You may have seen Martin Cate igniting flaming bowls of fun on the Cooking Channel or entertaining attendees at Tiki and rum events around the world. If you’re a cocktail or rum enthusiast, you’ve certainly heard of Smuggler’s Cove, his San Francisco lair that has redefined the modern rum cocktail and has been acclaimed as one of the world’s best bars, period.
Smuggler’s Cove
He’s also somewhat of a hero to the Tiki home bartending community, quickly rising from hobbyist on the Tiki Central message board to bartender at the Trader Vic’s flagship San Francisco location in 2005, to Forbidden Island, his first acclaimed Tiki bar in Alameda in 2006. He sold his interest there and opened Smuggler’s Cove in 2009.
In April, while Martin was in South Florida for an appearance at the Miami Rum Renaissance Festival, we cornered him in the gardens at Fort Lauderdale’s Mai-Kai, one of his favorite places in the world to enjoy classic Tiki cocktails. Following is our latest “Take 5” interview featuring five random questions, plus a special bonus. See below: Bonus recipes for Martin Cate’s Mai Tai and 2070 Swizzle More Take 5:Jeff “Beachbum” Berry | The Mai-Kai’s Kern Mattei
Interview with Martin Cate by Jim “Hurricane” Hayward – April 19, 2013
Just in time for Friday’s National Rum Day, The Atomic Grog recently reached a landmark by acquiring a 99th bottle of rum. The occasion provided even more reason to literally take stock of this booty.
The Atomic Grog’s rum collection hits 99. Looks like there’s room for a few more. (Photo by Hurricane Hayward, August 2013)
The rules for my count include no duplicate bottles and nothing smaller than 200 ml, though most are 750 ml and above. Various aged versions of the same rum count separately (the 4-, 5- and 7-year-old versions of Flor de Caña’s gold rum count as three, for example). I’m proud to say that I’ve tasted all of them, and mixed with a good 75 percent. I’ll also admit that my wish list is probably just as long, so I make no claim to having the most complete collection. My tastes obviously lean toward Tiki cocktail rums.
When The Mai-Kai updated its cocktail menu in May 2018, a decision was made to revive one of the classic “lost cocktails” from the notebook of original mixologist Mariano Licudine, who led the bar program from 1956 to 1979. There were nearly a dozen to choose from, many of them ionic drinks that Licudine had brought with him from his days working for Don the Beachcomber in the 1940s and ’50s.
The Suffering Bastard, a longtime off-menu “lost classic,” was added to the permanent menu in May 2018. (Photo by Hurricane Hayward)
Over the past five years, these lost cocktails have been featured at multiple special events, from The Hukilau to The Mai-Kai’s 60th anniversary party. In 2017, a special “Flashback Friday” promotion gave guests the opportunity to sample a different retired cocktail each month on that designated day. While many were popular, one stood out and earned a spot on the main menu, even though it was never on the menu to begin with.
The Suffering Bastard was de rigueur at mid-century Tiki bars. Like many other popular tropical cocktails of the era, it was bastardized (pun intended) and retooled to fit the needs of each particular establishment. The Trader Vic’s version was perhaps the most well-known, instantly recognizable by the iconic Suffering Bastard mug.
The Mai-Kai was no exception, but for reasons unknown it never appeared on the menu. Taking a cue from Trader Vic, Licudine created his Suffering Bastard as an alternative take on the Mai Tai. Of course, The Mai-Kai’s Mai Tai is nothing like Vic’s, and neither is the Suffering Bastard. Licudine did appropriate one distinctive touch from Vic: A large slice of cucumber as garnish. As odd as it seams, it really does work.
The Mai-Kai’s version of the Suffering Bastard features a cucumber garnish, first popularized by Trader Vic. (Photo by Hurricane Hayward, May 2018)
The original Suffering Bastard, sans cucumber, was created in 1942 at Shepheard’s Hotel in Cairo by mixologist Joe Scialom, a fascinating story uncovered by tropical drink historian and author Jeff “Beachbum” Berry. Scialom’s recipe – which includes gin, brandy, Rose’s lime juice, Angostura bitters and ginger beer – was revealed in the 2010 book, Beachbum Berry Remixed. An entire chapter is devoted to Scialom in Berry’s 2013 epic hardcover, Potions of the Caribbean: 500 Years of Tropical Drinks and the People Behind Them.
Before Berry and other Tiki revivalists came along in the 1990s, many of these classic cocktails were long forgotten. Without a slot on the menu at The Mai-Kai, it’s possible that the Suffering Bastard languished for decades in Licudine’s notebook before being rediscovered. The latest version includes a few new tweaks, so we’ve added a new tribute recipe below.
When the organizers of The Hukilau, the largest annual gathering of Tiki enthusiasts on the East Coast, asked attendees to come up with a signature cocktail for one of their new rum sponsors, the response was instantaneous and ambitious.
The Hukilau: June 6-9, 2013, at the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Beach Hotel, Best Western Oceanside, and The Mai-Kai restaurant. Latest updates at TheHukilau.com and Facebook.
A selection of Deadhead Rum products. (Photo courtesy of Lucky the Painproof Man)
Nearly a dozen mixologists answered the call and submitted their entries last month featuring Deadhead Rum, a new craft spirit from Mexico that comes in in a distinctive shrunken head. As one of the lucky judges, I had the pleasure of sampling some creative and tasty cocktails. Even more impressive were the photos. Today’s wave of Tiki home bartenders obviously takes their craft seriously.
The initial field was narrowed to three, and the finalists were provided care packages by Deadhead (see photo at right) so they could fine-tune their final entries. This gold rum, aged at least six years in sherry casks, features both molasses and sugarcane juice from Mexico’s agricultural regions. It’s great as both a sipping rum and a mixer, with a flavor profile that includes cloves, anise and caramel. It’s available in more than a dozen states, including California, but not yet in Florida.
Every February, Tiki cocktail bloggers gather for Tiki Month at The Pegu Blog to share cocktail recipes, tips, tricks and musings about the state of tropical mixology. Why February? It has something to do with an escape from Mother Nature’s frigid wrath, but I don’t really grasp that concept having been marooned in Fort Liquordale for more years than I can remember.
In go the mixers: Martin Cate (right) supervises Rum Rat Pack members Wayne Curtis (left) and Stephen Remsberg as the punch begins to take shape at The 2011 Hukilau at The Mai-Kai. (Photo by Go11Media.com)
Not a bad place to be marooned, however, especially when The Hukilau rolls into town every year. There’s also a little restaurant called The Mai-Kai. Both serve as a beacon, summoning the greatest minds in the Tiki world to an annual bacchanalia of rum and revelry.
The single event that perhaps reached the pinnacle of rum and revelry was the appearance of Jeff “Beachbum” Berry’s “Rum Rat Pack” at The Mai-Kai during The Hukilau in June 2011, which brings us back to Tiki Month. This year’s blog contributions have been entertaining and informative, covering such esoteric topics as homemade ginger syrup, garnishes made from ground coconut and orange peel, and more drink recipes than you can shake a shaker at. There was also something about geeks who re-create recipes they’ve never actually tasted, if you can imagine that.
Lost in all these intricate tropical concoctions is a common conundrum: How do you handle a thirsty mob who can’t wait for you to carefully fillet an orange or toast coconut? The Rum Rat Pack’s Rumposium demonstrated how to solve that problem with style and flair. In one fell swoop, they whipped up a Tiki punch for 200, featuring 240 ounces of six different rums, a jaw-dropping bowl filled with 630 ounces of deliciousness.
The living dead are enjoying an unprecedented renaissance. From the excellent AMC miniseries The Walking Dead (based on the Robert Kirkman comic book series), to a never-ending stream of books, to “zombie walk” events springing up during Halloween season, it’s clear that we’re fascinated with corpses rising from the dead like never before.
All of this flesh-eating hoopla has done little, however, to popularize a much less trendy and much more misunderstood Zombie: The infamous tropical drink that rose to infamy in the 1930s and was for decades perhaps the world’s most well-known cocktail. True to its name, the classic drink was shrouded in mystery, later becoming one of the most butchered recipes in cocktail history.
But several people and places have kept this powerful rum concoction alive and kicking, and to them we raise a hearty Zombie glass in tribute this Halloween:
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.
The Mai-Kai's bar features classic Tiki cocktails served by The Molokai Girls. (Photo courtesy of The Mai-Kai)
Updated Aug. 15, 2012
Got those sweltering August blues yet? Even if you don’t, you’ll want to get in the Tiki spirit this month within the cool, dark confines of The Mai-Kai’s Molokai bar with a couple of special events.
The two parties – set for Sunday, Aug. 12, and Saturday, Aug. 18 – promise to serve up two radically different experiences in the legendary Fort Lauderdale restaurant’s vintage shipwreck-themed lounge.
The first “Atomic Grog Mai-Kai Mixer” on June 9 served up not only a rousing party featuring a cool retro DJ and live vintage surf music, but also an inside look at some of the 55-year-old Polynesian landmark’s acclaimed tropical drinks.
Mai-Kai Mixer participants enjoy their cocktail flights and a prize from B.G. Reynolds' Hand-Crafted Exotic Syrups.
Surf band Skinny Jimmy & The Stingrays and DJ Mike “Jetsetter” Jones rocked the house all night long as partygoers enjoyed the festive vibe in the Fort Lauderdale restaurant’s elaborately themed Molokai bar. Click here for a full recap of the entertainment, plus photos. But for some, the event’s highlight came during happy hour.
Early arrivals were promised “blind tastings” of three vintage cocktails presented by Mai-Kai manager Kern Mattei. There were 32 flights served in the packed bar, with at least 44 tasters participating. Prizes were awarded to those who correctly guessed which exotic drink they were tasting. Priced at just $15 for three 8-ounce drinks, it was a bargain for the lucky participants. In addition, everyone enjoyed the regular early Saturday happy hour featuring half-priced drinks and appetizers from 4:30 to 7 p.m.
The Mai-Kai’s Molokai bar was jumping on Saturday night, June 9, as an eclectic mix of cocktailians, Tiki enthusiasts, retro hipsters, and surf music fans gathered for The Atomic Grog’s first Mai-Kai Mixer.
Doors opened at 4:30 for Saturday’s early happy hour, and dozens of Mai-Kai faithful queued up early for exclusive flights of the Fort Lauderdale Polynesian palace’s legendary cocktails. DJ Mike “Jetsetter” Jones got the festivities in high gear with his wide-ranging playlist of retro party music, and up-and-coming surf band Skinny Jimmy & The Stingrays nearly blew the doors off the place. The party went full-throttle until the midnight hour.
The rum cocktail flights sold out quickly as more than 30 signed up to taste sample versions of three vintage drinks featuring Lemon Hart Demerara rum. Several hundred filtered through the bar throughout the evening for happy hour – which ran until 7 p.m. – and two high-octane sets from Deerfield Beach’s Skinny Jimmy & The Stingrays.
