The Guilded Bartender with Livio Lauro (TCGP S3 E12)

# AI Transcript: TCGP S3 E12 

Announcer:
Jonathan Pogash is the cocktail guru, a mixologist and hospitality expert. Ah, see? You know big words. Dude, I'm the cocktail guru. Cheers. Jeffrey's his dad, a wine and spirits author, historian, and consultant.

Jeffrey:
Well, I do my homework.

Announcer:
With decades of experience, they're always looking for the next big thing. Join this father and son duo for a few laughs as they explore the hottest trends in hospitality with the service industry's leading trailblazers and tastemakers. Welcome to the Cocktail Guru Podcast.

Jeffrey:
John, I know you were at Tony's bar in Las Vegas during this wonderful trip of yours. And I understand from a little birdie who tweeted in my ear. We can say tweeted, right? For birds. Yes. Yeah. I mean, I guess media tweeting, but little birds tweet as well. Sure. I understand you interviewed someone named Livio Loro, one of our friends.

Jonathan:
That's right. Yeah. You've met Livio a couple of times. We know him through the USBG, the US Bartenders Guild. And he sat down with us and he talked about his book. He's also an author. And he talked about a bar system that he's working on. So a layout for bars, for the physical equipment. It was a really cool conversation. I'm a little technical and just kind of chit-chatting a little bit about the business. He's a really cool guy.

Jeffrey:
So you weren't standing up when you did this. This was a sit down interview.

Jonathan:
Yes, we sat down. We were behind the bar on some bar stools at Tony Abu Ghanem's bar, Libertine Social at the Mandalay Bay. And yeah, it was a lot of fun. And you want to hear our chat?

Jeffrey:
Of course I do. OK, well, here's the way we go. Here we are. Olivia Laura.

Jonathan:
We are back again. The Cocktail Guru podcast live in Las Vegas while live recording in Las Vegas at Libertine Social. And my guest today is Mr. Livio Loro. Hey, Livio. Hey, Jonathan. How are you? I'm doing well. So we always ask our guests this one question when they come on to the podcast. What is your desert island cocktail?

Livio:
Oh, gosh. Desert Island cocktail. Or drink, doesn't have to be a cocktail. Yeah, or drink. Ooh, you should have told me you were gonna ask me that question. Oh, come on, are you kidding me? What comes to your head? It's a Mai Tai. All right. It's a Mai Tai, but in this case here, we have to take off all the presumptions that the 1944 fresh lime juice, premium Orgeat, Mai Tai is a must. You're taking me to, I'm going to Waikiki Beach where the Mai Tai can be as sloppy and pineapple-y and it does not matter. I'm all in and I'm enjoying it and there's an umbrella and a cherry and some other, you know, tchotchke.

Jonathan:
Yeah. So that, so more like a guilty pleasure Mai Tai as opposed to a craft Mai Tai. Right, for sure. Livio, you and I have known each other for several years now and I think we probably first met some sort of U.S. Bartenders Guild situation?

Livio:
More than likely New York or Chicago or one of those national get-togethers of sorts.

Jonathan:
Tell the fine folks at home what your involvement was and still is with the U.S. Bartenders Guild.

Livio:
Yeah. So, uh, I mean, if you're not familiar with the bartender's guild or the USBG, it's a nationwide organization founded in 1948 with the mission to elevate the position of the bartender and that of the cocktail, uh, from Oh four to Oh nine. I was the national president who kind of picked up the gill that a really tough time. And we all just grew together and, uh, We started with two chapters at that time. I was the youngest member in the guild. And, uh, today I feel like I'm the oldest, which, um, you're not the oldest, which is a good thing. Um, but, uh, together we grew to what is now a national organization and something that I feel is super valuable, uh, for bartenders and hospitality folks out now.

Jonathan:
Yeah, we met probably around the time I revamped the New York chapter as the first president, and then you were my national president at that time. At that time. At that time, the next few years after that was a very interesting growth period for the USPG. We were at the cusp of it, and I don't think anyone saw how the USPG would blow up at that time.

Livio:
No, and I think it was 07.

Jonathan:
I want to say- 06 I think is New York when we first started.

Livio:
Yeah. But when New York came, because New York was one of the first ones too, but I want to say 07, 08 was when the Guild became an overnight success. And I'm thinking to myself, overnight my butt. We've been working on this thing for a long time. I joined in 98. So we became an overnight success in 2007 at our 60, whatever, third year of existence. But yeah, that's the story of me and the guild. Yeah.

Jonathan:
And so you're continuously involved in guild activities, and you even have a book that is sort of a historical compendium, I think, to the U.S. Bartenders Guild.

Livio:
Yeah, it's, it's kind of crazy, right? It wasn't necessarily meant to be. Um, I was window shopping on eBay and, um, there was a picture of six P six guys holding a glass boarding onto a United airlines flight. Yeah. And that picture was just talking to me. There was something in the passion of the eyes of the bartender. They had a patch on which 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, having a patch was always like some sort of unification. And that picture was talking to me, talking to me, talking, talking to me. I come to find out those were the first founders of the guild. And so that started a nine year long, you know, story of my life where I had to write a book about how the guilt came to be.

Jonathan:
And what's the book called? And where can people get it?

Livio:
It's called The Liquid Legacy. Liquid Legacy. Liquid Legacy.

Jonathan:
Carrie, our producer, is going to hand it to us because you have a copy of it right there.

Livio:
I do. This is the first copy. It's a beautiful book. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Jonathan:
Liquid Legacy. Liquid Legacy.

Livio:
And I'm, I'm going to venture to say that the easiest way to get it is to go to usbg.org and get it through the guilt. Um, but yeah, that's, uh, that's my little gem. There's some incredible little stories. I mean, you can write them. I literally think you could write a amazing movie just on the resilience and the, the, what the folks that started this organization went through, because you got to remember, and I'm sure you know this, uh, really well, Jonathan, seventies, eighties, even some of the sixties and the nineties, bartending was terrible. And so awful, awful. These people were fighting for awful. They, they didn't care about, you know, the resurgence of the cocktail, uh, as much as they just cared about keeping their craft alive. And they didn't care about, Oh my God, necessarily right about, Oh my God, we better have the best ingredients we can. They were far more hospitable than that. If their guest wanted a crappy drink with grenadine and Bailey's and, and milk. They made it for them the best they could with smile on their face. And that is genuine hospitality, right? That's like, I just want to make you happy and I'm going to do it the best I can, regardless of what you're ordering, because I know, you know, don't know any better right now. And it's not my job to teach you that, you know,

Jonathan:
Yeah, and you specifically, and Tony, who we add on, or who we will have on for one of our Tipple Time segments, you guys are trailblazers of the Vegas cocktail scene. I mean, craft, getting into the 21st century, how did that sort of come about? Where were you at that time, and what do you think propelled the Vegas scene into what it is today?

Livio:
It had to have been the USPG, but I will say this. So I got here in 2001. very early 2001 and the the Tony had already set some very good groundwork right what Tony did To the American cocktail scene often doesn't get recognized people recognize Tony. He's a great dude, and we all know that but but what tone what people often don't know is that what Tony do it did was amazing because Tony taught the world and that you could open a hotel with 21 restaurants or outlets in it, hundreds of bartenders running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all these people breaking through the convention and all of them within 20 minutes are served a hand muddled, fresh limed made mojito. That was incredible because it was, it was, uh, it parlayed really well with what Dale DeGroff did. Dale was incredible. Dale proved you can do it. Tony proved you could do it to 2000 people in 20 minutes. Yeah. Incredible. It's the high volume craft. The high volume. So it was definitely the legwork that Tony did and the USBG, Francesco LaFranconi and I, we came from Italy and we didn't know any better. Right. And in Italy, we were taught, right. We were always taught, listen, the cocktail is important, but it's not as important as everything else. Tony brought in that cocktails are amazing, are incredible. We make them the right way. Francesco and I brought in the surroundings of that. We focused a little bit more on competition, bartending the right way, why the garnish is important. Style. Yeah, your bartender next to you is gonna be pushing you to mediocrity. Is it how you say that? Mediocrity? Mediocrity. Mediocrity, thank you. English second language. Your bartender next to you is gonna be pushing you to mediocrity your entire life, telling you that the garnish is not important. Not because it isn't, because they're lazy. Telling you that good technique is not important. Not because it isn't, because they don't know how to do it. And we were more the people that said, listen, don't be, uh, so OCD about everything. But yes, these things are important. Make good drinks, have good posture, have good bar tools, use good ingredients. And that was just kind of a perfect storm that started. And as we opened under my presidency, I believe we opened 19 chapters. And as we brought that bliss ignorance from one state to another that propelled not just the cocktail scene in Vegas, but in those states who also had their own swagger to offer. Right.

Jonathan:
Yeah, absolutely. Hey everyone, Jonathan here. If you're into swag as much as we are, then look no further than our Cocktail Guru Shop. The items in our store have been personally chosen, hand-picked with care by me, I'm Jonathan, and my team of cocktail gurus. A water bottle with a stainless steel straw? Yep. T-shirts? Mm-hmm. Hoodies? Yes. Snapback hats? Signed copies of Mr. Boston Bartender's Guide? Cocktail box kits, bar tools, and more. You betcha. You've even managed to create a onesie for that mocktail lover in your family. So head on over to shop.thecocktailguru.com and use code GURU23 for 10% off your first order. It's a great deal. That's shop.thecocktailguru.com, 10% off with code GURU23. Cheers. Also, what I want to mention is that you're a busy guy here in Las Vegas and you have a bar system that you're actually working on.

Livio:
Is that not right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Eurobar.

Jonathan:
The Eurobar. I saw some photos. It's beautiful.

Livio:
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Tell us a little bit about it. Yeah, it changes a few things up a little bit. And I almost want to say to some people, I can just say it's new. But if you're a drink a European drink historian, you actually know that it predates everything. It's a time-tested way to bartend. And the best way to explain it is rather than it being a cocktail station, it's more of a bar station. It's a full bar. So in Europe, when you go to a bar, Those are usually retrofitted old tea shops, coffee shops, gelato stands, uh, all these sorts of other parlors. And when you go to those bars, you can get a coffee or a cappuccino or a fresh juice, not just a Negroni or a cocktail because of that wonky Italian service. The stations in Italy are a little more, in my opinion, complete. Right. Because you can actually make a cappuccino. And how are you going to do that on a scupper rail right alone? You need more space. You need more stuff. Yeah. So I'm bringing having bartended in Italy for nine years and in America, I've been here now 23. I saw what was cool about each different way of doing it and I combined it into one station and called it the EuroR. So that's the whatever, 10,000 degree description of it.

Jonathan:
accounts.

Livio:
Yeah. So basically, basically, um, Euro bar sells it to dealers, right? So, and then dealers do their markup and they sell it to general contractors or retailers, whoever their audience is.

Jonathan:
What are a couple of unique, um, components of that setup that make it what it is?

Livio:
Yeah. So the, the quickest way to explain it, especially to those who are experts in the bar world is it sets the bar to your, it sets the ice to your right hand. You're a lefty. I am a lefty. How does that work for you? Works. I've always, I've always, yeah. Even as a Southpaw, the way though, and the best way I explained it is this, right? When we scoop ice in front of us, we usually scoop it this way, right? Yeah. Does that make sense? That's correct. I, one day, was just hanging out with my daughter, and she was with a couple friends, and I had a big bin with a bunch of coffee beans in it. It was like a restaurant tub. And I asked the kids to scoop the beans. And I noticed that when they scooped it, they scooped it this way. Oh, like head on? Head on. Instead of this way. That reminded me that inherently we scoop like this. So if I would put the ice here, Yeah. Rather than here, I can use this center area, right? Yeah. Where the ice usually goes for other things. Huh. That make sense? It kind of makes sense. It kind of makes sense. So by doing that, now your ice is to your right hand now. Needless to say, ice is super important, right? 99.999% of drinks have ice in them. But let's also remember that ice is kind of a one trick pony. It can only be ice. But scooting that to the side, in the middle, I can put quick grab and highly curated other things. I can put towel nooks, I can put a trash chute, I can put a dipper well, I can put iced garnishes, I could put a rinser, I could put a drain board, and I could put a prep area where you could put a cutting board on. All of that by just scooting the ice to the right.

Jonathan:
Yeah, so you're replacing unused space with uh, you utility, uh, like utilities, basically stuff.

Livio:
Yeah. That's in essence how, and that's how they did it in Italy, of course, the bar station. So in Europe, if you brought them to America, they wouldn't be NSF approved. The health department would laugh you out of the room, which they should sometimes. And so I went and I did the, okay, how do I marry this and that together can make it work. So, That's the Eurobar.

Jonathan:
Well, that's great. And another thing, too, is, you know, we're so focused on taking care of the guests on the other side of the bar that rarely we keep in mind how we can be more efficient or how we could also be healthier with our bodies behind the bar. Right. And also, there are so many things that go into bartending. You know, you could hurt your elbows, your arms, your feet, your back. Yes. And also, and all of that is feet over there. He's saying feet, back over there. And a lot of that is dependent on your workspace and the height that you're working at, where your arm is, right?

Livio:
The distance is even worse than the height. So you mean like reaching over? Reaching over. So if you work for Amazon, right? The day one, you're a delivery person for Amazon. I think day one, they teach you if you're going to carry the box to somebody's porch, don't put the box here. put the box here because that 10 pound box, the more it goes away from your body. Now it becomes a 12 pound, 13 pound, 20 pound box because it's just how leverage works. If you put it closer to your body, it's easier to carry and easier on your lower back. So when the only craftsmen on planet earth, that has to build things 42 inches off the floor, but then you add a shaker tent, so now it's 48 or whatever, and the only craftsman on the earth that has to work away from their body is the bartender. It made no sense. And so I want, let's face it, Jonathan, if you buy a computer and you, a laptop, and you scoot it away from your desk, what do you buy? You buy a wireless keyboard, and you buy a mouse, because you still want to work here. Um, and so the Euro bar allows you, it doesn't eliminate the scupper. You could still all do the, all the fun things you want to do up here, but it gives you this where you can get a lot more of your. cool, quick stuff done without putting all that weight on your lower back.

Jonathan:
Yeah, that's super important. Um, do you have, and I ask our, sometimes our guests that have been in the industry for a little while, do you have any quick tips for work life balance? You have a, you have a family. I have a family. We travel a lot. We, there are late nights sometimes. Yeah, yeah. Have you found any holy grail?

Livio:
Or does it not exist? No, I don't think it exists, but I think more than a method, it's a way of life. It's a change in how you believe to live. And obviously, for some people, it might be easier than others. But just remember that if bartending is all you know, then you don't know enough about bartending. Meaning if, if you think that learning your craft better and talking about it and living it is all you should do in your life, then you're ruining the craft itself because a great bartender is one that lives in peace with whoever they believe their creator is, is, is a, is a person that has a really strong family, uh, tie a person that is, uh, that, that, uh, feels good about themselves. And sometimes that means going to the gym or whatever that thing is. Um, for me personally, obviously, right, it's, I'm really in tune with the man upstairs. Um, and that's my, my dimension. I try to exercise as much as I can. Um, I have a lot of family time with my family, even when it comes to bartending itself. even when it comes to bartending itself, um, I try to study things that go beyond the cocktail. Oh, you know, I, as you know, I wrote the book, 12 cocktails. It's all about ratios. That is like learn it and then chuck it and now learn how to live, learn other things. Right. And so, Hopefully that answers some of the questions. I love that.

Jonathan:
It absolutely does. And those are great, wise words from you, wise tips. So thank you again, Livio, for joining us on the podcast. My pleasure. This has been great. It's really good to see you, always. You too, Jonathan.

Livio:
Thanks for having me. This is always a great, great, great resource for everybody out there. So keep up the good work because I know it's a grind. I'm sure you landed in Vegas 13 hours ago and already put 14 hours of work. And I know you've got things going on tonight as well, but it's not going unnoticed and it's helping people. So thanks for having me and cheers to everybody. Thank you. Our pleasure. Cheers. Salute.

Jonathan:
Hey, hey, welcome to Tipple Time. Jonathan here. We're going to do a cocktail, a whiskey sour variation for the springtime with Glenmorangie, one of my favorite single malt scotch whiskeys. And of course, dad loves Glenmorangie. We're going to start by taking an egg and separating the yolk from the white. Now, you don't necessarily have to always have an egg white in a whiskey sour style cocktail, but we're just doing it today because it will create some nice texture. Does not necessarily add flavor to the drink, but just kind of like a nice textural feel as well as the way the drink looks. And of course, I'm at a real bar again. We're in the town I live in, in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, at a place called Little Moss. And I did their cocktail program here when they first opened, oh, I don't know, how long ago now? Eight years ago, maybe? Something like that, yeah. Okay, so we've got our egg white in here. Let's take our Glenmorangie. I have the Lasanta, which is really nice barrel-aged sherry barrels. and bourbon barrels. Can't forget the bourbon barrels. I did one and a half ounces right into my mixing tin. We have the, uh, Jaffard Pamplemousse. Jaffard is a, uh, French, uh, liqueur company. They make these really delicious, all natural fruit liqueurs. We're doing three quarters of an ounce into my mixing tin. Aperol, who does not love Aperol? Well, some people don't, but I feel like if you don't like Aperol, you have not had it prepared the right way in a cocktail. Does not always have to be overpowering. And in this cocktail, it actually takes a little bit of the back seat and just adds a little bit of balance and a little bit of color to the cocktail. So we added half of an ounce into the mixing tin. And of course, any sour has to have some sort of citrus ingredient. So I'm adding half of an ounce of fresh lemon juice and some kind of sweetener to balance things out. Now, some of these liqueurs are a little sweet on their own, so we don't need too much of a sweetener. So I'm just going to add half of an ounce. And you've probably seen me dry shake before. So dry shaking is just shaking without ice first, and then adding ice afterwards and shaking again. What that does is again, it emulsifies all of those ingredients because of the egg white will create this really nice foamy texture that you'll see. So we'll go ahead and give it a dry shake. Make sure it's nicely sealed. Okay. Yep, I know you don't hear any ice shaking, right? It's a silent shake. Okay. And that should be good. And now before we fill this with ice and shake with our ice, we're going to get a glass and a big solid ice cube. So follow me. Here's our old fashioned glass. And we've got our cubes right down here. Yeah. We'll add a nice ice cube to our. Old fashioned glass, OK? Yes. All right, so now let's add ice to the cocktail shaker. And we'll give it another nice shake. Now, of course, the longer you shake, the foamier the drink will get, but we don't have time. So I'm giving sort of like a moderate 10 second shake. All right. Oh, yeah. Look at that. That is some nice foam in there. Can you see that? I think you can. All right. Let's give it a. Strain. Right here. Oh. That looks like a lovely, lovely cocktail right there and little garnish, I'm just going to throw a I like to say throw, not actually throwing it, I'm just going to place Nice little piece of orange, hoping that the drink does not overflow. Oh, here we go. That's nice. Let's see how steady my hand is. And I will give it a try. Oh, That is a really nice, some nice fresh fruit flavor with the citrus and the grapefruit liqueur. Aperol, like I said, takes a nice backseat. Do I have any foam on my mustache? And the Glenmorangie Lysante adds this really nice balance to the drink. Well, there you are folks. Thanks again for joining us at Tipple Time. Cheers. Happy shaking.

SPEAKER_01:
Tipple Time is brought to you in part by Glenmorangie.

Announcer:
Today's Cocktail Commentary with Jeffrey Pogash is brought to you by Monin Mai Tai Syrup. Made with natural flavors and real fruit juices, Monin Homecrafted Mai Tai Cocktail Mixer can be used to mix up an authentic mai tai in seconds.

Jeffrey:
Hello, my friends, and welcome back to Cocktail Commentary. Can you believe that it's been 79 years? That's right, 79 years since the Mai Tai cocktail was created. Wow. By now, most people associate the Mai Tai with Trader Vic. Victor Bergeron, owner of Trader Vic's Trading Post, a tavern and restaurant in Oakland, California. But before Victor Bergeron became Trader Vic, he was Mr. Hinky Dink, the name of his first dining establishment in Oakland, which opened during the height of the Depression in 1934. After traveling to New Orleans, Cuba, and the Caribbean, Vic decided that he would transform his hunting lodge-themed restaurant, called Hinky Dink's. The drinks that he learned to make during his trip inspired him to change the theme of his restaurant and the name. Gone were the moose and deer heads that adorned hinky dinks. Polynesian decor became the norm. Tropical drinks were served at the bar. And voila, a tiki restaurant was born, and it was named Trader Vic's. The year was 1937. It didn't take too long for tiki to become chic. How do I know? Because first-hand experience with Trader Vic's goes back to my childhood, when my parents took me to his outpost in New York, located on the ground floor of the Plaza Hotel. You heard me right. The Plaza Hotel. Yes, the same Plaza Hotel that Donald J. Trump once owned, and that was featured in the movie Home Alone 2. I will never forget the dark, foreboding, should I say mysterious atmosphere, festooned with palm trees, bamboo lamp spears, anchors, fishnets, high-backed rattan chairs, antique wooden outriggers, and hand-carved ancestor and Menuhin statues. Menuhins, by the way, are mischievous mythical characters from Polynesian culture, similar to leprechauns. I wasn't old enough to enjoy the cocktails, but the oversized lava bowls and skeleton mugs were mesmerizing and made a lasting impression, obviously. Since 1944, Trader Vic's restaurants have promoted the Mai Tai cocktail to the hilt, to the point where restaurants around the world offer this drink. Its popularity places it to this day among the top 10 favorite drinks in the United States, still after all these years. Victor Bergeron's version of its creation is that one day in 1944, he and his bartenders were concocting a drink. When friends from Tahiti walked into the restaurant, Vic asked them to taste the drink. They did, and the friends exclaimed, mai tai roe, which means out of this world in the Polynesian language. The recipe I'm about to recite comes from my many dinners at the Trader Vic's in Beverly Hills, inside the Beverly Hilton Hotel, and my many conversations with the general manager, Chan Rohana, who had been with the Trader Vic's organization for many years. This is considered the official recipe and as close to the original as I could find. Although, like other cocktails and mixed drinks, recipes do evolve. The recipe consists of two ounces of 17-year-old J. Ray and Nephew Jamaican rum, fabulous rum, a half an ounce of Garnier Orgeat syrup, a half an ounce of de Kuiper Orange Curaçao, a quarter of an ounce of rock candy, and the juice of one freshly pressed lime, about a quarter of an ounce. Serve in a 15-ounce double old-fashioned glass with crushed or shaved ice. Garnish with a mint sprig and half of a spent lime shell. Over the years, as the drink evolved, a menuhin spear skewered with a cherry and a pineapple chunk was added. That's right, for showmanship, of course. Please keep in mind that there is a good chance that the Mai Tai that you are served in a bar will most likely be a modification of this recipe. For example, simple syrup will be substituted for rock candy. Nobody uses rock candy anymore, really. And of course, a 17-year-old rum will not be used because it's so hard to find and it would be very expensive. So here we have it, the original Mai Tai recipe by Trader Vic. As is the case with other cocktails, there is controversy as to the origin of the Mai Tai. Was it really Trader Vic who created it? Or was it someone else? And now, here's the rest of the story. Something you should know is that before Vic transformed Hinky Dinks into Trader Vic's, he visited two Polynesian-style establishments serving tropical drinks. One was called South Seas Cafe in San Diego. The other one was Don's Beachcomber, just off of Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. Both of these places left a lasting impression and helped Vic to create his version of Tiki. As a matter of fact, I should say, he visited Don's Beachcomber bar so often that he became an unwelcome guest at a certain period in time. But December 5, 1933, let's go back. Ernest Raymond Gant opened his bar and restaurant the day after the 21st Amendment was ratified, ending Prohibition. It was located on McAdam Place just off of Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. The name that Gant chose for the new bar and restaurant was Don's Beachcomber. He had traveled extensively through Polynesia and the Caribbean and had a slew of tropical drinks ready to go. He hired a bartender or two, men from the Philippines, who would remain loyal employees for many years to come. As his success grew and his Hollywood celebrities became frequent guests, actress Marlena Dietrich and Howard Hughes were regulars. Ernest Gant found himself portraying an adventurer, an explorer, and proponent of Polynesian culture and cuisine. So he changed his name to Don, D-O-N-N, Don Beach, Don with two Ns. This was the first of what we would call today a tiki bar and restaurant. He called the food served there South Sea Island cuisine. But in reality, it was Cantonese food, Chinese cuisine, that's what he was serving. The decor was from Don's collection of South Seas artifacts, like fishermen's nets, parts of ships, bamboo lamps, and driftwood signs. The space itself was very small, a former tailor show. Victor Bergeron visited Don the Beachcomber, sat at the bar, studied the rum-based drinks, and watched the operation in action. Again, this was several years before Trader Vic's opened his doors. Among the drinks Don Beach created was the Sumatra Kula, and one of the most famous tiki drinks of all time, the Zombie. But where, oh where, does our Mai Tai cocktail come into play? Well, here it is, right here. Don's second wife, Phoebe, states that the original Mai Tai was first served in 1933, the year that Don's Beachcomber first opened. And here is Don the Beachcomber's original Mai Tai recipe. Pour into a mixer one and a half ounces Meyers Plantation rum, one ounce Cuban rum, 3 quarters of an ounce fresh lime juice, one ounce fresh grapefruit juice, a quarter of an ounce of velvet falernum, a half an ounce of Cointreau, a triple sec, two dashes Angostura bitters, one dash Pernod, and the shell of squeezed lime. as a garnish. One cup of crushed ice about the size of a dime. Shake all the ingredients for one minute on medium speed. This means it was done in a blender. Serve in a double old-fashioned glass. Garnish with four sprigs of mint. Add a spear of pineapple. Sip slowly through mint sprigs until desired effect results. At this stage, it's a he said, he said argument. Trader Vic stated that he created the Mai Tai in 1944, and Don the Beachcomber claims that he served it in 1933. Who will decide the argument? Well, it's a journalist named Jim Bishop, who was a very famous journalist who I knew by reading. He was a friend of both Vic Bergeron and Don Beach. Bishop was a respected journalist who had written The Day Lincoln Was Shot, along with The Day Kennedy Was Shot, among other bestsellers. One day, Bishop was sitting around drinking and chatting with Trader Vic and Don Beach at the Trader Vic's in San Francisco. The year was 1970 or 1971. According to Bishop, as the discussion progressed, Vic Bergeron said, blankety blank, Don. I wish you would never come up with the blankety blank thing. It's caused me a lot of arguments with people. Then he said, this blankety blank did do it. I didn't. Wow. In the long run, does it really matter? Quite honestly, we have two very different drinks. They both happen to sport the same name. Both are good drinks, but it's the Trader Vic's version that lives on in history, thanks to the success of the Trader Vic's restaurants in 17 countries around the world. And now, you know the rest of the story.

Jonathan:
That does it for today's show.

Jeffrey:
If you enjoy what we do, please rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast.

Jonathan:
To watch or listen to today's episode, or to see the show notes, visit thecocktailgurupodcast.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, YouTube, X, Instagram, or TikTok.

Announcer:
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