New Orleans Tiki Travelogue (Warning, it's long! Buckle up!)

Hey everyone. Been lurking here for a long while. Just after Christmas, my wife and I drove out to New Orleans primarily for what I'm now calling Tiki Block. Let me explain...

My wife and I visited New Orleans for the first time earlier this year. For our 15th wedding anniversary, we renewed our vows in Las Vegas (with a reception at Frankie's Tiki Room, natch) with an Elvis-led ceremony underneath the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign. Afterwards, we second-honeymooned in the French Quarter. While there, I found out there was a new tiki bar opened by the owner of a Mexican burrito joint. Tiki Tolteca. Very low-key, not terribly tiki-fied, but the drinks were good, had a nice tequila flair, and the bartender was a lovely lady who explained to us about the renovation about to happen. So, my wife and I told ourselves we had to come back to see the renovation.

Then, months later, lightning struck. I found out that Mr. Jeff "Beachbum" Berry his own self was opening a bar in the French Quarter! I had to go. I told Becca (my wife), who likes tiki enough that she's planning our living room tiki renovation, and she immediately asked, "So when are we going?" (There's a reason I married this woman twice already. I married up.)

Reading the articles, we decided to stay in the hotel whose house bar Latitude 29 (The Bum's joint, in case you didn't know already) was in, so that after a very rum-soaked night I could stagger to the elevator and fall over with a smile upon my face. Bienville House. Named 'cause it's on Bienville Street. Named 'cause some dude 300 years ago named Bienville decided that this was a good place to start a city. Who knew?

Little did I know that this was the Very. Same. Block. Tiki Tolteca is on. And Cane and Table (new-style chef restaurant advertising proto-tiki drinks) is about three blocks away. Boy, did I pick the right place.

So: on to the tiki.

First, we had a few drinks at the bar of L29. We started to drink off their happy hour menu, which features drinks designed by the bartenders. I am sorely remiss in that I didn't take notes, nor do I remember the name of the drinks. We did eat a banh mi and something else from the kitchen for a snack. The drinks were good enough we had another. Which, I guess, is compliments enough. Proper surf and Martin Denny music in the background. Bartenders had great knowledge, mixed some mean drinks. I noticed there were 5 bottle of Lemon Hart on the top shelf, so I asked if they were actually pouring it. Answer: "Yes! We bought it all! We have 15 cases on hand, and we're hoping it lasts until Ed Hamilton gets his Demerara 151 on the market." Nice. I made a note of that, 'cause round 2 later in the trip, I was gonna have me some of that Lemon Hart. (I'll review the on-menu drinks down the road, stay tuned!)

Then, after spending entirely too much money (worth it!) on my wife on cheap jewelry, discount dresses, and other such accoutrements, and a day later, we visit Tiki Tolteca. Boy was this place overhauled. Decor was kitsch to the gills - not classic tiki, more like cheap-ass tiki with a lot of thatch above the bar. I say this in all compliments - the original decor was VERY sparse, almost modern in style due to the minimalist influences of "I don't have enough tiki crap to decorate my bar like I want." This has changed. Tiki and moai statues are all over the place, including what I seem to remember as a big Olmec head with pride of place opposite the bar. Now - we walked in and found a spot at the bar right by the door. So I didn't get a real walk-through of the whole space.

Drinks at Tiki Tolteca are extremely creative, and not just your typical tiki fare. Yes, they have a Mai Tai. I didn't order it - too many strange things on the menu and I had to drink them all. Becca's no stranger to rum, and her tastes are different from mine. She likes lighter drinks with an astringency from hardcore citrus where I prefer more rum-forward, funky drinks. So, we're a good pair to work through a menu, for sure. We bellied up and the bartender (Jason, hell of a guy) was mixing up some flaming drinks. Becca can't say no to a drink on fire and said "I want one of those." Turns out, it's a native recipe to this bar called a Baska Face. I ordered an SOS Cocktail. We wound up swapping drinks - the SOS Cocktail is a really nicely balanced drink with proper grenadine - serious pomagranite here - cachaca, and some citrus. Served up, quite nice. The Baska Face features a new (well, to me, at least) malort from Bittermens. Not as in-your-face as a proper Swedish malort, but smoky, bitter, wormwoody... that plus the 151 flamed sugar cube melted into the drink makes this one seriously funky drink. Right up my alley.

http://baskasnaps.com/ (by the way)

Next up was round two. Becca ordered Cachasa Wasi (I guess she decided to stick to the cachasa?) and I found this drink on the menu called "A Huevo." First, the Cachasa Wasi was quite nice. I took a sip, was again, a well balanced drink more grapefruit than pomegranite, but again right there with Becca's flavors. I liked it. Hell, I'd order one. It was good. However, my drink meant that I had to get the story. Story is, the bar staff at Tiki Tolteca are some straight-up cocktail geeks. So they soaked an egg in lime juice for like 3 weeks. Shell falls off, egg gets jellylike. Shake that with some pisco (cachaca, pisco - see the latin influence here?) passion fruit syrup, and a healthy schlep of ginger beer. Float a lime slice on top. I'm thinking what the hell have I gotten myself into. THEN Jason tells me there's this flower on top that you have to eat first. Not just eat - chew on the thing for a while. Changes your tastes like a miracle fruit berry. Drink comes out, there's this odd... thing on a stem. Doesn't look like a flower, but I chomp down. Chew. Mouth gets dry, then starts to buzz. Ever touched your tongue to a 9-volt battery? Like that, only more like.... 3 volts, I guess. Then I drink. Okay, this one's fun. Tart, but not overwhelmingly so. More tart with the flower going, later into the drink as the buzz leaves me, it's still tart but very nice. The fizz from the ginger beer is needed, livens the drink up. Very nice.

Jason gives me a pour of the malort that's in the baska face as we get to talking. He realizes I'm kind of a rum geek, into tiki - kindred spirit, I guess, but I won't call myself an expert. I'm not. Get to taste that straight up and it's fun. Very herbal, but funky. Becca's not a fan. I keep going back to that little snifter through the session at the bar.

Then, something bizarre happens. Full bar already, bartenders (two fellas, no bar backs that night) are shaking drinks like it's the last night on earth, and a raft of people, two of whom are holding signs, float in wearing Hawaiian shirts, grass skirts, and leis. Some kind of party. They are WAY loud. Insanely so. Order a half dozen beers, 3 margaritas, and then get pissed that they don't get them immediately. Jason pours the bar a round of rum shots to as an apology (Sample of a new spiced rum from a local importer called Black Magic. Not bad, drinkable and tastes like a good mixer.) The riot squad leaves upset, I think half don't even pay for their beers, and the bar quiets down.

Becca and I order a zombie. In a bowl. With a jello-shot brain floated in. Here's where I have a bit of a negative review - it's a straight-up Donn Beach zombie. Well mixed, but over iced in that bowl. Same portion as a regular zombie, just too much ice in a bowl. It's quite expensive for a single-person drink in a bowl - they mention on the menu it was a single person drink, but quite strong, so they recommend it's for more than one consumer. With that much ice, it's just watered down, and not enough volume of booze for the bowl. The jello shot brain was clever. Wasn't a fan of that one - and zombies are my go-to tiki drink.

That was our nightcap. Great time, fantastic staff, creative drinks and very, very tiki. Jason, we'll be back next time I'm in New Orleans. Fade to another day.

Next up was a tour of the Old New Orleans Rum distillery. Good tour. Fun stories, good history of regional rum and sugar production. Samples. Well worth the drive out to the distillery (didn't find out 'til later they'll pick you up - at Felipe's, the burrito joint underneath Tiki Tolteca, same block as the hotel) but that's okay. Oddly, I wasn't terribly impressed with the rum. Decent mixer quality, but nothing amazing. If spiced rum is your gig, then their spiced rum is a bit nicer than the Sailor Jerry's of the world. Still, go visit. Sometime after the summer they'll have their 10-year-old blend back in production (was disrupted by Katrina, go figure).

We had a late lunch at a po-boy place, caught the first show at Preservation Hall (run, don't walk - it's worth it to be first in the hour and a half line) then dinner at L29. We were greeted by The Bum himself, brought to our table, and our waitress gave us plenty of time to look over the menu, checking on us frequently, but not obnoxiously. Got our drink orders in, and ordered dinner. I ordered loco moco (crazy booger to you spanish speakers, but it's a hamburger patty, fried egg, brown gravy over rice. This was mushroom rice - whole thing was really good) and Becca went for the pork ribs. That girl'd be happy if I were a pork rib. Except then I probably wouldn't have a good job and it'd be a short marriage. Still, for 15 minutes, she'd be in full-on bliss.

Food was great. Drinks were staged, as we do (gotta pace yourself).

First-up: I order a Nui Nui, Becca goes for the eponymous Latitude 29. Nui Nui was good. Real good. Latitude 29 was better. The vanilla and pineapple and the demerara (El Dorado 8) rum were just good together. Tasty, tasty stuff.

Round 2: zombie for me (I had to) and Becca orders the drink I had at our happy hour session - Hawaii 504. The zombie wasn't as rum forward as I normally like, but way heavy on the cinnamon - that I really did like. Still had the dark, funky tones of jamaican and lemon hart, just not the 5 (equivalent) ounces of rum in the classic. Still, very well done. Loved the cinnamon. That's not your normal Don's Mix #2! But the Hawaii 504... man. Five spice honey syrup. Ginger. That's a unique flavor. Not as deep and rummy as I normally like, but whoa the blend of sweet and spicy. That one's going on my have to figure out a tribute list.

Finally, we ordered the Lapu Lapu - the drink that Mr. Berry recovered and didn't put in his books. A tiki guy has to have some secrets - after all, it's tradition! Nice bowl of rummy, grapefruity very ocean-y mix of stuff.

We ask if they have any tiki mugs for sale. They don't. The have tiki bowls... which lights up Becca's face better than our 18" tall rosemary bush christmas tree we left back at the house. She's a sucker for a drink in a bowl. And on fire. With grapefruit in. It wasn't cheap, but it's Bosko, and it's L29, and it's the souvenier we drove to New Orleans for.

About this time, the Bum comes over to talk to us. We're the last folks on the restaurant side of the joint - it's almost 9:30pm at this point, and apparently us mentioning to the bartender the day before and our waitress that we had driven to nola just to visit this bar got round. So we're talking about the tiki conversion Becca's planning for the living room (my stash of Lemon Hart has to find somewhere else to be, she's saying. I'm okay with this) and general schmoozing with the host. Good times. He signs our bowl, it's packed in a Rhum Clement VSOP box that has the VSOP scratched out in marker, saying "NOT VSOP!" next to it. Heh. Perfect.

On the way home, we realize we never did make it to Cane & Table. Welp, gotta have a reason for next time, right?

Wow, that's quite a first post! Thanks for the detailed reviews.

On 2015-01-09 16:53, bamalamalu wrote:
Wow, that's quite a first post! Thanks for the detailed reviews.

Aww, shucks. One does one's best.

Sounds like a wonderful trip, thanks for sharing your good times.