Hope for Santa Monica - Copa D'Oro

While this new bar in SM is NOT a tiki bar, I feel it definitely deserves a post - and with a little prodding from fellow TCers, it just might have a complete tiki drink menu by the summer.
After reading Jonathan Gold's "Where to Drink Now" article in the LA Weekly, I decided to give this place a shot when stranded by the beach. The good news is they make all their own syrups (including pimento dram), use only local farmer's market ingredients and have a happy hour from 5pm to 8pm with a dozen drinks priced at only $5. Excellent indeed. But being an eternal cynic, I expected a pretentious snore fest.
When I arrived on a quiet Saturday afternoon, it was pretty much just me and the owner, Vincenzo, in the near empty bar. I guess he is some modern mixologist bigshot with international awards, but at heart he seems to be a huge classic tiki drink fan who has always wanted to open a tiki bar. Funny to hear all of this explained with his very thick Italian accent. He went off menu to make me several excellent classic rum drinks (including a very faithful $100 mai tai) and professes to mainly mixing up Trader Vic variations when drinking at home. And despite the pre-prohibition drink rage that has swept LA, he doesn't stutter when proclaiming Tiki Ti as the best bar in LA.
Anyhow, Vincenzo said he is thinking about instituting a Tiki Drink Menu for the summer, including possible Tiki Nights, but he is worried there would not be enough response. This is where I hope to rally the TC troops - because I would love a spot on the Westside, a block from the beach, to get a proper Zombie this summer. So if anyone does stop in for a drink, let's pound away for that Tiki menu.

Nice. Thanks for the heads up. Here's a plug for two other great bars in the nabe, the Galley and Chez Jay. Maybe not Tiki, but Tiki's close cousin - the nautical bar.

http://www.thegalleyrestaurant.net/history.htm

http://www.chezjays.com

If you appeciate Tiki Ti for it's old-school historic and eclectic significance, you'll like these places. The Mai Tai at the Galley is a great 2nd generation version.

I'm looking foward to the "Roe Ae" version at Copa D'oro !! (Even though it's located at the horror which is Third Street Promenade). You might see the ghost of Chris Penn sitting at the bar. He was a regular there when it was the 217 Bar. He played "Nice Guy Eddie" in Reservoir Dogs. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001606/bio

[ Edited by: JOHN-O 2009-03-22 12:15 ]

I like Monsoon on the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica as it has Indonesian-style Tiki.