Where Rum Rules

Vodka is all anybody’s drinking these days, according to common wisdom, but rum reigns supreme in a variety of cocktails and at a number of bars around town. Rum has a sense of fun, from its island origins to the often whimsical garnishes, like paper parasols and plastic monkeys, that accompany it.

And rum has a history. On Martinique at the turn of the 18th century, a Dominican priest distilled the first rum from a native medicine made of fermented sugar cane mixed with tobacco leaves. Trader Vic’s, home of the mai tai, the scorpion and 75 other fruit juice and exotic libations, was the cradle of modern rum drinks. Victor Bergeron, the Trader himself, created the mai tai (claiming it to mean “the best� or “out of this world� in Tahitian) in 1944, and it remains the quintessential tropical cocktail.

Maui Beach Cafe, a new tropical fantasy in Westwood, stocks nine rums, including Mount Gay, Meyer’s and coconut-flavored Malibu at Da Mai Tai Bar. Most popular are Da Kine--a classic and very strong rendition featuring passion fruit, pineapple and orange juices, Bacardi light and Meyer’s dark and a float of potent Bacardi 151--and the Classic, like Da Kine but without the 151. On a good night, bartenders here whip up as many as 500 of these and other mai tais.

Drinks at Maui Beach resemble sunsets, tropical flowers and other island pleasures. The creamy Coconut Bomb, which tastes like a pina colada, looks like a pink cloud captured in a martini glass. Passion fruit liqueur gives not only flavor but also the bright orange color to a Maui Sunset. Most impressive of all is the Tsunami, served in a fishbowl-sized snifter with floating gummy sharks. Drinks start at $5.50; the Tsunami, at $13.50, is meant for two.

Nobody at Maui Beach orders straight shots of rum--not a great loss since this bar doesn’t stock the really good stuff, such as Kachine’s Guadeloupe and Martinique, Cruzan Estate Diamond and the new Pyrat XO Reserve. For these and more, you have to go to a watering hole like Rix in Santa Monica, where bartender Drew Zingoni makes a near-perfect mai tai and a smooth and citrusy Havana Daiquiri, and also pours straight shots of half a dozen premium brands, from Gosling’s Black Seal and Pampero Aniversario to a trio of Saint James rums. Mixed drinks here average $7; straight shots are $9.