Bamboo Club's Fall of Romulus Cocktail
When it came time to develop a menu of creepy cocktails for Bamboo Club’s monthlong Halloween pop-up, the Tremble Club, beverage director and longtime horror fan Dustin Rodriguez knew just what to do. The Long Beach tiki bar — one of the best in Southern California — is riffing on classic cocktails with a few spooky tweaks, some featuring bony plastic skeleton arms or mini pumpkins peeking out from the rims of glasses, others with bat toothpicks or gummy-candy eyeballs.
One of Rodriguez’s most popular concoctions is the Fall of Romulus, paying homage to the most recent “Alien†film as well as tiki legend Donn Beach’s peachy, minty icon: the Missionary’s Downfall.
From classic tiki haunts to new speakeasies, these are the best tiki bars and Polynesian-inspired restaurants in San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles and Ventura.
“The Missionary’s Downfall is a really fresh, bright cocktail — it’s classic tiki,†Rodriguez said. “It’s typically lower-ABV tiki though, which is kind of strange as most of them are pretty boozy. Here at Bamboo Club I can’t be doing those low-ABV drinks, so I beefed it up a little bit.â€
He adds extra rum to the mix of fresh mint, peach liqueur and pineapple, then finishes with a gory float made from fresh raspberry, “which keeps it really nice and tart without getting it overly sweet,†Rodriguez said. While spruced up for the season with that red raspberry “blood†and its garnishes, the Fall of Romulus is bright and fruity — making it a perfect year-round cocktail without the addition of its Halloween adornments.
Tiki bar culture is on an upswing. But have we considered the food? Crab rangoon, “coco†shrimp and sweet-and-sour pork defined tiki restaurant menus in the mid-century — they’re best when prepared at home.
This is also a recipe that requires minimal appliances beyond the cocktail essentials: You can use a jigger to measure the liquids and honey, a metal cocktail shaker to make both the honey syrup and the drink, and any sort of blender to make the raspberry syrup, be it immersion, countertop or food processor.
To make the honey syrup: In a metal shaker or small cup or bowl, combine honey with 4 ounces warm water. Shake or stir until mixed, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Set aside.
To make the raspberry float: Add raspberries to a blender with 1 ounce sugar and ½ ounce water. Blend until smooth, then strain. Set aside.
To make the cocktail: Add fresh mint leaves to a shaker and muddle. Add honey syrup, lime juice, pineapple juice, peach liqueur and rum and shake very hard, for roughly 1 minute.
Pour contents of shaker into a glass and top with raspberry purée. Garnish with pineapple wedge, mint bouquet and any optional spooky adornments (gummy-candy eyeballs, skeleton arms, etc.).
Eat your way across L.A.
Get our weekly Tasting Notes newsletter for reviews, news and more.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
