Who Invented the Mai Tai, and Other Tales of Tiki Culture

Tiki culture is a kitschy trend popular with many of today's designers and artists. It encompasses music, décor, food and drink. Some say that Tiki culture can officially be traced back to bartenders "Trader Vic" Bergeron and "Don the Beachcomber" (Donn Beach). Above all, it can be traced to the creation of the Mai Tai, a cocktail made with rum, orange Curacao liqueur, French orgeant syrup, and lime.

"Trader Vic" Bergeron

In 1934, Victor Jules Bergeron Jr. opened "Hinky Dink's", a typical neighborhood bar in Oakland, California. In 1937, Bergeron traveled to the Caribbean where he discovered rum drinks like the daiquiri, the mojito, and planters punch. When he came back to the States, he introduced these exotic drinks at Hinky Dink's, and they were a hit.

"Don the Beachcomber"

"Don the Beachcomber" was born Ernest Gantt. (He) A former bootlegger, Gantt moved to Hollywood, California and opened "Don's Beachcomber" bar in 1934, soon after legally changing his name to Donn Beach. A veteran Caribbean traveler, he became known for mixing exotic rum cocktails, including his own monumental creation: "The Zombie", a multiple rum drink with notoriously high alcohol content. The bar itself also had his personal stamp on it. He decorated it in an unprecedented island Tiki style.

"Don's Beachcomber" bar became so popular that Donn Beach opened the "Don the Beachcomber" restaurant across the street. And his invented drink, "The Zombie", became so popular that they were served at New York's 1939 World's Fair.

By the forties and fifties, a chain of Don the Beachcomber restaurants opened across the country.

Victor Bergeron meets Don the Beachcomber

In many ways, Victor Bergeron and Don the Beachcomber led parallel lives in Northern and Southern California. They first met in the early forties, when Bergeron visited "Don the Beachcomber's" restaurant in Hollywood.

Bergeron was struck by the Polynesian décor of Donn Beach's restaurant. He immediately knew that serving exotic South Seas cocktails in Hinky Dink's, his Oakland neighborhood meat-and-potatoes bar, was a heavy-duty clash in décor styles.

When he went back to Oakland, Victor Bergeron nicknamed himself "Trader Vic"; he renamed his Oakland bar "Trader Vic's", and transformed the bar's décor from blue collar to Polynesian (later dubbed "Tiki").

The Mai Tai

In 1944, Trader Vic invented the Mai Tai. After a Tahitian friend tasted his concoction at the Oakland bar, the friend exclaimed "Maita'i", the Tahitian word for "good."

However, back then, Don the Beachcomber had also laid claim with a big grin to inventing the Mai Tai. Throughout the years, this claim became the basis of a friendly rivalry between the two men.

Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic Today

Even though Don the Beachcomber and his original "Don the Beachcomber" restaurants have been gone for years, a small version of the Hollywood original opened at Disneyland's "California Adventure" theme park in 2005.

Also two larger versions have been scheduled to open in Hawaii.

As for Trader Vic's, it's still going strong with locations around the world.

Tiki Culture

In recent years, "Tiki culture" has gathered a cult following, particularly the drinks, the Polynesian bamboo and palm fronds ambience, and even the music (dubbed "exotica"), once popularized in the early sixties by the likes of composers Esquivel and Martin Denny, the latter often playing at Don the Beachcomber's Hollywood restaurant.

"Shag" (AKA Josh Agle) was (as is) one of the first modern artists to be inspired by the retro fifties style. Some say the comparatively recent trend originated with him.

SOURCES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_the_Beachcomber

"Tiki Culture", Wayne Curtis, American Heritage, URL: (http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/web/20060916-tiki-ernest-gantt-don-the-beachcomber-donn-beach-victor-bergeron-mai-tai-restaurant-bar-trader-vic.shtml)

"Trader Vic", Richard Carleton Hacker, San Francisco Chronicle, URL: (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/a/2004/11/11/WIG619OSAL1.DTL)