Tiki Thursday: Numéro 3

Welcome back!! As I have been researching and writing this series, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much love and attention Tiki has received on the Internet and in real life. I get the sense there’s a bit of a revival happening. The only thing needed is for prices to be lowered a bit.

I do not care for $20 cocktails. You should be able to get a decent drink somewhere in the $10 to $15 range with specials somewhere between $5 and $10. Maybe when I open up Ballsy’s Bar…

This is episode number TROIS of the new weekly post series that will delve into the various aspects of Tiki ranging from bars to drinks to décor to history. Ready? Let’s begin!

History Minute

Last week, I introduced Victor Bergeron, the man who saw and experienced first hand the success of Don’s Beachcomber and decided to give it a try himself with Trader Vic’s. Now, Victor wasn’t the only one. Tiki bars started sprouting all over the place and everyone wanted the recipes to those fabulous drinks.

This week, I want to talk about how Donn fought the maintain his competitive advantage by keeping his recipes secret from his competitors and even from his own employees!

As might be expected, success breeds imitators and the fastest way to imitate success is to get an insider to give you the scoop on what makes things tick. Donn’s staff was constantly being offered jobs or money from other places to reveal Donn’s secrets. To combat this, Donn did a couple of very intelligent things.

First, he separated the mixing of the cocktails from the sourcing of ingredients. There was no way he could hide which liquors he used, but he COULD hide the mixers he used with them. He worked directly with outside companies to provide his mixers under mysterious names like “Spices #4”, “Donn’s Mix”, and “Syrup Parisienne”. They were clearly code words and no one, not even the bartenders mixing the drinks, knew what was in them except the suppliers who were legally bound to secrecy. All the bartenders knew were the proportions.

Second, Donn would constantly tinker with the recipes and what was used at one location was different from another. He was a master mixologist before that was a thing. He knew exactly how flavours worked together and how proportions made a huge difference in the final outcome. Thus, it was extremely difficult to replicate his recipes. It took the author of Sippin’ Safari decades to figure out how to recreate his drinks.

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Tiki Bar O’ Da Week

Today’s featured bar is The Bamboo Club in Long Beach, California.

I was going to visit The Bamboo Club last Saturday afternoon after Day One of my golf club’s Championship. The course for Day One was in Long Beach, so I was in the neighborhood.

However, Lady Balls called and other pressing matters beckoned, so the visit was postponed. However, from what I saw in their website and the reviews I read, this place is great!

It is located along Anaheim Street just a couple of blocks east of Joe Jost’s. The most appealing thing to me were the low prices for the drinks (see below and reference my rant above). The food looked good and wasn’t priced too highly plus they offer brunch and Happy Hour specials. They also have live bands regularly. I will report back when I have a chance you actually visit.

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Tiki Drink O’ Da Week

Last week, I gave you the recipe for the drink that is considered to be the basis for the most famous of all Tiki drinks: the Mai Tai. However, before there was the Mai Tai, there was the Zombie. To be specific, it was Don’s Beachcomber’s Zombie. The Zombie used to be THE Tiki drink to order.

As I wrote above, Donn changed up his recipes. There are at least three Zombie recipes attributed to him and his restaurants. Here is a recipe for the Zombie that Donn gave to a writer named Louis Spievak in 1950. It is meant to be a more accessible recipe for home bartenders to use. This is as written in the Sippin’ Safari book:

Ingredients:

• 1 oz white Puerto Rican rum
• 1 oz gold Puerto Rican rum
• 1 oz 151-proof Demerara rum
• 1 oz fresh lime juice
• 1 oz fresh lemon juice
• 1 oz passion fruit syrup*
• 1 oz unsweetened pineapple juice
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 Dash Angostura bitters
• crushed ice

* The passion fruit syrup can be made by picking up a packet of frozen 100% passion fruit pulp at your local Latino grocery (Goya makes it) and defrost for two hours. You’ll get a thick liquid that you mix in equal parts with sugar syrup (which we talked about before). This will keep two to three days in the fridge. Or, you can just buy it.

Directions: Dissolve sugar in lime juice, then place in a cocktail shaker with all the other ingredients and lots of the crushed ice. Shake, Strain, and Pour into a tall glass/mug/shoe, garnish with a mint sprig, drink, and repeat.

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Tiki Purchase O’ Da Week

In this space, I’ll highlight one thing I recommend that you purchase if you are at all interested in what you have read so far. This could range from books to furniture to decorations to barware to costumes. Today’s item is:

An NFL-themed Tiki shirt. What better way to celebrate the new season than getting yourself a Tiki shirt featuring your favourite team? There is quite a selection of Hawaiian NFL team shirts at THIS online store. The Tiki shirts start on Page 93. This one is my personal favourite:

Yes, I do own it!

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Ballsy’s Tiki Corner

Each week, I will upload a picture of one of my personal Tiki items. Today’s item is:

A Rick and Morty Tiki mug! Bonus points if you know which character this is. This is made by a company called Geeky Tikis that makes Tiki mugs out of different pop culture characters.

Keen-eyed readers will note that the inside of the mug is a beautiful ocean blue colour and the mug itself is ceramic. Most of your finer Tiki merchandise will be ceramic and have a different interior colour.

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New Feature: Tiki Event O’ Da Week!

If any of you have any doubt that you are constantly monitored on the Internet, let me eliminate all doubt: Since I’ve started this feature and browsed the Internet for info, Tiki-related stuff keeps popping up in my inbox and feeds. Weirdly, this happened in real life too!

I have been a loyal member of the Auto Club for decades now and I get their monthly magazine, Westways. My understanding is they have regional magazines throughout the country. Anyhoo, I opened up this month’s issue and what do I see?

Those look like super fun events! The perfect way to celebrate International Tiki Day this coming weekend! The one in Morro Bay looks particularly fun and affordable. Too bad it’s so far away from me. Although the San Diego one also looks like a lot of fun! Looking at you, Low Commander!

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That’s all for now. If you are into any aspects of Tiki, I would love to hear your stories in the comments. I’m off to Bali with Lady Balls and her floral print dress…