T TIKI
IN 1926, Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt left his small Texas town and took to the seas. He traveled across the Caribbean and the South Pacific and washed up on the California coast, where in 1933 he distilled the tastes and mystique of his travels into an alias, Don the Beachcomber, and a bar of the same name. Tiki was born. Forty years later, it disappeared after a market invasion of sugary premixes, but today the tiki revival is in full swing thanks to funky new bars like three dots and a dash, in Chicago, and adrift, adrift in Denver. At San Antonio’s the brooklynite, owner Jeret Peña’s Tiki Tuesday nights embrace the philosophy of Don the Beachcomber. “With cocktail bars, there tends to be more pretense,” he says. “This is meant to be much more fun.” The Brooklynite in San Antonio sets the cocktail world afire on Tiki Tuesdays.
U U M AM I
Scrambling for a gift for the cocktail enthusiast in your life? Here are a few tips from Kayoko Akabori and Yoko Kumano, the owners of Oakland’s hip umami mart. Find the items online or swing in for a sake tasting.
Umami Mart Diamond Cut Seamless Mixing Glass $62 Features handcut etchings and a beaker-like spout.
Studio Arhoj Sip Cup $22 These hand-cast porcelain cups are jewel-like: unique in color, opacity, and drippiness.
24K Gold-Plated Cobbler Shaker $129 Essential for the shaking technique invented by legendary Tokyo bartender Kazuo Uyeda. december 2015 southwest 73
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