Sauced

Chino’s Tiki (Mug) Tuesdays

Bring in your tacky tiki mug. Get a free drink.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Dec 29, 2011 at 03:20PM 2 Comments

’Fess up…do you own one of these? Photo via Coconut Wireless/Flickr.

Are you in possession of a wildly tacky (or even moderately tacky) tiki mug? Over at new Pike/Pine spot Chino’s, bar manager Veronika Groth spends every Tuesday celebrating these pseudo-Polynesian vessels. Bring in a tiki mug for the restaurant’s collection on Tuesdays and Groth will serve up one free tiki drink (except zombies) in that mug.

You can even keep your mug at Chino’s, with your name on it, for future (non-free) tiki drink imbibement. Owners Walter and Mari Lee are planning to set up some sort of cabinet or shelving situation to display all these fine pieces of barware, says Groth.

The former Poppy bar mistress has been busy resurrecting the golden era of tiki drinks since Chino’s opened earlier this month. While her rum and fresh juice-centric concoctions are far removed from the lame incarnations of recent decades, there’s no harm in enjoying her handiwork in a delightfully tacky mug.

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Tags: Free Drinks, Tiki, Chino's, Veronika Groth

Chino’s Cocktail Menu Gives Tiki a Permanent Home

Veronika Groth serves up mai tais alongside Mexican-Taiwanese fare. And it all makes perfect sense.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Dec 06, 2011 at 10:00AM 2 Comments

In the August issue of the magazine, writer/barman Andrew Bohrer referred to tiki cocktail culture as “a sleeping volcano about to spew new life onto the increasingly austere craft-cocktail scene.” While other cocktail cities like New York, San Francisco and even Portland have bars dedicated to Polynesian-inspired drinks, Seattle’s craft tiki cocktail presence has largely been relegated to special menus or a handful of drink listings at certain cocktail bars with tiki devotees behind the stick.

New Capitol Hill restaurant Chino’s isn’t a tiki bar per se (well, actually not at all), but it does provide Polynesian-seekers with a dedicated menu of tiki drinks courtesy of bar manager Veronika Groth. After masterminding herb-focused (and delicious) drinks at Poppy since its opening, Groth said she had a good time playing with the fresh juices and getting acquainted with the bevy of rums that are the foundation of tiki drink culture.

Chino’s owners Mari and Walter Lee say their new Pike Street spot serves Los Angeles street food, a casual mashup of the Taiwanese and Mexican dishes the couple grew up with. However Groth said the tropical drink list is actually a logical fit given the tiki movement’s roots in Southern California, specifically with the opening of both Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic’s in 1930s Hollywood, long before several decades of kitsch and those Hawaiian Brady Bunch episodes gave tiki a bad name.

The citrusy, vacationy flavors stand up nicely to Chino’s menu of snacks and bowls, from the addictive furikake kettle corn to steamed buns filled with pork belly, daily pickles, and perhaps the best (and saltiest) fish sauce chicken wing this side of Pok Pok.

Groth’s menu includes three mai tais, including faithful replicas of the Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic’s recipes, and a seasonal version. Right now most of the drinks are tiki classics, including a Singapore sling, Navy grog and a zombie, made with three types of rum, house-made falernum and grenadine, bitters and fresh-squeezed lime and grapefruit juices. Once things calm down after the opening, Groth is eager to put her own stamp on the tiki side of the menu. She’s already making her own grenadine and sweet falernum syrup.

The other half of Chino’s cocktail list is dedicated to classics, including a ramos gin fizz made with spirits from nearby Oola distillery and house-made jasmine flower water. The old fashioned comes with a house-made muscovado sugar cube, containing star anise, fennel, Szechuan peppercorns, cinnamon and clove…the same seasonings that amp up the char siu pork on the dinner menu.

Chino’s opened this weekend at 1024 E Pike St.

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Tags: Tiki, Chino's, Veronika Groth

Someone Should Buy Poco Wine Room and Turn It Into a Tiki Bar

Seriously!

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 08, 2011 at 11:40AM 12 Comments

Seattle needs this.

Photo: tikimaster.com

For far too long now, Seattleites have slouched damply on our barstools made of repurposed wood, peering listlessly into our beers and our dainty craft cocktails and our bordeaux-style blends.

Can you see us? We are not wearing goofy smiles. We are not glugging Diki Dikis and Mai Tais and Zombies and Major Baileys. We are not dressed in ridiculous button-down shirts decorated with lurid orchids or coconuts or hula dancers balanced on surfboards.

We have no tiki.

As Andrew Bohrer recently pointed out in this article, Portland has tiki. San Francisco has tiki. New York City has tiki. Where is our tiki? Who will bring us the tiki?

News came this morning that Poco Wine Room is up for sale. And you know what I’m thinking? I’m thinking TIKI. I can easily see the two-tiered, intimate Poco converted into an island paradise. A little thatch, some paper umbrellas, maybe a parrot perched on a shoulder or two and we’re there.

Come on, some talented Seattle bartender who also has business sense, open a tiki bar!

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Tiki, Seattle Drinking Scene

Upcoming Drinking Events: Tiki at Liberty, Suite 410’s $5 Cocktails, and Four Roses Bourbon Night at Brouwer’s

Bibulous happenings for the week of July 4.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 05, 2011 at 09:30AM 1 Comments

Sunbreak: Suite 410 has $5 cocktails through August.

Photo: Facebook

When it’s all spectacular outside, you spend less time inside the bar. To lure you back, Suite 410 manager Craig DeBolt is shaving $3 off the price of cocktails during the months of July and August. All the drinks on the bar’s summer menu—including a caipirinha and a mint julep—are $5 this month and next.

Also Eastsiders: Did you know that Barrio’s Mark Sexauer is now working at Milagro Cantina in Kirkland? I didn’t—but a press release just told me that was the case. Will have to look into that. Sexauer’s El Zacatecano cava cocktail will be featured at a wine dinner on Tuesday, July 12 at the restaurant. The meal is $50 and includes, along with the drink, a three course meal. Each course is paired with a wine from Woodinville’s Pomum Cellars. Call Milagro to reserve.

Let’s have a look at where we’ll be drinking this week:

This Wednesday, July 6 Liberty is going tiki, serving up signature cocktails from PKNY (nee Painkiller) in New York City. Truth be told, the tiki gods have not been smiling upon the owners of PKNY—they were forced to change their name over a trademark squabble and have been navigating choppy waters with NYC’s health department. No fun. Know what is fun? Tasty tiki drinks. Liberty promises a super special secret guest as well.

Also on Thursday, Brouwer’s Cafe hosts a Four Roses Bourbon night. From 6pm the bar will be pouring Yellow Label, Single Barrel, Small Batch, Brouwer’s Single Barrel and flights of all four. The bar will also be making custom cocktails with each of the bourbons.

And finally, the West Seattle Summer Fest comes to West Seattle this weekend, July 8-10. Junction wine shop Bin 41 is offering special tastings for the occasion. Tastings will be held on Friday from 6 to 7:30, Saturday from 2:30-4 pm, and Sunday from 12:30-2pm. There’s a bunch of bands playing at the fest too, check out the website for more information.

Next week: Prepare your foies for Bastille Day. I’ll return shortly with the best and booziest Seattle events for celebrating the violent and bloody manner in which France overturned its monarchy.

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Tags: Kirkland, Eastside, Wine Tastings, Drinking Events, Tiki

Upcoming Drinking Events: Poutine and Canadian Beer, Tiki Lessons, and Ice Cream Floats for Lunch

Plus: Neighboring wineries compete with Wednesday pizza and wine deals.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jun 28, 2011 at 10:47AM 0 Comments

The place for cheap pizza and wine on Wednesdays? Woodinville, as it turns out.

Photo: Novelty Hill

For the calendar: Tini Bigs has introduced a series of cocktail classes called Sunday School. Held on Sunday afternoons, logically enough, the classes cost $35 and include appetizers and drinks. We just missed a tequila lesson last Sunday, but here’s what is coming up: On July 31 the bar will be hosting a Tiki tutorial, and on August 28 it’s market-fresh cocktails. Call Tini Bigs for details and to reserve.

Also: Coa in Maple Leaf is now selling tickets to July tequila tastings, the first one is on July 7 and will be taught by Eric Lorenz—an agave expert from Vancouver, BC. It’s $40 for the tasting plus snacks.

Now onto events for the next week or so:

Between noon and 2pm on Tuesday, June 28, the Dry Soda Tasting Tour stops at 1st Avenue and Stewart. There, someone will make you a float with Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream and of course Dry Soda. And here you were going to have salad for lunch.

Super Deli Mart in West Seattle is doing a wine tasting on Tuesday the 28th, pouring 10 varieties from Woodinville-based Novelty Hill/ Januik from 6 to 8pm.

Currently on Wednesdays, Columbia Winery is offering half off flat-bread pizza and wine by the glass from 5 to 7pm. This is kind of weird, since neighbor Novelty Hill (the one doing the Super Deli tasting) offers special flat-bread pizza and wine deals every Wednesday too. A side-by-side comparison seems to be in order.

Smith, purveyors of poutine, that famous Canadian fat-bomb of deliciousness, celebrates Canada Day on Friday, July 1. The 15th Ave E Bar suggests you wash down all that gravy-laden goodness with a Canadian brew. Molson, Labatt Blue, and Kokanee will all be on offer.

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Tags: Lower Queen Anne, Cocktails, Tequila, Drinking Events, Woodinville, Ice Cream, Tiki, Drinking Culture

Mai Tais: Vessel and Beyond

Seattle Met’s Mai Tai Madness continues.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Sep 07, 2010 at 03:11PM 0 Comments

Rum, rum give me some. Mai tai Madness continues tonight at Vessel.

You may have heard talk of Mai Tai Madness, which is Seattle Met’s series of mai tai happy hours (dates here) at bars around town. The madness culminates in an event called Mai Tai Master on Wednesday, September 29 at the Herbanfeast event space in SoDo.

That event costs $20 and the price includes food and cocktails and a chance to see all the bartenders compete for the title of Mai Tai Master.

Who are the bartenders? Well, you’ve got your Casey Robinson from Barrio, your Evan Martin from Chantanee. You’ve got your Anu Apte and Zane Harris from Rob Roy, and your Jim Romdall from Vessel. Andrew Bohrer is the bartender competing for Mistralkitchen, and tenders from Sazerac and Cicchetti will be competing as well.

Judging the cocktail competition will be Jeffrey Dorgan, sommelier at Sullivan’s Steakhouse, Blair Reynolds of Trader Tiki, Paul Clarke, writer and blogger at Cocktail Chronicles, and Brian Canlis, one of two brothers Canlis who run the venerable restaurant atop Queen Anne hill.

In advance of the event, you can stop by one of seven remaining happy hours and try each of the mai tais individually. Tonight we head to Vessel to sample the ’tais, starting at 4pm.

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Tags: Seattle Bartenders, Drinking Events, Tiki, Mai Tais

Tiki: “Where Escapism, Irony, and Kitsch Overlap”

Tiki drinks are showing up on Seattle cocktail menus.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 25, 2010 at 08:26AM 1 Comments

“He’e Mauli,” according to Canlis bartender James MacWilliams, “gets its name from the Hawaiian word for Hawaiian Day Octopus.”

I love this quote about tiki drinks from Jason Wilson of the Washington Post:

“Tiki drinks occupy a space somewhere in the Venn diagram of the American psyche where escapism, irony, and kitsch overlap, cutting across so many cultural divides. Hipsters with badly drawn Chinese-character tattoos love tiki. Shoppers at Urban Outfitters love tiki. Suburban cougars on the prowl love tiki. Guys in Tommy Bahama shirts who listen to ‘Cheeseburger in Paradise’ love tiki. Marlene Dietrich loved tiki. Richard Nixon loved tiki.”

I, too, love tiki. Which is why I’m happy to see tiki drinks popping up around town. The word tiki tends to make people think immediately of a mai tai, a storied cocktail indeed. The forefathers of Tiki bars—Trader Vic and Don the Beachcomber—were famously locked in a feud over who invented the mai tai. (Are you at a really good bar right now? Are you at Sun Liquor, say? Ask the bartender to make you both versions and test them side by side. Fun.)

Here are two new tiki menus to try out:

At Canlis, bartender James MacWilliams has three new tiki-inspired drinks on the menu, and they’re kind of crazy. Consider the He’e Mauli: Appleton VX*, Lemon Hart**, Tia Maria coffee liqueur, POM***, Coco Lopez cream of coconut, brown sugar syrup, and lime, garnished with an orange octopus.****

Over at Naga Lounge in Bellevue, bar manager Evan Martin has created a new tiki menu that includes his original drink, Death in the South Pacific, which was the official cocktail of Tales of the Cocktail this year. There are six other drinks on the menu and you can order any of them in a 48-ounce bowl if you want to share. Or get wasted.

Oh and if you like mai tais (shameless self-promotion alert!), sign up for the Seattle Met event on September 29 at the HerbanFeast space in SoDo. There’s going to be a Mai Tai competition in which some (not all, but some) of the best bartenders around town will compete. And it’s only $20. There are also related happy hour events, check out all the details here.

*A Jamaican rum company that’s poised to become a lot more well known around here. Look out for it.

**A Demerera rum at 80 and 151 proof.

***That super-expensive pomegranate juice that comes in the zaftig glass bottle.

****An octopus carved out of orange peel, (as opposed to an orange-colored octopus).

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Tags: Cocktails, Tiki