Next year’s Hukilau will feature several changes that will return the annual gathering of the Tiki tribe in Fort Lauderdale to its roots: The 12th annual event will move from April to June, and it also will be centered around the Sheraton Beach Hotel, better known as the Yankee Clipper.
Tickets are on sale now for the June 6-9 event at TheHukilau.com, and “passengers” are also being encouraged “book a stateroom aboard the Yankee Clipper” to ensure a prime spot at this extravaganza of vintage Polynesian Pop.
After five years in early June, the event was held in April last year and was centered at the Best Western Oceanside on the south end of Fort Lauderdale Beach. But with interest in mid-century culture still blooming, a move was made for 2013 to include the Sheraton, one of South Florida’s most iconic hotels. It will serve as the host hotel and will be the center of the action for most of the Hukilau activities. Guests will also receive perks for staying at this oceanfront classic, home of the legendary Wreck Bar and its enchanting mermaids, aka Marina the Fire Eating Mermaid’s Underwater Swim Show.
The Impatient Virgin makes its return after decades in retirement at the Lost Cocktails Party in June 2013. (Photo by Hurricane Hayward)
When the original review of this “lost cocktail” was posted, it was just the second in a series that I hoped would shed just a little bit of light on some classic drinks that were retired from The Mai-Kai’s menu over the years and largely forgotten. Little did I know that nine months later, the light would be shining brightly on this and two other recipes returned from the vault for a special event at the conclusion of The Hukilau 2013.
More than three years later, at The Mai Kai’s 60th anniversary party, the same three cocktails returned from the vault once again to be enjoyed by a new generation of enthusiasts who may not even have been born the last time they appeared on a menu.
* See the 60th anniversary “lost cocktails” menu
Mai-Kai general manager Kern Mattei, who worked behind the bar back in the 1980s and is familiar with many of the drinks before they were retired, was the driving force behind the return of these vintage recipes. Along with the current menu recipes, he keeps retired recipes under lock and key in his office and ensures their quality and authenticity. When it came time to select three drinks for the 2013 party, he committed to two of the previously revealed concoctions (Last Rites and Demerara Float) plus one newly revealed tipple.
The Impatient Virgin is makes a second return appearance in December 2016 during The Mai-Kai’s 60th anniversary celebration. (Photo by Hurricane Hayward)
Seeking a mild option, Mattei suggested the Liquid Gold or Impatient Virgin, and he prepared samples of both. We were both impressed with the flavor-packed Virgin and went with this slightly reconfigured version for the party. See the tasting notes and tribute recipe below for more info.
Like many of The Mai-Kai’s legendary tropical drinks (31 on the current menu and nine lost classics), the Impatient Virgin can be traced back to Tiki bar pioneer Donn Beach, aka Don the Beachcomber. His Vicious Virgin was a staple at his chain of restaurants in the years prior to The Mai-Kai’s birth. As has been well documented on this blog, one of Beach’s top bartenders, Mariano Licudine, was hired away to The Mai-Kai, and the rest is history.
Licudine took Beach’s classic recipes and ran with them. Many stayed virtually the same, but he also did a lot of tinkering with ingredients and flavors. He also tinkered with the names, documented by Tiki drink historian Jeff “Beachbum” Berry in his definitive book on the heyday of tropical mixology, Sippin’ Safari.
Mariano’s son, Ron, told Berry about how the task of naming the drinks became a family affair. Before The Mai-Kai opened, the Licudine family gathered in the living room to come up with new (often better) names for the Beachcomber drinks that the master mixologist had reconfigured (and usually reinvigorated). “They changed the Vicious Virgin into the Impatient Virgin, the Cobra’s Fang into the Cobra’s Kiss, and the Never Say Die into the Oh So Deadly,” Berry wrote.
Most of the names were improved, with an obvious attempt to be more tourist-friendly at the fledgling Fort Lauderdale restaurant. The inspiration of those names remains a secret of the Licudine clan who gathered for those early brain-storming sessions.
However, one name in particular remained a favorite of Mariano’s son, Ron Licudine, who elaborated on the history of the Impatient Virgin in an interview for the PBS documentary Plastic Paradise: A Swingin’ Trip Through America’s Polynesian Obsession. Coincidentally, the film premiered at The Mai-Kai during The Hukilau 2013, just before the Lost Cocktails Party. Sadly, two weeks after The Hukilau, Ron Licudine lost a long battle with cancer at age 69.
The namesake of the drink, Licudine relates in the film with a smile, was actually a cousin in the Philippines named Virginia. We won’t speculate on the degree of her patience, but we certainly appreciate the purity and virtue of this lost-but-not-forgotten classic cocktail.
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IMPATIENT VIRGIN
Okole Maluna Society review and rating
Size: Medium
Potency: Mild
Flavor profile: Intense sweet and sour juices, falernum, and a hint of gold rum.
Review: A tantalizing combination of juices, syrups and rum with a distinctive Mai-Kai flair.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (see how it ranks). If this were on today’s menu, it would rank near the top of the mild drinks, just below Oh So Deadly.
Ancestry: Based on Don the Beachcomber’s Vicious Virgin, the Impatient Virgin was on the original 1956-57 Mai-Kai cocktail menu and spotted as recently as the mid-1980s. At this point, however, drinks in small cocktail glasses were quickly losing popularity, a factor that might have had something to do with the Impatient Virgin’s demise.
Bilge: The Vicious Virgin is one of a handful of Donn Beach originals available on the current menu at the Don the Beachcomber location in Huntington Beach, Calif. There was also a special mug made for the drink, designed by Crazy Al Evans, manufactured by Tiki Farm, and released in 2011.
Agree or disagree with this review? Share your comments below!
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Don the Beachcomber’s Vicious Virgin by The Atomic Grog. (Photo by Hurricane Hayward, July 2012)
* 3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
* 1/2 ounce Cointreau
* 1/4 ounce falernum
* 1/2 ounce Puerto Rican dark rum
* 1 ounce Virgin Islands light rum
Pour into blender. Add a handful of cracked ice. Blend for 15 seconds at high speed. Serve in a thin 6-ounce champagne glass that has been frozen in a deep freezer.
Don’t confuse this drink with Vicious Virgin #2, a tequila drink featured in Beachbum Berry Remixed.
Tasting notes
I went with Bacardi 8 and Cruzan Estate as my rums. My falernum choice, as usual, was Fee Brothers.
The result is quite sour and tart, with a nice kick from the aged Bacardi. The absence of a overtly sweet syrup makes for a drink that’s on the sour side. It’s similar to a classic sour frozen daiquiri, Hemingway style.
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Tribute to The Mai-Kai’s Impatient Virgin, v.2 – circa 2013-2016 By The Atomic Grog
Impatient Virgin tribute by The Atomic Grog. (Photo by Hurricane Hayward, January 2017)
* 3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
* 3/4 ounce fresh orange juice
* 1/4 ounce falernum (Fee Brothers)
* 1/4 ounce grenadine (Fee Brothers)
* 3/4 ounce Appleton Special gold Jamaican rum
* 3/4 ounce white Virgin Islands rum
* 1/2 teaspoon fassionola (see below)
Pulse blend with 1 cup of crushed ice for 3-5 seconds. Serve in a small rocks glass. Or strain into a small martini glass or cocktail coupe. Garnish with a optional maraschino cherry.
Notes and tips for home mixologists
The Impatient Virgin was originally served in a small cocktail glass, just like its ancestor. According to Mattei, it even had the same maraschino cherry that settled in the bottom of the glass (see Vicious Virgin artwork above). When it was first resurrected from the lost cocktails graveyard in 2013, it was served in a rocks glass with ice (see photos above and below).
But in December 2016, we were pleased to see it return to its old form as a strained cocktail, served in a small martini glass. A small detail, but much appreciated. Otherwise, the drink seemed to stay pretty much the same. It’s a rich and sweet cocktial, with hints of gold rum offsetting the juices and syrups.
Prior to its 2013 appearance, we posted this a tribute recipe that isn’t too far off the latest version above …
Tribute to The Mai-Kai’s Impatient Virgin, v.1 By The Atomic Grog
Impatient Virgin tribute, v.1. (Photo by Hurricane Hayward, September 2012)
* 3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
* 1/2 ounce fresh orange juice
* 1/4 ounce falernum (Fee Brothers)
* 1/2 ounce Appleton Estate Extra dark Jamaican rum
* 1 ounce Appleton Special gold Jamaican rum
* 1/2 teaspoon fassionola (see below)
Blend with 1/2 cup of crushed ice until smooth. Serve in a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a maraschino cherry. Wahine optional.
Notes and tips for home mixologists
In both tributes, I went with Appleton Jamaican rum, which is used in many of the restaurant’s current cocktails. It gives the drink a richer rum flavor to accent the sour notes.
The Impatient Virgin first appeared at The Mai-Kai’s Lost Cocktails Party in June 2013. (Photo by Hurricane Hayward)
The addition of both grenadine and fassionola give the drink a pink hue and intense sweetness. The original Impatient Virgin was indeed a “girly drink,” Mattei confirmed, and it has a distinctive color. Fassionola, an obscure bar syrup from the early days of tropical mixology, is used here much the same way as the similarly colored Tahitian Breeze. Used in small doses, it adds color but doesn’t alter the flavor.
Fassionola substitute: The intense red and fruity syrup is an old-school ingredient that’s rarely used today. The Atomic Grog endorses the Jonathan English brand that we found on eBay. But an easier solution is to mix equal parts of a dark, rich grenadine (Fee Brothers does the trick) and Smucker’s Red Raspberry Syrup.
Both fassionola and grenadine are necessary to achieve the full, rich flavor – much like the Cobra’s Kiss. In fact, this could be considered a mild version of that drink with that same combination of falernum, grenadine-fassionola, OJ and lime used to great effect.
Was the Impatient Virgin too similar to those other, more popular, cocktails to survive a menu purge in the 1980s? Perhaps. We’re just grateful it returned, undefiled, from the ranks of The Mai-Kai’s long-lost cocktails.
The Mai-Kai in Fort Lauderdale, one of the best places in the world to sip rum and tropical cocktails, will be the perfect site for a special tasting event on Thursday, Sept. 27.
From 7 to 9 p.m. in the legendary Polynesian restaurant’s Molokai lounge, guests will sample two top-shelf rums, served both neat and in vintage cocktails. The featured rums are Fortuna 8 from Nicaragua, and Dos Maderas PX from Barbados and Guyana. Of course, you also have the option of sampling other selections from The Mai-Kai’s premium rum list and acclaimed assortment of nearly 50 classic cocktails.
Presented by Robert A. Burr, organizer of the annual Miami Rum Renaissance Festival, this exclusive opportunity is limited to the first 40 guests. The cost is $20 per person in advance and $25 at the door. The price includes the four drinks: One cocktail and one neat featuring each of the two rums. Click here to make advance payment and reservations. Click here for the Facebook event.
The Epcot International Food and Wine Festival, now in its 17th year, offers much more than the opportunity to eat and drink your way around the Disney theme park’s World Showcase promenade at some 30 food and beverage marketplaces. That’s the highlight, of course, but devotees have long known about the special events and distinctive touches that make a trip to Epcot a must-do every fall for foodies and Disneyphiles alike.
The appetizer-sized portions at the marketplace booths are priced in the $4-$8 range, while drinks are $3-$6. The festival is included in the daily Epcot admission price, but most of the special events cost extra and tickets must be reserved in advance. Go to EpcotFoodFestival.com for more info. Click here to see menus and photos from all the participating marketplaces.
Spanning a record 46 days, from Sept. 28 through Nov. 12, this year’s festival will continue a recent trend toward a bigger and better event as guests become ever more demanding of what they expect from craft food and beverages. Beer and cocktails have a higher profile, and the event is also thriving on its association with celebrity chefs and the growing foodie culture in general. As a fan of television’s Food Network and other culinary programming, I have to count myself among that group.
Last year, The Atomic Grog’s experience at the festival was enjoyable beyond expectations. [Click here for the review] Look for even more extensive coverage in 2012. In preparation, here’s a list of 17 things that make this year’s International Food and Wine Festival distinctive and worth looking forward to.
Unbeknownst to most of South Florida, a craft cocktail revolution has swept the country over the past decade, elevating mixology to heights not seen since the heady days following the repeal of Prohibition. With rare exceptions, our tourism-driven marketplace has no room for this kind of creativity.
From left: The freshly made Bacon Old Fashion, Skinny Dip and Airdrop cocktails. To the right is a 22-ounce Yeti Imperial Stout. Sweetwater offers something for all tastes.
But since opening in April 2011, Sweetwater Bar & Grill has with little fanfare become the area’s preeminent hidden gem for inventive adult beverages, plus gastropub-style food that’s just as decadent and delicious. The cocktails are indeed outstanding, but Sweetwater’s true triumph may be this perfectly timed head-on collision of the craft food and drink movements.
In 2012, being under-the-radar doesn’t necessarily mean a dingy back-alley location in the wrong part of town. Sweetwater is located in plain sight on South Federal Highway in Boynton Beach, but it might as well be a secret unmarked speakeasy. While foodies flocked to Delray Beach’s Atlantic Avenue and West Palm Beach’s Clematis Street, locals in south-central Palm Beach County probably thought they had Sweetwater to themselves.
But despite no advertising and little traditional media attention, word has slowly but surely circulated about the unique dining and imbibing experience awaiting at Sweetwater. We joined the chorus, raving after our initial visits in June and July. But teasing you with just a taste is quite unfair. To truly enjoy this establishment, you have to go for the gusto and sample items from across the menu, as we had the pleasure of doing on multiple occasions this summer.
A classic retired Mai-Kai cocktail is once again having a moment in the sun in mid-2026, when the Demerara Float returned on a special menu during The Hukilau, the 24th annual Tiki weekender that has been held in conjunction with the historic restaurant since 2003. RELATED:Special cocktail menu includes four retired classics
The Demerara Float was featured on a special Mai-Kai menu during The Hukilau in June 2026. (Photo by Hurricane Hayward)
This descendant of Don the Beachcomber’s 1930s-era Demerara Dry Float disappeared from the menu in the late 1980s. More than three decades later, it made multiple special appearances starting with The Hukilau 2013. It was last seen on a special menu in 2017, three years before the October 2020 roof collapse that closed the restaurant until 2024.
This new excitement was also fueled by a popular YouTube show and the unexpected revival of the cocktail’s classic glassware. We’d also like to thank Matt “Spike” Marble for rekindling interest in the Demerara Dry Float (and Demerara Float) by featuring our previous tribute recipe on Tiki Cocktails With Spike just days after The Hukilau. Follow this link or watch below in the postscript.
Marble also revealed a new glass from Stephens Drinkware that replicates the design of the cocktail’s original vessel, used by both Don the Beachcomber and the Mai-Kai. The iconic Streamline Tumbler from the Seneca Glass Co. is nearly impossible to find today. The new versions are handcrafted to order, so be sure to pick one up via Stephensdrinkware.com while they’re available.
Of the 43 cocktails on the Mai-Kai’s inaugural 1956-1957 menu, 41 can be traced back to classics created by Donn Beach at his groundbreaking Polynesian restaurants in the 1930s and ’40s. Many key staff that opened the Mai-Kai with owners Bob and Jack Thornton, including acclaimed mixologist Mariano Licudine, came from the Don the Beachcomber location in Chicago.
Licudine, who had worked for Beach since 1939, had access to the Tiki cocktail pioneer’s secret recipes. Manager Bob Van Dorpe, who was the purchasing agent in Chicago, knew how to procure the proprietary syrups and unique glassware that made these drinks special. The Streamline Tumbler was one of these.
A reproduction of the Demerara Dry Float glass by Stephens Drinkware. It perfectly replicates the glassware used by the Mai-Kai, shown in a 1957 menu. (Photos: Stephensdrinkware.com and The Atomic Grog)
Recipes were changed slightly, and many names changed, but the cocktails and their presentation remained a time capsule to another era. Licudine retired in 1979, but his influence is still being felt. Many of his recipes remain secret with Starr maintaining this integrity when he relaunched the bar program.
Of those 41 drinks from 1956, 24 are still on the Mai-Kai’s cocktail menu today. The others, including the Demerara Float, fell off the menu over the years and were once considered “lost cocktails.” But since most of them have been revived for special occasions over the past decade, we now simply call them “retired” in the hopes that they return for another encore.
A mid-century Don the Beachcomber menu (left) and the Mai-Kai’s opening menu from 1956-57 both feature the Demerara Float’s vintage glassware.
Our Mai-Kai cocktail guide, which is due for a major update in 2026, features ratings, reviews and recipes for nearly every classic drink that has appeared on a main Mai-Kai menu. There are some official recipes that have been published, but mainly we share our own “tribute recipes” that we hope come close to the look and taste of the versions served at the Mai-Kai.
We also like to connect the dots and feature an extensive collection of “ancestor recipes,” typically those Don the Beachcomber originals that inspired Licudine and the Mai-Kai. Thanks to author Jeff “Beachbum” Berry and his six seminal books and app, we’ve been able to post many of these former secret recipes.
The Mai-Kai is featured in Tim “Swanky” Glazner’s new book, Searching for Don the Beachcomber. Photos above include manager Bob Van Dorpe and mixologist Mariano Licudine. (Click for larger image)
The book features 36 cocktails that made their way to the Mai-Kai, including 25 on the current menu and 11 that are retired. Some are the same as recipes we’ve seen before in Berry’s books and elsewhere, but many are different and a few are brand new. Over time, we plan to incorporate all of these updates into the Mai-Kai Cocktail Guide.
There are few drinking vessels with the mystique of The Mai-Kai’s famous Mystery Bowl. The iconic communal cocktail popularized at the Fort Lauderdale Polynesian palace has been celebrated for a half-century by everyone from Johnny Carson to today’s Tiki revivalists.
A Mystery Bowl for sale in The Mai-Kai's gift shop, September 2012. (Photo by Hurricane Hayward)
Sure, there’s nothing like the unique experience of enjoying this giant drink with friends in the The Mai-Kai’s hallowed bar and dining rooms. At the sound of a gong, the distinctive bowl is delivered by a sarong-clad Mystery Girl, who does a traditional Polynesian dance and rewards the lucky recipient with a lei. The drink itself remains a mystery, a giant 50-something-ounce concoction of fruit juices, rum, and other liquors.
* More on the history of the Mystery Drink in our Mai-Kai Cocktail Guide
But true Mai-Kai nerds long for an authentic Mystery Bowl of their own. The older version made by Dynasty and the current version made by Tiki Farm occasionally pop up on eBay for more than $100. And they also appear in The Mai-Kai gift shop from time to time (see photo above), typically priced just below the century mark.
Over the past decade, the second Saturday of August has become an annual day of celebration in the world of Polynesian Pop culture: International Tiki Day.
The holiday was created in 2002 by Kevin Bullat, the steel guitar player for The Hula Girls, as a day of fasting and quiet prayer. No, wait. It’s a day dedicated to colorful aloha shirts, tropical drinks, and tribal revelry.
It’s touted as a great day to host your own backyard luau or visit a contemporary Tiki bar in your area. Most Tikiphiles need no special day to partake in such activities. It’s a year-round, 24-7 lifestyle for many. Newbies may need a little help, however.
The annual gathering of Tikiphiles in Fort Lauderdale is still more than 10 months away, but organizers of The Hukilau event know that some of us are always seeking out cool new mugs and glasses.
The original Florida Tiki History Glass, released in 2009. (Photo from TheHukilau.com)
This summer, they’ve re-released a classic and introduced something new in their Tiki Icon Series of glassware designs.
The Florida Tiki History Glass debuted at Hukilau 2009 and later sold out. This high-quality double old-fashioned glass features the the original logos and artwork from many current and defunct bars and restaurants, including The Mai-Kai and Julian’s in Ormond Beach, which unfortunately just closed.
This glass has been reissued in a special edition “exotic red” color (the original was brown). It’s just $40 for a set of four glasses. We’ve put our original set to great use over the years and highly recommend it. You’ll find a Hukilau cocktail recipe to fill your new glass below. Check out the artwork:
Last week’s special “Best of 2012” issue of Broward / Palm Beach New Times recognized many of the area’s coolest places to eat, drink and hang out after dark. Among the winners are several Atomic Grog favorites worth noting:
Kapow! Noodle Bar in Boca Raton. (Photo by Hurricane Hayward, December 2011)
“Best New Restaurant” and “Best Happy Hour” in Palm Beach County both went to Kapow! Noodle Bar in Boca Raton, which we reviewed in depth back in December. We loved the craft cocktails and small bites on the inventive menu and have been eager to return ever since. The latest recognition just gives us more reason to move it up on our bucket list.
