The Magnificent Mai Kai

[babyluck]

Babyluck's tiki thoughts:

(1) Don the Beachcomber rocks.

(2) Vic Bergeron/Trader Vic's: evil but inevitable. The Taco Bell of Tiki.

(3) A Zombie is not just a drink with 3 kinds of rum in it. Grenadine has no place in a Zombie. Zombies should be brownish, not red, and served in a Collins glass with a sprig of mint.

(4) Fine "sipping" rums can be enhanced with the right blend of juices and mixers.

(5) We all need a little more fantasy in our lives.

If you want to really understand what I'm talking about, visit the Mai Kai. For background, here's the Mai Kai website and a great cocktail.com article.

Let us show you around!

[babyluck]

Inside the bar:

Our first two drinks, a Zombie and a Mara-Amu. I just had to try the one with the souvenir mug. It was a great drink!

I was really nervous when Mr. Babyluck kept taking pictures of the menu. I worried they would think we were spies, with the whole Don the Beachcomber secrecy thing going on. It's true, they still mix the drinks behind a bamboo screen in the bar. Luckily, we didn't get caught.

The Cobra's Kiss (interesting with the cinnamon stick but too sweet for me):

The Rum Barrel. Just OK.

Explanation: when Mr. Babyluck was leaving work before vacation, someone said "Have a drink for each of us!" I'm sure they were kidding but he really did, and when he returned he gave them each a print of their drink along with the napkin. It was a little excessive but funny.

That first night, we ate inside and watched the show.

It's not so clear from their website, so here's the scoop: inside, you have to pay the $10 cover and there are two seatings so that the show goes on as you are finishing. It's worth doing at least once. If you eat outside in the garden, you can eat whenever you want and smoke with no cover. It's more romantic outside and there is one particular table that is completely secluded. We stumbled upon it while roaming the garden and startled a very old man dining with a young doe-eyed blonde with implants.

You know we couldn't resist the Pupu Platter:

More to come!

[babyluck]

Night 2:

Another Mara-Amu

It's Santori Time!

Actually, I think that was a Special Planter's Punch. Mr. Babyluck didn't like it very much. I tasted it & told him it must be the Pernod. Moments after I took this picture, he spilled his drink--luckily, most of it went into the stream running by our table. When he ordered his next drink, he asked the waiter if the Mai Tai or the Shrunken Skull had "Pernole" in it. ("Pear-no!" I hissed.) The waiter came back and said there in fact was "Pernole" in the Mai Tai. Interesting.

And here's the Shrunken Skull (they ran out of skulls, goddammit):

Here's a shot of the outdoor tables:

And our spread:

Part of the garden:

Back home, admiring our haul:

From left to right, Martin, a limited edition mug from Tiki Farm, my 3 Mara-Amu mugs (I think I skipped the last color in the series as an excuse to go back), and a mystery mug on the right with a great story behind it that really sums up why the Mai Kai is so magnificent.

The first night we were there, the cashier at the gift shop (a sweet middle-aged woman with wild frizzy hair) immediately pegged us as "enthusiasts" and gave us the special treatment, pulling out stuff from under the counter and even lending us her Sharpie for the whole napkin business. When we returned 2 nights later, Mr. Babyluck asked if they had any mugs like the one he'd seen in a murky display window by the valet stand. She told us that those mugs were usually one-offs that an artist would send as a comp before going into full production. The managers would keep them if they wanted or put them on display.

Then, to our surprise, she picked up the phone and made a call: "Hi, I have a customer here who's an enthusiast--he's interested in the angry-faced little red mug in the walkway. Oh yeah? Is he here tonight? Could you have him stop by the gift shop?"

A few minutes later the manager walked in carrying the mug. He shook both our hands, introduced himself, and made sure we had a pleasant experience at the Mai Kai. Yes, we certainly had. He showed us the mug. Said he got 2 and had the other at home. He pointed out a tiny chip on one of its teeth. Then he told the cashier to give it to us for 25% off the price they were charging for a similar mug on display. Never mind that the other mug was a current design and mass-produced and the angry red guy was an artist's proof from 2001. We were totally blown away by their generosity.

I hesitated a little to recount this story--I don't want masses of hipster exotica collectors to go down there & clean out their displays. We don't know if it's worth anything, and we'd never try to sell it. We will happily drink out of it for many years and cherish the memory of the magnificent Mai Kai and its magnanimous staff.

Oh yeah, the other drinks we tried were the Mai Kai Special (nothing special, I'm afraid) and the Tahitian Coffee (yum). There may have been others! I wish I could say more about the subtleties of fine rums I tasted, but I wasn't exactly there to dissect them. I can say that the Zombie was fascinating, as we have been trying to recreate it at home using the best resources at our disposal to discover Don's authentic version (he never wrote anything down & took the labels off his bottles so his bartenders wouldn't know what they were making). The Mai Kai version was similar but not the same as our best effort. Makes me wonder if his #2 man, who created the Mai Kai, had the secret and took it with him. Maybe what we were drinking was the real Zombie in the only place in the world you can still get it. The Shrunken Skull was amazing too, a close second. Really dark and murky and miles away from grenadine-sweet.

Aloha!