Saturday, June 29 • Bethesda/Washington, DC area Tiki evening

Aloha!
(see new update at bottom)

Local Tiki evening in the works….

Open to all, but especially for those unlucky souls who did not get to go to Rum Renaissance, Hukilau, or next week's Ohana - Luau at the Lake, we are gathering for a Tiki evening right in your backyard. (If you did get to go to one of these great events, bring samples! Rum always appreciated.)

On Saturday, June 29th an small band of local ohana, plus known and suspected lovers of Exotica, Hawaiian shirts and rum, will gather in Bethesda, Maryland for a evening of Tiki drinks and music. Our excursion will start at 8 pm at Shanghai Village for small plates and rum drinks, eventually flowing down Bethesda Avenue to the House of Foong Lin (just a few blocks up the street). There we will enjoy libations from one of the area's best Tiki drink menus since the closing of DC's Trader Vic's, while Exotica plays in the background.

No ticket needed. (Everyone just takes care of their own tab)

About the stops...
Shanghai Village offers terrific food and great Tiki drinks in a traditional Chinese restaurant setting. Tiki trivia: the owner/chef of Shanghai Village worked the bar at Trader Vic's in the 1970's and has taken some of the best recipes with him.

House of Foong Lin also offers wonderful food and great drinks, and has a bar/lounge area which allows for greater socializing and mingling (ya gotsta mingle!). An added bonus, a great bartender who not only does great Tiki, but she will whip up any drink you like if she has the ingredients. Tip: they have the only decent Black Magic this side of the Mai Kai.

Both places have very reasonable drink prices (most Tiki drinks are $6-$9) and menus that can cater to both the budget conscious and those on an expense account. If you are at a table, separate checks are possible provided you ask your server when you start your order.

I'm afraid that neither place is very Tiki, unless you count some mugs, but hats off to both of them for having superior Tiki drink choices. On that night, if we have a decent number of folks in Hawaiian shirts, we'll be the decor :)

For a sake of a head count to make our time at these places go smoother, a RSVP including how many would be helpful. Please note whether you'll be starting with us at Shanghai Village at 8, or just jumping in at House of Foong Lin (starting at around 9:30). You can PM me, or email me at dr.coruba(at)outlook(dot)com

As always, the more the merrier, so invite anyone you think might like the vibe. Just give be sure to give me a clue on the numbers.

Some of you regulars know where we are going, but for those who may not…

Shanghai Village
4929 Bethesda Ave
Bethesda, MD 20814

House of Foong Lin
4613 Willow Lane
Bethesda, MD 20815

If Shanghai Village is busy, parking can be tight. There is a garage about a block down Bethesda Ave.
At House of Foong Lin, there is a very large 200 space municipal lot right across the street AND parking is FREE in the lot on weekends.

Jeff aka Dr. Coruba

UPDATED 6/27
Because our confirmed number is now above 20, our time for making it to House of Foong Lin has changed. For those who may be skipping Shanghai Village and going straight to House of Foong Lin, the main party will probably arrive at House of Foong Lin by about 9:30.

[ Edited by: Dr. Coruba 2013-06-19 14:49 ]

[ Edited by: Dr. Coruba 2013-06-19 14:57 ]

[ Edited by: Dr. Coruba 2013-06-27 10:56 ]

I'm in. I'll double check on my entourage and see who I can wrangle up for the rest of the evening. Will send you a PM or an email with the info. =)

So far we are hovering around 20 for the evening, a very nice group indeed. At House of Foong Lin, we'll be able to provide some CDs which they'll be happy to play for us in the lounge. Feel free to bring some of your favorite Exotica. Can't promise we will get to every last disk, but we can try!

Super bummed to be missing this by just a couple weeks. Mr. Ho's Orchestrotica will be in town on July 21, so I will have to try to stop by some of these places when we are there. For much better craft cocktails, I would highly recommend founding farmers which I visited the last time I was in town performing. I had an excellent swizzle there , The Queens Park if I remember correctly.

For this Saturday, we chose a couple of very close spots who have the largest selection of Tiki drinks and good food. If this goes well, and folks are up for it, we could do another mini-crawl to include "Farmers, Fishers, Bakers" which is the Founding Farmers most recent opening which takes their cocktail concept one step further and has an expanded Tiki menu, the most of all the Founding Farmers group of restaurants.

[ Edited by: Dr. Coruba 2013-06-26 11:35 ]

Definitely putting that new location in my back pocket for July's
Tour. Thanks!

Mr. Ho

For those impulsive souls who might like to join in at the last minute...

Because we need a firm headcount for our 8 pm Shanghai Village stop (the seating capacity there is more limited), please still RSVP for that. (email me or PM me by Friday night)

However, our anytime after 9:30 pm at House of Foong Lin has much more capacity, so feel free to jump in if the mood strikes. We'll pretty much have run of the bar and lounge of the restaurant. So even if you are on the fence Saturday night, just come on down - it will take us at least a few hours to drain their rum supplies:)

Shanghai Village
4929 Bethesda Ave
Bethesda, MD 20814

House of Foong Lin
4613 Willow Lane
Bethesda, MD 20815
http://www.facebook.com/HouseOfFoongLin

LAST CALL...

Maholos to the many local ohana who have help spread the word and RSVP'd to the invitation. Based on the latest round of replies, our numbers have gone from the teens and 20s to nearly 35 Rummys and Tikiphiles out for a good time.

See you at the bar,
(I'll be the guy with a Mai Tai, wearing a Hawaiian shirt)

Dr. Coruba

Just a quick after report on our evening.

Including the stragglers, we made it to almost 30 at peak. Many thanks to the hospitality of Chef Kwok at Shanghai Village for being creative with the seating and keeping our group together with one big gourd shaped table. Many thanks to Chef Fu at House of Foong Lin, who kept the drinks pouring until 1 am when the last of our Tiki gathering finally decided to paddle home.

As the night wore on, we listened to the sounds of Exotica (Dr. Ho's Orchestrotica was spun up a couple of times) and Blue Hawaii was playing on the 60" HDTV over the bar.

Great drinks, great food, and great company makes for a wonderful evening.

Mahalos to everyone who made it, and look for another Tiki evening out very soon...

Where are the photos?

On 2013-07-02 14:59, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:
Where are the photos?

I am lousy about taking photos, perhaps that's because I don't have a camera other than the crappy one on my phone and tablet. We did have several TC members in attendance (myself, ikitnrev, TikiGap, Iscah, ThorTiki, Rupe33, MoaiMiki), perhaps some of them were flash equipped, and can post some snaps.

For the greater DC Ohana, we are already at work trying to put something together for July built around Dr. Ho's Orchestrotica coming to DC in a couple of weeks. If we do manage to do it, details will be posted very soon. MD/DC/NoVA has a decent number of Tikiphiles, I hope we can find ways of bringing out the Tiki in our area.

Because of a reminder about photos, I did break out my mini-tablet which has a camera. Here at least is a photo of a lovely pair I met last night at House of Foong Lin.

And by the way, they're real, and they're spectacular.

(Mai Tais, of course! :drink: What were you thinking!)

On left, with Coruba Dark and Ron Barcelo Gran Anjeo. On the right, Coruba and Worthy Park Gold Premium Jamaican Rum.

Jeff, looks like DR. HO is doing two shows July 21st @ Bohemian Caverns, UStreet in DC http://www.bohemiancaverns.com/calendar/ sounds interesting. Thortiki PS Thanks for setting up the recent House of Foong Lin Tiki gathering!

Excited to know we may see some DC ohana at Bohemian!

Happy 4th!

Mr. Ho

On 2013-07-04 07:06, Thortiki wrote:
Jeff, looks like DR. HO is doing two shows July 21st @ Bohemian Caverns, UStreet in DC http://www.bohemiancaverns.com/calendar/ sounds interesting. Thortiki PS Thanks for setting up the recent House of Foong Lin Tiki gathering!

Thanks so much for joining us for the evening and holding down the bar until we got there!