Temptation Tuesdays will be moving to Temptation Thursdays starting this first Thursday of the new year with DJ Drew Groove – the night will be moved 2 days over in the week but we will still bring you live entertainment from DJ Cabana, DJ AM Gold and the Lava Lounge Orchestra! Thursdays are now tempting at Trader Vic’s Portland
Escape to paradise in the Pearl District for New Year’s Eve. Enjoy this unique menu created by Chef Bill Hussey for a special evening.
Celebrate the end of 2012 and Welcome in the New Year in a tropical environment.
Come by Trader Vic’s in December. We are including our iconic dessert, the Snowball, with the purchase of any of our entrées until the end of the month!
The leaves are falling, there’s a chill to the air and the skies are growing darker. That means it’s time for Trick-or-Tiki at Trader Vic’s Portland. Whether you prefer to look at it as one last chance to relive summer or an early jump on the holiday season, there’s no better place to be on Halloween than right here.
Sneaky Tiki and the Lava Lounge Orchestra will be with us all evening playing its signature blend of Hawaiian, lounge, surf, exotica and jazz melodies. You might even be able to convince Eryn to bust out a few sea shanties if you can get enough Nelson’s Blood in her.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to work your way through October’s special Zombie menu, this will be your last chance (your last official chance anyway). Or, if you’re looking for something to warm your stomach along with your soul, try a Hot Buttered Rum served in the newly re-designed Trader Vic’s skull mug. You can even sample the many new dishes that have been added to the bar menu this month.
Costumes are not required, but those who dress the part will be glad they did. There will be $50 gift certificates for the best men’s costume, best women’s costume and the best zombie.
See you there!
You’ve had thirty days to recover from Tiki Month. Now it’s time to step it up a notch and go pro. That’s right, ladies and gents, October is Zombie Month at Trader Vic’s.
As many of you know, the Zombie is among the most famous exotic drinks around. Originally created by Don The Beachcomber as a hangover cure for a customer who had an important business meeting to get through, the Zombie is one of the most potent cocktails ever conceived (because, as everyone knows, it’s MUCH better to show up at important business meetings completely soused than hung over).
According to exotic drink historian, Beachbum Berry, Don’s original 1934 recipe called for 2/3 oz fresh lime juice, 1/2 oz Don’s Mix, 1/2 oz falernum, 1.5 oz gold Puerto Rican Rum, 1.5 oz aged Jamacian rum, 1 oz 151-proof Demerara rum, a dash of Angostura bitters, 6 drops of Pernod, a teaspoon of grenadine and ice.
Because Don the Beachcomber closely guarded all his recipes (and because the original recipe was on the strong side even for seasoned drinkers) many variations of the Zombie have evolved over the years.
This month we’re featuring six sinfully delicious Zombie recipes including the original recipe, a vintage Trader Vic’s recipe, the current Trader Vic’s recipe and a few others we just happen to like. We’ll even be featuring the variation of the Zombie variation our very own Jen Steimer came up with last year for Cocktail Week — 28 Minutes Later.
Come on down and try them all — just don’t try them all in one sitting or you, too, will know what it feels like to be undead. And if you decide to stop by on Halloween, be sure to dress for the occasion, as the best-dressed zombie will win an $50 gift certificate.
While it is true that there are exotic drinks based on pretty much any type of liquor that suits your fancy, rum still rules the roost. The history of rum is fascinating and well worth exploring. Moreover, much like wine, there are a lot of different styles and flavors that come from various rum making (and rum aging) parts of the world.
Trader Vic’s Portland is all about diversity, and we’ve been adding new rums to our collection for the past several months. At this point, the list has become quite large. We’ve even begun offering rum flights. So if you’re ready to take your rum appreciation to the next level, come on down to the lounge and let the sampling begin.
On September 10, 1953, Swanson & Sons introduced one of the wonders of the modern age — the TV Dinner. While you may not admit it now, chances are you actually liked TV Dinners at one time. In fact, it probably took you years to realize how awful they really are. And, while the jig may be up as far as the chow is concerned, there’s still something kind of fun and nostalgic about the whole TV Dinner experience.
That’s why on Monday, September 10, Trader Vic’s Portland is going to give you a chance to relive your childhood with our own version of the TV Dinner — one that caters to your evolved culinary tastes. For $22, you’ll have your choice of Macadamia Nut Mahi, Chicken Katsu or Korean Short Ribs along with a side and veggie of your choice. Dessert is a fruit cobbler. And if you want to start your meal with that, we promise not to tell.
For those who really want to get authentic, we’ll be showing vintage TV programming in the Kon Tiki Room all night.
See you there.
There are several reasons we really like Sneaky Tiki and the Lava Lounge Orchestra. One if the biggest is that the band is made up of a large number of solid musicians. The fact that they also happen to play the type of music that goes perfectly with the Trader Vic’s vibe is another.
The Lava Lounge Orchestra blends layered textures of rich musical sound inspired and composed by Les Baxter, Juan Garcia Esquivel, Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman, Henry Mancini, Perez Prado and many others. They incorporate lovely Hawaiian, lounge, surf, Exotica and Jazz melodies to create sounds that transport the listener to an exotic paradise.
Bandleader, Eryn Vercammen (a.k.a. Sneaky Tiki), is a conductor, teacher composer, arranger, musical director and multi-instrumentalist specializing in flute, guitar, ukulele and percussion to name a few. Not surprisingly, she’s into more aspects of tiki than just music. In fact, she has her own signature cocktail, appropriately called the “Sneaky Tiki.”
The Sneaky Tiki isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s a delightful combination of light rum, Jamaican rum, brandy, citrus, spice and a touch of orgeat. It is a wonderfully balanced cocktail and, if you aren’t careful, it’ll sneak right up on you.
Sneaky Tiki and the Lava Lounge Orchestra play the third Thursday of every month as part of our ongoing Temptation Thursdays celebration. And, whenever Sneaky Tiki is in the house, so is her cocktail, which becomes one of the evening’s featured drinks.
This month Trader Vic’s Portland is featuring two cocktails of high historical significance. In much the same way blues, country and jazz make up the foundation of rock and roll, rum, sugar and lime are the building blocks for virtually every exotic cocktail – including the mighty Mai Tai.
Rum, sugar and lime are the only ingredients in the original daiquiri, which was a massively popular cocktail in the 1930s and 40s (and bears little resemblance to the fruity frozen plonk referred to as daiquiris at Mexican restaurants and tropical tourist traps around the globe).
In the mid-1930s, Victor Bergeron, the proprietor of a popular Oakland saloon called Hinky Dinks, decided to go out into the world in order to expand his knowledge of “fancy drinks.” His travels took him to New Orleans then to Havana, where he sat at the famous La Florida bar and watched Constantino Rapalo mix daiquiris for an entire week. Soon after that trip Bergeron would change the name of Hinky Dinks to Trader Vic’s and begin a dynasty that lives on to this day.
The simple, elegant, La Florida Daiquiri #1 is one of the drinks we’ll be featuring this month.
If you’ve celebrated Black Tot Day with us before (or are frequent reader of this blog or a serious tiki scholar), you already understand the link between the British Royal Navy and rum. While the glorious naval tradition of daily rum provisions for British sailors has sadly come to an end, the special blend of five West Indian rums that was served for more than 300 years lives on in Pusser’s Rum.
One of the most famous Pusser’s Rum recipes is The Painkiller, which is the other cocktail we’re featuring this month. The Painkiller is made with a little (or a lot) of Pusser’s along with pineapple juice, orange juice and cream of coconut and topped with a sprinkling of nutmeg and cinnamon. The flavor profile of the Painkiller is similar to a Pina Colada. The main difference is in the flavor of the rum itself, which takes a far more prominent role in the Painkiller and provides a nice complement to the sweetness of the pineapple and coconut cream.
