Trader Vic's Portland Anniversary

We're celebrating one year since the return of Trader Vic's to Portland. Check out all the details of the Aug 15 festivities (along with the other major Portland tiki happenings in August) here: http://tradervicspdx.com/tiki-month-and-the-anniversary-of-trader-vics-portland/.

For you mug collectors, the second LE Munktiki Portland Trader Vic's mug goes on sale on their website on Aug 15. SLE mugs will be available at the restaurant that day. Details here: http://tradervicspdx.com/get-mugged-at-trader-vics-portland/

Congrats, and Kudos for doing it right.
I wish you continued success.

Hope to get up there soon, someday.

Jeff(btd)

Portland Trader Vic's is my birthday destination of choice (August 24)! I look forward to spending my special day in your awesome establishment!

Very cool! I drank and dined at Vic's on a recent trip to Portland. I was very pleased to find that they served the best salmon of any I had during the course of my trip. The bar was great fun, although the drinks I tried, including their signature Mai Tai, were mixed significantly sweeter than the original or historical recipes. My bartender was very open and honest about that, and I was impressed by his willingness to talk openly. I concluded that the general public may prefer sweeter cocktails, so the bartenders (or management?) take this into account. The atmosphere inside was good although definitely "updated" as opposed to a dimly-lit tiki environment. I went on a weeknight and it was busy but there was only a short wait for a table. My group had a great time and a very good experience here that night.

I'd love one of the super limited mugs, if anyone's inclined to purchase an extra.

Shoot! Wish I could make it, guess I'll have to settle for the not-quite-as-special mug if i can snag one before they sell out immediately on Munktiki.

KokoKele, we have the same birthday. I'll have to remember to say Hau'oli lā hānau!

On 2012-07-26 21:47, KokoKele wrote:
Portland Trader Vic's is my birthday destination of choice (August 24)! I look forward to spending my special day in your awesome establishment!

On 2012-07-27 04:34, AceExplorer wrote:
Very cool! I drank and dined at Vic's on a recent trip to Portland. I was very pleased to find that they served the best salmon of any I had during the course of my trip. The bar was great fun, although the drinks I tried, including their signature Mai Tai, were mixed significantly sweeter than the original or historical recipes. My bartender was very open and honest about that, and I was impressed by his willingness to talk openly. I concluded that the general public may prefer sweeter cocktails, so the bartenders (or management?) take this into account. The atmosphere inside was good although definitely "updated" as opposed to a dimly-lit tiki environment. I went on a weeknight and it was busy but there was only a short wait for a table. My group had a great time and a very good experience here that night.

Glad you enjoyed it. The bartenders pretty much go by the book on the Mai Tai recipe. As you point out, the book has changed over the years for a number of reasons (not the least of which is the availability of particular rums). And, of course, the ingredients themselves change from time to time (suppliers change the make up of their Orgeat or whatever). There's also quite a difference between the standard issue Mai Tai and the 1944, the latter having a bit more alcohol -- particularly if you get a float of 151 -- as well as slightly different ingredients.

The good news is that the bartenders are pretty solid and can make tweaks to suit individual tastes. In addition, we've added quite a bit to our rum library, so there are options for an ever-increasing number of variants.

The Portland bartenders have also been working on a few drinks that aren't sweet at all. One of the featured drinks this month, The Sandy Bottom, is anything but sweet.

BTW, if you haven't seen it, here's an interesting article on the evolution of the recipe over the years (you should also know that some of the recipes you see in books, etc, sometimes aren't quite the same as what they use in the bar).

Cheers.

I'm happy to say we have our reservation and are looking forward to it!

will try to visit in the next 2 weeks... We shall see where our road trip leads - but its leading up that way!

Meee tooo!! TVPDX is awesome, my wife and I celebrated our anniversary there last November! Great drink and food!! My wife even went back and got me a TV coconut mug for Christmas last year. I wish I made it downtown more often!

Yup, I agree that Vic's in downtown Portland is a great place. Really had the best salmon of my entire trip when I was at Vic's, it really surprised me...

Now when will Portland flesh out their Chinatown? We went to see Chinatown and experience it like we do in all big cities that have one, but it was very sparse to the point of almost being non-existent.

Portland's "Chinatown" has never been...and will never be anything like SF's or NYC's. Most folks here refer to the area as "Old Town."

But don't miss the Lam Su Chinese Gardens in chinatown! They are incredible!