The Mai Tai was invented in Oakland. That is the whole premise of this crawl and it is the part most people get wrong, including a lot of people who live here. Victor Bergeron mixed the first one at his Oakland bar in 1944 — the standard telling puts it on the thirtieth of August, with two Tahitian friends as the tasters, and gives the drink its name from what one of them said after the first sip. The original room is gone. The trail it left is a genuinely good evening if you run it in the right order.
This is a crawl that crosses a bridge, so the order you do it in decides whether the evening works or turns into an hour in traffic. Tell Karpo where you are starting and how many stops you want, and get a route that runs the right direction, with the rooms that are open that night and a sensible way home.
Start where the drink did, even though the bar is gone
The Oakland original closed in 1972, replaced by the bayfront restaurant in Emeryville that has served as the chain's flagship ever since. That building is the closest thing to a shrine this drink has, and it is worth going for the specific pleasure of drinking a Mai Tai made to the house specification in the house that made it standard. Go early, before sunset, because the room faces the water and that is most of what you are paying for.
It is also the geographically awkward stop, which is why it goes first. Doing Emeryville last means driving away from the city late at night, and the bridge does not reward that decision.
Cross the bridge for the mid-century room
The Tonga Room, in the basement of a Nob Hill hotel, is the theatrical stop — a former swimming pool, a floating band, and an indoor rainstorm on a timer. Nobody goes for the cocktail programme and everybody should go once. Time your arrival deliberately: the room runs on a schedule and turning up between shows means paying resort prices for a quiet basement. Ask when the rain is.
Then the rooms that actually care about the rum
Hayes Valley's Smuggler's Cove is the serious end of the Bay Area's rum world, with a list that runs into the hundreds and staff who will talk you through it if you ask a real question. Pagan Idol downtown, Zombie Village and Last Rites fill out the modern side of the scene — dark, detailed rooms that treat tiki as a cocktail discipline rather than a theme. Two of these in one night is plenty. Three is a decision you make about tomorrow morning.
What a proper Mai Tai actually contains
Rum, lime, orange curaçao, orgeat. No pineapple juice, no grenadine, nothing red. If the drink arrives orange and sweet with a cherry and a wedge, you are drinking the 1960s hotel version rather than the original, which is a legitimate thing to enjoy but is not the same drink. The test is the finish: the original is dry, nutty from the orgeat, and tastes principally of rum. Every serious bar on this route will make it that way and most will be pleased you noticed.
Doing this without a car
BART to MacArthur and a short ride gets you to the Emeryville end; from there back into the city is straightforward by BART to Powell for the Nob Hill stop, then Muni or a fifteen-minute walk down into Hayes Valley. The whole crawl is achievable on transit, and given what you are drinking that is the correct plan rather than the virtuous one. Build in an eating stop between the second and third rooms — these are not small drinks.
Doing a shortened version
Not everyone wants a three-city evening, and the crawl compresses well. The two-stop version is the Emeryville flagship at sunset and one serious San Francisco rum room afterwards, which gives you the origin and the modern interpretation with a single bridge crossing in between. The one-stop version is Hayes Valley on its own, where a good bartender will make you the original specification and then show you what the last decade has done with it, which is most of the education without any driving at all. What does not work is the reverse compression — starting in the city and finishing in the East Bay leaves you crossing back late.
Practical notes
Run it east to west: Emeryville before sunset, Nob Hill in the early evening timed to the rainstorm, Hayes Valley or downtown late. The original is rum, lime, curaçao and orgeat, and it should taste dry. Two serious rum rooms is a full night. Take BART rather than driving, eat somewhere between stops, and note that the drink's anniversary falls at the very end of August, so early September is the neighbourhood's own quiet season for it.
Tags: #MaiTai #TikiBars #SanFrancisco #Oakland #Emeryville #RumBars #BayArea #CocktailHistory #HayesValley #NobHill #SFNightlife #SFWeekend #SFGuide
Please drink responsibly. Must be of legal drinking age.
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Ask Karpo first
Want the crawl routed in the right direction for the night you are going, with the rooms that are actually open and a transit plan home? Ask Karpo for the order, the timings and where to eat in the middle of it.
