotel and pretty much passed out. It was a great vacation, and a great trip to the Mai Kai.

I wish that I could write such wonderful words about our visit to the Wreck Bar. We were really excited about going to the famous Wreck Bar, but when we got there we were greeted by crappy service, an awful drink menu, even worse overpriced and poorly made drinks, and no less than 5 TV's blaring football games at high volume, at least two in every direction that you looked.

We ordered a "sailor's Rum Punch", the only remotely tiki-ish cocktail on the Wreck Bar's awful drink menu. The cocktail did not contain so much as a trace of fresh lime juice. It was a watered down, generic disgrace of a cocktail, and a total rip-off at $12 apiece. We left after one drink-there was simply no point in staying. The current atmosphere at the Wreck Bar is as bad as any generic hotel bar that I have had the displeasure of visiting over the years. Sheraton is doing a disservice to the heritage of the Wreck Bar (as well as the memory of it's old Polynesian Room) with the current service at the Wreck Bar. Perhaps they should have just done away with the Wreck Bar rather than allowing it to languish in it's present state.

Anyway, it was a great vacation, and we can't wait until our next trip to Florida so that we can visit the Mai Kai again. Thanks to all of my fellow TCer's for their advice on visiting the Mai Kai!

Mahalo,

Craig

[ Edited by: CincyTikiCraig 2010-10-06 12:29 ]

I noticed something about the Mai Kai's drinks, they all tend to have a wonderful viscosity. That is, they have a particularly thick and silky mouth feel, an unctuousness if you will. It's a texture that's missing in the Tiki Cocktails that I make at home. I wonder how they get this texture in their drinks? There's definitely honey involved, but there's something else as well. I use honey syrup generously in many of my drinks (Navy Grog for instance), but I don't get quite this level of silky texture in my drinks, so there's something else going on here. Could the Mai Tai be using the legendary Don The Beachcomber honey butter mix in their drinks? That milk fat would explain the distinctive texture. Any Mai Kai veterans out there wanna give their two cents?

On 2010-10-06 12:26, CincyTikiCraig wrote:
I noticed something about the Mai Kai's drinks, they all tend to have a wonderful viscosity. That is, they have a particularly thick and silky mouth feel, an unctuousness if you will. It's a texture that's missing in the Tiki Cocktails that I make at home. I wonder how they get this texture in their drinks? There's definitely honey involved, but there's something else as well. I use honey syrup generously in many of my drinks (Navy Grog for instance), but I don't get quite this level of silky texture in my drinks, so there's something else going on here. Could the Mai Tai be using the legendary Don The Beachcomber honey butter mix in their drinks? That milk fat would explain the distinctive texture. Any Mai Kai veterans out there wanna give their two cents?

Could it be they are using gomme syrup in place of regular simple syrup? I've not been there, so I can't say, but gomme syrup would explain the silky mouth feel you are describing.

Nice post, I hope to visit someday. FYI, if you put trip visits into this forum...

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=10334&forum=2

it's one-stop shopping for anyone looking for Mai Kai information. :)

On 2010-10-06 12:32, Trader Tom wrote:

On 2010-10-06 12:26, CincyTikiCraig wrote:
I noticed something about the Mai Kai's drinks, they all tend to have a wonderful viscosity. That is, they have a particularly thick and silky mouth feel, an unctuousness if you will. It's a texture that's missing in the Tiki Cocktails that I make at home. I wonder how they get this texture in their drinks? There's definitely honey involved, but there's something else as well. I use honey syrup generously in many of my drinks (Navy Grog for instance), but I don't get quite this level of silky texture in my drinks, so there's something else going on here. Could the Mai Tai be using the legendary Don The Beachcomber honey butter mix in their drinks? That milk fat would explain the distinctive texture. Any Mai Kai veterans out there wanna give their two cents?

Could it be they are using gomme syrup in place of regular simple syrup? I've not been there, so I can't say, but gomme syrup would explain the silky mouth feel you are describing.

Good point Tom, cold be a combo of honey & gomme syrup.

CincyTikiCraig - I'm glad you guys enjoyed your vacation so much. Not many of us from Ohio seem to make it to that fantastic Tiki temple. I made it once, but don't expect it to happen again. Thanks for describing your adventure.

On 2010-10-06 17:02, Robb Hamel wrote:
CincyTikiCraig - I'm glad you guys enjoyed your vacation so much. Not many of us from Ohio seem to make it to that fantastic Tiki temple. I made it once, but don't expect it to happen again. Thanks for describing your adventure.

I know what you mean. The Mrs & I have been renting a house on Marco Island ( http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p164576 )for four years now, and this is the first time that we've made it over to Ft Lauderdale and the Mai Kai. I'm glad that we finally made it, but now I'm going to want to go every year!

On 2010-10-06 12:26, CincyTikiCraig wrote:
I noticed something about the Mai Kai's drinks, they all tend to have a wonderful viscosity. That is, they have a particularly thick and silky mouth feel, an unctuousness if you will. It's a texture that's missing in the Tiki Cocktails that I make at home. I wonder how they get this texture in their drinks? There's definitely honey involved, but there's something else as well. I use honey syrup generously in many of my drinks (Navy Grog for instance), but I don't get quite this level of silky texture in my drinks, so there's something else going on here. Could the Mai Tai be using the legendary Don The Beachcomber honey butter mix in their drinks? That milk fat would explain the distinctive texture. Any Mai Kai veterans out there wanna give their two cents?

Ah yes, the distinctive Mai-Kai taste and texture. This phenomenon has for years amazed and perplexed everyone from humble regulars like myself to experts like Beachbum Berry. None of us can truly figure it out, and that's part of the allure. The best explanation I can give is that all the syrups and mixes are made fresh in-house from proprietary recipes that date back some 50 years. I wouldn't be surprised to find honey butter or any number of Donn Beach secrets still in play.

I see you didn't waste time making a dent in the vast menu. Very impressive. On your next visit, I'd suggest: Cobra Kiss and Zula if you're looking for some intense, unique flavors; 151 Swizzle, Special Planters Punch and Barrel O' Rum if you're looking for high-octane classics; and the Shark Bite and Rum Julep if you're looking for well-balanced medium drinks with that elusive, mysterious texture.

As far as making a Mai-Kai drink at home, I usually turn to page 157 of Sippin' Safari for the late, great Big Bamboo and page 82 of Taboo Table for the Barrel O' Rum. These are pretty straightforward, no secret syrups revealed. But they never fail to remind me of the Mai-Kai. Almost all attempts I've seen at reverse engineering other drinks do not come close.

Try to make it back for The Hukilau next June. We'll be celebrating not only the festival's 10th anniversary but the 55th anniversary of the Mai-Kai. Included in the festivities will be a special exhibit at the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art of Mai-Kai artifacts that were donated decades ago and have never been seen by the public. Mahalo!

On 2010-10-06 12:26, CincyTikiCraig wrote:
I noticed something about the Mai Kai's drinks, they all tend to have a wonderful viscosity. That is, they have a particularly thick and silky mouth feel, an unctuousness if you will.

That reminds me of a tale about my friend Jamie, who was invited to a Hawaiian themed garden party. So he turns up with his own tiki mug to add add a touch of proper luau authenticity to the affair. The host serves an acceptable rum punch, he drinks two mugs of punch but the third one has a syrupy texture.
He continues to drink the punch but the drink is now quite viscous and on the second to last drink the punch is now distinctly slimy.
My friend Jamie is amazed how anyone could make a drink that starts of liquid but changes its texture while you drink it. So he tips back the last swig and as he does it a dead snail clunks against his teeth. "Its amazing how much slime a snail in its death throws will produce" he said to me after.

Missed you by one day!
Ahhh, maybe next time.

Great post Cincy and love your descriptions of everything. I doubt I will ever get to Florida so I always live vicariously through everyone's Mai Kai posts. I'm a light-weight, so appreciate your drink consumption there...plus your hotel room bar looks pretty darned substantial. :)

Too bad you didn't get to hook up with any of the local FOM ohana while you were there. They are auspicious hosts and know every nook and cranny of the Mai-Kai.

On 2010-10-07 22:14, rugbymatt wrote:
Too bad you didn't get to hook up with any of the local FOM ohana while you were there. They are auspicious hosts and know every nook and cranny of the Mai-Kai.

I definitely want to hookup with some local tikiphiles next year! It was my Wife's birthday dinner, so we kept the night low key (well, relatively speaking at least!)