June 24, 2025 • 54 mins
The Banter
The Guys talk about an unfortunate situation where Francis suffered.
The Conversation
The Restaurant Guys have filmmakers Max Well and Alex Lamb on to discuss their documentary The Donn of Tiki about Don the Beachcomber’s life. The story includes rum-running, globe-trotting, the Mafia and amazingly creative marketing that started a movement.
The Inside Track
The Guys were able to interview Alex and Max right before The Guys hopped on a train to NYC for a tiki party with Jeff “Beachbum” Berry (who appeared in the film).
Alex succinctly describes how the stars aligned so Don the Beachcomber could work his magic.
“ He had run rum with his brother, so he had an in with the rum industry and knew how to sell rum to a generation of people who really weren't that interested in drinking rum until he created these cocktails. Also he had collected all these things on his travels that he was using as props in films in the 1930s. So he just kind of threw a bunch of stuff on the wall and the tiki bar was born!” Alex Lamb & Max Well on The Restaurant Guys Podcast 2025
Bio
Since 2007, co-directors Alex Lamb and Max Well have been producing music videos, documentaries, children's shows, commercials, and branded content. Last year, after a deep dive into the history of Tiki bars, they decided to tell the story of the incredible life of Donn Beach.
Info
The Donn of Tiki film
https://www.facebook.com/TheDonnOfTiki
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
the-restaurant-guys_2_05- (00:11):
Hello everybody and welcome.
You are listening to theRestaurant Guys.
I'm Mark Pascal and I'm herewith Francis Shot.
Together, we own stage left inCaptain Lombardi restaurants.
We're here to bring you theinside track on food, wine, and
the finer things in life andtiki cocktails because our
guests and cocktails today.
Our guests today are Alex Lamband Maxwell.
They have put together anamazing movie, a documentary on
(00:32):
Don Beach, on the Beach Comer,but they'll be joining us in a
little bit.
But, uh, what do we have to talkabout before that, mark?
I want to tell people aboutsomething that happened more,
mostly to you.
Uh oh.
at a, an event we went to, soyou and I went to an event.
We went to somebody's restaurantwho we were planning on having
on the show.
Okay.
(00:52):
Oh, and yeah, Francis said, oh,oh yeah.
We who we, who we were planningon having on the show and we
wanted to go, we frequently liketo go to the person's restaurant
before we have them on the show.
So we have something, somethingto talk about.
Well, we went to this person'srestaurant.
Nice person.
A nice person, and had a lovely,lovely meal.
(01:12):
Yeah.
Lovely meal.
Okay.
And.
Uh, you know, everything wentpretty well.
The food was very good.
We en, we enjoyed ourselves andhe, this person lived a
restaurateur's nightmare.
Oh yeah.
Okay.
So he's supposed to be on theshow a couple days later and he
lives a restaurateur'snightmare.
Oh yeah.
We're in a car on the way homeand we get a phone call from the
(01:36):
restaurant.
And there's a frantic mare d onthe phone says, excuse me.
Excuse me.
Was the person who was allergicto pine nuts, did they eat the
cookie?
Did they eat the cookies?
Any of the cookies?
And so now I don't know thatthis is what's going.
I'm allergic to pine nuts.
Very allergic to pine nuts.
And I don't know any of this isgoing on, but the, the, uh,
(01:57):
Julie is, was with us.
We took her and, and she's like,uh, yeah, hold on.
Um.
Francis did you?
So she knows what has been saidin her ear, but we don't.
It's just, Francis, did you eatthe cookie tonight?
And I was like, oh yeah, I lovedthem.
I had two.
It's like, oh yes he did.
Why?
I'm like, that is made entirelyof pine nuts.
Oh, it's they're ba, they're notpinoli cookies, but they're
basically pine nut.
(02:18):
Ridden.
Yeah, probably flour.
And they were delicious, lemmetell you.
Oh goodness.
Well, sure.
It's a unfamiliar flavor, right?
Well, and so look, you serve amillion meals.
You know, everyone will make amistake sooner or later anyway.
But the mistake was, this is thenightmare though.
Oh, it's a nightmare.
Okay.
Remember, this is somebody who'ssupposed to come on our show in
a couple of days.
Right.
And they don't know that we'renot dicks.
Right?
Right.
We're not, they don't know thatwe're not using their name in
the podcast.
(02:39):
They don't know that we'regonna, we might tell the story,
but anonymously other than, Hey.
We just poisoned that guy.
Yeah.
And you know what's funny?
So the kind of allergic that Iam is, I don't go into
anaphylactic shock or anythinglike that, but I, I, I suffer
severe and prolonged six hoursof gastrointestinal distress
where it's bad, right?
And it doesn't come on rightaway.
(03:00):
And it, and it takes five hoursto hit.
I've only, I've been hit likefour or five times in my life.
I know when it's gonna come andI'm driving the car home.
I know what's coming in fourhours.
Oh, goodness gracious.
And uh, so we drive the wholestaff home.
We drop, we drop Rudy off, and,and it came that night and I
was, I was very sick and youknow.
I mean, the moral of the storyis number one, mistake's gonna
happen even in the best ofplaces.
Um, and, you know, did I callthe restaurant and say, you're a
(03:23):
jerk, and how dare you, and youknow, I'm gonna sue you or
anything?
Mm-hmm.
No, I mean, mistakes, I, itwasn't dangerous.
And by the way, I think it wasgreat that they called, so I
wasn't wondering.
At one o'clock, what in themorning, what had happened?
I think they handled that verywell.
Mm-hmm.
Um, and you know, but it alsogoes to show that, you know, I
think that restaurants handleallergies and food sensitivities
(03:46):
pretty well right now.
what we do when, when, whenallergies come into the
restaurant, when someone saysthey're allergic.
It goes on the ticket.
Everyone is notified, the busboyis notified everyone, but the
code check girl knows thatthere's this allergy in this
position on this table, and wetreat it with, and sometimes
with new young people in therestaurant, they don't get how
(04:06):
serious we are.
Well, and then you have the,the, the old school.
Mentality of, oh, they're notreally allergic, they just don't
like that thing.
One of the reasons people havethat mentality is because look,
if you don't want, if you don'tlike some food.
Don't, don't tell people you'reallergic to mushrooms, even
though you're not, becauseyou're afraid they're gonna
(04:26):
sneak a mushroom by that.
You want it treated as if it'sa, a health related issue.
Right?
Because a lot of people willtell us, oh, I'm allergic to
butter or something, and thenthey get to dessert and they
order that.
And you say, I thought you wereallergic to that.
And they're like, oh, well no, Ilike, sometimes I like it.
It happens a lot, a lot that,that, that happens so much more
than, people would realize that,that somebody tells us they're
allergic to something theproblem is, is a disservice to,
(04:48):
and, and it's desensitizing.
Restaurant staffs from peoplewho really do have an issue.
Sure.
Because you see, you see 10times someone told you they were
allergic to something and thenthey betray by the end of the
meal.
Mm-hmm.
Or the third visit, they're notreally, and that really bugs
you.
But what had happened in thisrestaurant, and I, and I saw it
happen.
Was, they were not super busywhen we first got there.
(05:10):
And, and the beginning of themeal, everything was, was very
smooth.
And they did actually tell usabout something that there was a
pie nuts in.
And we continued through themeal.
But what happened was the placegot very busy.
Mm-hmm.
And the staff that was there gota little bit overwhelmed.
it was just a little more thanthe staff could handle.
And they were just teetering,service wise.
(05:31):
And that's when the problem withthe cookies happened when people
were at their limits already in,in from a service perspective.
That that's what happened.
But I do, I do have to say that,I really respect that they
called us.
Mm-hmm.
And I really respect that allthe way down to whoever figured
it out and said.
Wait a second.
Wasn't there a pine that allergyon Table 35?
(05:51):
Oh my God.
And, and they didn't go, don'ttell anybody.
Right.
Don't tell the chef, we'll getfired.
They the culture of thatorganization.
So kudos to that chef.
Yeah.
The culture of that organizationis when you make a mistake, you
fix it and you run at it.
You don't run away from it.
And they did.
And the best restaurants do thatwhen there's a problem.
they run at the problem, notaway from the problem.
good job.
Yeah.
And so, so that speaks to me of,of an organization with a great
(06:11):
culture.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, no harm, no foul.
Everything's good.
and I wanna go back.
You're okay?
Yeah, for sure.
Absolutely.
For sure.
Anyway, we'll, we'll be back injust a moment.
We're gonna talk about Tiki AllThings Tiki in just a moment.
So if you're feeling rummy stickwith us.
You can always find outmore@restaurantguyspodcast.com..
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (06:28):
Hey there everybody.
Welcome back.
Our guests today are Alex Lamband Maxwell.
They're the director's, editorand cinematographer of an
amazing new film called the Donof Tiki, the mostly true story
of Don the Beachcomber.
we love this film.
We saw it in previews.
It's not out in widedistribution yet, but it will be
shortly.
You've gotta check it out.
We couldn't be happier towelcome you guys to the show.
(06:48):
Hey guys, welcome to the show,Alex Max.
Alex (06:50):
Thank you so much for having us.
Yeah, happy to be here.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (06:53):
Yeah, this is a tremendous documentary
'cause I, I think that mostpeople know there's a story
behind Tiki.
It's obviously a, a fantasystory, but it really comes down
to one or two guys who startedthe whole thing and invented it
out of whole cloth.
And the story of Don theBeachcomber is pretty wild de.
How, how did you come to makinga documentary part of the
(07:16):
definitive documentary aboutthis guy?
Um, about which there's so muchhistory and so much legend and
so much bullshit.
Max (07:25):
Well,
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (07:25):
I.
Max (07:26):
thanks, we'll take definitive.
That sounds good.
Yeah.
Um, you know, we didn't set outactually to make a Dawn Beach
film when we started., We didthis project originally, um,
starting in 2020 when everythingwas kinda shut down for COVID.
Alex had the idea to do a shortpiece on a couple of the tiki
bars in la.
Uh, we thought, you know, we'dprobably be able to get in'cause
(07:47):
nobody was there and you know,they're visually interesting.
There's a little bit of history.
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20- (07:52):
Yeah.
Alex (07:52):
Um, then the more people we talked to, the more, you
know, everyone was like, well,you know, there's these stories
about Dawn Beach and it reallyall started with him.
And, and the stories were justfascinating.
And I knew a little bit aboutDawn Beach.
We, we went home from a, from apre-interview we had done and we
opened up one of spend Kirsten'sbooks.
I.
Showed Max is like, here, here'slike a chapter about Don Beach.
(08:14):
And we were looking at it, wewere like, if, if half the stuff
is true, you know, this would bean amazing story for a feature
length documentary.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (08:21):
and almost half of it is true.
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20- (08:22):
yeah.
Alex (08:23):
Yeah,
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-2 (08:23):
nearly.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (08:24):
but the other thing is here was
charlatan, a huckster, a, a guywho created obvious fantasy,
right?
So you knew when you walked intoa tiki bar, you weren't walking
into an authentic Polynesian,you know, piece of cultural
history.
So he created a, a, a fantasy.
But he, but he, he blended whatwas true and what wasn't, and
it's even his name.
(08:45):
You didn't quite know what wasreal and what wasn't, which just
plays into the whole tiki thing.
It's, it's incredible.
Did you find most people hadmisimpressions and believed
stories that weren't true andvice versa as you researched?
Max (08:58):
We did.
Yeah.
And, and you know, to yourpoint, it's like.
Uh, Tiki is really a Hollywoodcreation.
Don's first, Don the BeachcomberBar was in Hollywood in 1933.
And people think of, uh, youknow, Polynesia, they think of
Hawaii.
Some people think of theCaribbean, right, with all the
rum, but it's just a, a mashupof all of these different
(09:18):
things.
And, and we learned that Don waskind of uniquely suited to be
able to do this from hisbackground and his travels
around the world.
yeah.
Yeah.
It's, it's this funny thingwhere people associate it with
all these sort of differentcultures, but I mean, really
Tiki is Hollywood.
Alex (09:34):
You know, I, I think one of the things we learned is that
it, it tiki the, the genesis ofTiki is really kind of
autobiographical to Don.
Um, he was sort of the onlyperson at that time who could
have come up with this thing.
'cause he had done the travelingwhen he was in his twenties.
He learned.
How to make a planter's punch inthe Caribbean.
He, he had run rum with hisbrother, so he had an in with
(09:57):
the rum industry and knew how tosell rum to a generation of
people who really weren't thatinterested in drinking rum.
And until he created thesecocktails, um.
He also, he had collected allthese things on his travels that
he was using as props in, infilms, uh, in the 1930s.
So he just kind of threw a bunchof stuff on the wall and, you
(10:20):
know, the tiki bar was born.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20-2 (10:22):
I just wanna put out that you said
he had run rum and I don't thinkthat everyone's gonna realize
that a rum runner was a personwho ran from the law during
prohibition with rum.
So he had a colorful start, youknow, in crime.
Well, one of, one of the thingsthat you point out in the movie
that I thought was reallyterrific is so he gets one of
those very first liquor licensescoming out of Prohibition,
(10:44):
right?
And his bar is ready to go with,with spectacular cocktails that
have all been planned out.
And, you know, it's, it's prettyclear that there's no way that
he could have just opened.
Yeah.
at full go.
Here's the way he opened, right?
The first week out, coming outof Prohibition here, here's my
(11:05):
five-year-old real, I made ityesterday.
Max (11:07):
Right.
Yeah.
And you know, Don, he createdwell over 60 cocktails, you
know, and so for people in therestaurant and and beverage
industry, you know, to open a, aplace and have a menu with 60
cocktails on it, like thatdoesn't happen overnight,
obviously.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (11:24):
Well, 60 original cocktails that no.
Max (11:26):
cut, right?
Yeah.
So he had been doing this for atleast a couple of years before,
before prohibition was lifted.
Alex (11:35):
Yeah.
That's kind of our, our evidencethat, that he had to have had a
speakeasy before.
You know, obviously there's notgonna be any record of that, but
just logistically, it would'vebeen impossible for him to open
his door the day afterprohibition without having like,
you know, tested these cocktailsout.
And where did he have liquor theday after prohibition?
the-restaurant-guys_3_ (11:56):
exactly.
Legal.
Now this
Alex (11:59):
Yeah.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (12:01):
said, you mentioned earlier, you said
that.
Background had uniquelyqualified him to be the only one
that could be him.
What was his background thatthat uniquely qualified him to
be the, the dawn of Tiki?
Max (12:13):
So he, he grew up in East Texas.
Uh, his family was kind of inthe, in the oil fields there in
East Texas, and there's a littlebit of.
Question about whether theyactually found oil themselves.
Um, we know that they had aboarding house and a lot of the
guys who worked in the oilfields lived there.
So it is maybe a bit like thegold rush thing, right?
(12:34):
Like the people who actually didwell were the ones who sold the
shovels.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (12:37):
Yeah.
Max (12:38):
so at, at some point they had a little bit of money and
they gave don an option when hewas, of age that he could go to
college or he could travelaround the world.
And so he took his share of thefamily money he traveled around
the world twice.
you know, he was through theSouth Pacific, so that was
Hawaii.
(12:58):
Tahiti, the Cook Islands,Australia, New Zealand.
He made his way to China, India,and then all through the
Caribbean.
So, and you know, this is in the1920s, so this is rare at that
time.
Right.
This is not something people aredoing often.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (13:14):
Well, and and importantly, he didn't
do it in a first class cabineither.
He really got to get his handsdirty.
Can you tell us about that?
Max (13:22):
Yeah, so he had a, there was a family member, uh, of
Don's, I think it was a cousinof his dad's who had a, uh, a
ship that they were trying toget from Los Angeles to
Australia.
And so Don took a job on boardas the, the super cargo, he was
kind of in charge of.
Keeping track of the crew fromport to port, and also making
(13:45):
sure that the stuff on board theship ended up where it was
supposed to be.
So he was working, you know, Imean, he was a, came from this
very blue collar background andtraveled around that way.
And then he worked on board someother commercial ships.
So he wasn't, you know, itwasn't like he was sailing
around the world on a yacht.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05 (14:01):
Right.
Well.
Importantly, that meant that hegot to work with people of a lot
of different cultures and hangout with, and have dinner with
and party with or, you know, uh,with all, all these people of
all these different cultures atdifferent places he came from
and on the ship, hard work.
Max (14:14):
Yeah, it was, and, and those connections that he made
in those early years proved tobe very fruitful because he,
over decades after that,continued to import, uh, things
from, from all of these otherplaces.
Right?
So that was carvings and art.
Uh, and jewelry and artifactsYeah.
And stuff like that.
Alex (14:33):
One of the things that we didn't go super deep into in the
documentary, but it, it's kindof funny, is that when everybody
started copying him after hisbar was really successful, they
would buy decor from Don'causehe had all these connections.
So he would, he would get allthis stuff from the South
Pacific and then sell it to hiscompetitors so they could open
up tiki bars.
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20- (14:54):
Yeah.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (14:54):
So let's get to there.
So he does, he does thesetravels around the world.
He's got a unique perspective onthings.
He comes back.
And then how does, how does itbegin?
How does the Tiki begin with hisfirst bar in Holly?
Max (15:05):
he starts working in Hollywood.
his brother, his older brother,Hugh, is working in the silent
film industry at that time.
Don gets connected in theHollywood community there and he
starts working as a technicaladvisor on some of these South
Seas films, which are reallypopular in that era.
And, you know, he's able to notonly supply some of the, the
(15:26):
props and the set dressing, buthe also was brought on to kind
of consult, So he, we don't knowexactly how he found this spot,
but there's a little spot thatopens up the MCC hotel.
McCadden Hotel.
Hotel.
It was formerly a tailor shop.
Is that right?
I think it was a tailor shop.
(15:46):
Yeah.
And so that space opened up andDon rents it out and he just
starts decorating it, you know,so he's got all this, he's got
bamboo and, and this kind offlotsam and jet some, and then.
he and his brother, both at thattime during prohibition, were
running rum.
Right.
They were involved in the, inthe illegal, illegal liquor
(16:07):
trade.
So he had the
the-restaurant-guys_ (16:09):
Allegedly.
It was allegedly, allegedly NewJersey, allegedly.
Yeah.
Go ahead.
Max (16:14):
Yeah.
So we know that, that he hadaccess to the booze at that
point.
He had this collection of stuffand, and I don't know why he
exactly decided to do this, buthe just.
for it.
Alex (16:27):
Yeah.
And, and it's also important,uh, historically to realize that
at that time in the 1930s, RUMwas not a popular drink with
people in the us but because.
Of the unavailability of otherliquors that people wanted.
You know, it was kind of thesafest thing to drink because
you were getting it from placesthat were legally allowed to
(16:49):
produce it.
So it, they had regulations,they weren't making it in a
bathtub or, you know, moonshine,so
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (16:56):
So you were, you were less likely
to go blind if you drank.
Yeah.
Alex (16:59):
You're much less likely to go blind.
And because Don knew about thismixology, he knew how to make
rum palatable for an American.
A guest or at, at hisrestaurant, at his, at his bar.
So again, it's, it's just veryunique to his specific knowledge
and his specific experiencesthat led to him opening this
(17:20):
place.
I.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-2 (17:21):
What I found so cool about this whole
tiki culture is right.
It's got this basis in realityand this, it kind of spins out
into fantasy at the same time.
And you, you have some thingsthat are completely real and
factual and, and on the moneyand some things that are just
made up completely.
(17:42):
That's fantasy.
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20- (17:42):
Yeah.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (17:43):
He comes out with this beautiful
dreamland of here's, here's tikiand, and it's its own thing and
enjoy it.
Max (17:51):
Yeah.
And you know, here we are nearlya hundred years later and it's
quite popular now and, and Ithink that's really kind of the
lasting appeal is that sort ofthat element of, you know, you
walk into a dark space and turna corner and you're sort of
transported to another time oranother place and.
You know, it kind, it's sort ofdifferent things for different
(18:12):
people, but that sort offantastical escapist element I
think kind of has long lastingappeal.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (18:18):
So with that first bar, is that
where he came up with all of thecocktails, with the majority of
those cocktails?
Alex (18:24):
we believe
Max (18:24):
so, yeah.
there were things that wereadded to the menu.
Yeah.
Over the years.
But most of the drinks he had inthose early days, so that was
like 32 to 37.
They moved into a bigger spaceacross the street in 1937.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (18:41):
So he had a, he had a real problem
with people trying to stealthose drinks, right?
Those, these, his own creations,
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20-202 (18:47):
he did it.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (18:48):
you know, every great restaurant,
every great bar has that issue,right?
People are gonna steal your bestpeople and people are gonna try
and get your recipes and try anddo what you're doing.
It's happened to us, we get it,it's out there and people are
like, oh, let me, I can shortcutthis, this transaction.
So
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20-202 (19:05):
Oh yeah.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (19:05):
why don't you tell us some of the
things he did
Alex (19:07):
Yeah, he, he had a big problem with people stealing his
bartenders, um, offering themmore money to go work for them.
And a lot of them would, and,and at first they knew how to
make the drinks, so they werestealing his bartenders and
because of that, they werestealing his, his cocktail
recipes.
So then he started.
Codifying his, his recipes.
Mm-hmm.
(19:28):
Um, in numbered bottles.
So, you know, his bartenders ofsort of the next generation of
bartenders.
All they knew was.
A zombie is this many ounces ofthis, this many ounces of this
number, this many ounces of thismix.
But they didn't know what any ofthose things actually were.
Don was the only one who handledany of that stuff.
So then people started stealingas bartenders and they would be
(19:51):
like, you have mix number two?
Without mix number two, I can'tmake a zombie.
And he sort of halted it rightthere.
It, it's amazing that it workedbecause it would've been such a
major operation to try to pulloff and.
He did.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20-2 (20:05):
I heard the rumor.
I don't know if this is true,that he used to go in the
kitchen alone and lock the doorand no one was allowed in the
kitchen.
Uh, so they couldn't evenreverse engineer what he put
into Don's mix number one, Don'smix number two, Don's mix
number.
Or three.
And the, the, the rumor I heardthe urban legend I heard was
that he, he used to actuallysometimes throw stuff out in the
kitchen so people couldn'tmeasure like what was missing so
(20:27):
that he could make the drinkthe, the mixes, but.
Alex (20:32):
It's very, it's very likely that could be true.
There's no way of us knowing,but I wouldn't put it past him.
Absolutely.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-2 (20:37):
Well this led to, and we're skipping
ahead and I want to come backand, and touch the middle of his
career.
'cause it's fascinatinginvolving lovers and mobsters
and, you know, all annulmentsand marriages and all kinds of
crazy stuff.
But in the end, that secrecy ledto.
The tiki almost disappearingbecause in the eighties when
people didn't care anymore, andthese old bartenders, there were
(21:00):
very few people who knew how tomake these things.
And it was Jeff Berry who's inyour film, who exhaustively went
and interviewed these people allaround the world and clawed back
those recipes for the mixes fromthe brink of oblivion.
And Jeff's in your, in your, uh,film and, and, uh, your
conversations with him areamazing.
Max (21:18):
Yeah, Jeff Beachbum Berry, you know, he's a, he has an
amazing place himself in NewOrleans, latitude 29, which is
an excellent bar and restaurant.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-2 (21:26):
Yes,
Max (21:27):
so in the early, uh, like mid nineties, Jeff Berry and a,
and a few other people in thattime, I.
They sort of became fascinatedwith this thing that was almost
completely gone.
Right.
By the eighties, there werealmost no tiki bars left at all
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (21:41):
and not written down.
Max (21:42):
and not written down.
Right?
Right.
And so they started going tothese places.
You know, there were a couple ofold Chinese restaurants here in
LA where the, they would go andthey, the bartenders would have
a couple of these like tropicalcocktail drinks on here.
And so Jeff became fascinatedwith this and he started talking
to these guys and saying, youknow.
What, what goes into thisexactly?
(22:04):
How do you make that, what's it,what kind of rum is that?
And, and you know, there's theclassic example of, uh, Ray U
and from Tiki T, which has beenthere since 1961 here in la and
the, the response was always,it's Roman fruit juice, which is
basically true, right?
But, um.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (22:21):
But I ain't telling you.
Yeah.
Max (22:22):
But, but Jeff kind of, uh, befriended some of these guys
and slowly started whittlingaway and figuring out what went
into some of these drinks andthere, and he, he still had to
piece some of this stufftogether because he would, he
would know, okay, it's, it'sthese three things and Don's mix
number three.
And nobody knew, even the guys,the bartenders who worked at
(22:42):
Don's, restaurant in thethirties and forties, like.
They didn't know.
Right.
So there was a little bit ofreverse engineering.
Yeah.
And, and slowly, slowly hewhittled away and, and got to
the, to the bottom of thesethings.
Alex (22:55):
started becoming known as the, the guy, uh, that was
collecting all this stuff.
And as bartenders would passaway, their families would,
would send these notebooks of,of their, their father or their
grandfather to Jeff.
Um, and he was able to kind ofstart to piece it together.
And Rosetta Stone it.
Like this guy says that in thisdrink, he puts cinnamon and he
(23:17):
puts grapefruit, or, you know,uh, that's actually, that's
actually a bad example.
'cause that I think Jeff had toreverse engineer.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (23:24):
Yeah.
Alex (23:24):
taste.
Yeah.
But you know, Don Don's, theDon's mix that's in the zombie
is cinnamon and grapefruit.
And once he kind of cracked thatcode by seeing, you know,
something in one guy's recipeand something in another guy's
recipe, and you can kind ofRosetta stone it together once
you have all this information,was the first guy to put
together a 1934 zombie thatdidn't taste like crap.
(23:47):
And
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (23:47):
Yeah.
Alex (23:48):
we were like, oh, this must be what it tasted like, you
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (23:51):
Well, it's, people don't realize that
how important the historian isto, to creating and recreating
these cocktails and thismovement.
The historians are the peoplewho chronicled these things and
then brought them all backtogether, and like you said,
Rosetta, stone it together.
A little piece from here, alittle piece from there.
Will that.
(24:11):
That adds together and, andmakes sense.
And you had, and at the sametime you have a guy who made a
lot of crap up.
So you gotta throw out thetrash.
Yeah.
And, and match the things thatare, that are truly correct.
Max (24:24):
Yeah.
He did not make it easy.
No.
there were other challengesbecause sometimes the recipes
sort of morphed over time, youknow, so the, the official
recipe in 1934 was maybedifferent than the official
recipe in 1953.
Right?
Right.
So you have to kind of gothrough and,
Alex (24:39):
and look at that.
And it's still a challenge today'cause RUM is different today.
You know, like we don't knowthat.
Uh, you know, Meyer's Rum todaytastes the way that it tasted in
the thirties.
Um, Marie King told, Marie Kingtold us.
It, it actually, you know, itprobably tasted more the way
that Caruba tastes today.
which is why you kind of have tostart then changing these
(25:02):
recipes again to make itpalatable or to try to make it
taste like what we think itmight've tasted like, but over,
you know, at the end of the day,there's not really any way to
ever know for sure exactly howthese.
Cocktails tasted in 1933.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05 (25:16):
Here's what you guys have done.
And what Jeff Berry did and DaleDegraf did, is I remember that I
got a hold of the gentleman'scompanion when I was bartending.
We were bartending together atanother bar in the eighties, and
I also looked at the old Mr.
Boston book and which, you know,in the 1950s, the Mr.
Boston guy was a great book.
By the way.
We were at the Far Hills RummageSale.
(25:36):
I remember the day Francis foundit, and he said, guess what?
I just bought for 25 cents.
Yes.
But, but no, but here's thething that the cocktail
revolution hadn't happened yet.
And I remember we tried to makesome of the drinks outta that
book and we were like, thesedrinks taste like crap.
Yes.
Those people didn't know whatthey were talking about.
Not realizing that I had toRosetta stone it.
(25:59):
And that ingredients changed.
And, you know, with the Mr.
Boston, the book itself changed.
Um, but so, and we will comeback to the middle'cause the
fascinating middle of the storyafter the break.
But just in the end, Don Beachpassed away in the eighties.
And that was before therenaissance of, of tiki culture.
what's the state of, of, of theTiki drink today?
(26:19):
I mean, it's amazing.
Yes.
Max (26:20):
It is amazing.
Yeah.
So Don, I mean, Don's.
kind of blew up in the thirtiesand forties and you kind of look
at fifties and sixties and it'ssuch a mainstream American pop
culture phenomenon by you get,by the time you get to that
point.
Right?
You've got the tiki, theenchanted tiki room at
Disneyland, 1963.
And then, yeah, I mean by the,you know, he died in 89 and at
(26:43):
that time Tiki was almostcompletely dead.
Had he lived another.
or eight years, he would'vestarted to see it come back a
little bit.
So it's kind of ironic that he,he missed that.
Yeah.
But today it's, it's really
Alex (26:56):
huge again.
And the, the craft cocktailmovement I think was really
helpful because when craftcocktails started coming back
and people started really caringabout recipes again, they
started rediscovering tiki andrediscovering these, these
cocktails the way they shouldbe, you know?
Um.
I would say, you know, like a1944 ma Thai compared to like a
(27:19):
1980s Ma Thai is world ofdifference.
Right.
Right.
Mark (27:24):
No sour mix in 1940.
Well, is it, is it ever moreimportant to have real juice
than in a tiki cocktail?
Yeah.
Yeah, right.
Is that, is there any drink inthe world that needs to have
real juice more than a tikicocktail?
Max (27:34):
And you look at some of these recipes that might have 7,
8, 9, 10 ingredients and it'sfresh juices, it's, it's, you
know, freshly made syrups, allof the
the-restaurant-guys_3 (27:43):
Grenadine or, you know, grenadine for 30
years was one of the mostdisgusting things you could
drink,
Max (27:48):
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (27:51):
so.
Max (27:51):
are making it the right way again, right?
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (27:53):
So why?
Yeah, we, we started ourcocktail program in 1993 and we,
in 1994, we made our ownGrenadine.
'cause it was the only way toget, you know, grine.
'cause you had to, and ourGrenadine is awesome by the way.
But, um, if you wanna come tostage left and have a drink,
it's pretty awesome.
But So why did Tiki die?
What was the demise of Tiki fromthe seventies into the eighties?
(28:15):
What killed it?
Alex (28:16):
I think there is combination of things.
One, is it, it was, you know, itwas everybody's mom and dad's
generations thing.
Nobody wanted to go to theseplaces that, you know, were
popular for their parents.
I think also the 1980s was kindof a, you know, A time when a
lot of ev everyone wanted thingsfast and quick.
(28:39):
They didn't necessarily careabout how good it was.
Francis (28:42):
Right.
Alex (28:42):
and that's sort of what I think happened to cocktails in
general, but also to the tikitiki bar with without good
cocktails is not gonna be a veryfun experience.
Mark (28:52):
Well, it got a little dfi, right?
You, you used the Disneyreference before.
that's kind of what happened toit.
Francis (28:57):
the cocktail recipes, got TV, dinner.
Right, right.
It was really just fruit and rumbecame Bacardi white rum, which
is basically the vodka of rums,you know?
And so it wasn't, it wasn't aflavorful and interesting thing.
Alright, so listen, stick withus everybody.
We're gonna come back on theother side of the break and
we're gonna talk about gangstersrum running World War ii, the
end of World War ii, dissolvedmarriages, betraying lovers.
(29:19):
It's gonna be a great time.
Don't go away.
We'll be back in just a moment.
You're here at the restaurant,guys.
Of course, you can always findout
more@restaurantguyspodcast.com.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (29:27):
Hey everybody.
Welcome back.
Our guests today are Alex, lamband Maxwell.
They're the directors, editorand cinematographer.
Of the dawn of Tiki, the mostlytrue story of Dawn, the
Beachcomber.
It's an extraordinary film.
You really should go see it,even if you're not a cocktail
nerd like we are.
It's super fun.
and I wanna get into everythingyou now have to cache what I
promised with my mouth,everything before the break.
(29:50):
Well, also, one of the things wehave to set up after the show is
the screening we're gonna do inNew Brunswick for this movie.
Absolutely.
At one of the theaters here.
and the huge party we're gonnahave afterwards with lots of
tiki cocktails.
Alright, so, but before we getinto the meat of the matter,
your film is fun and it's amelange of like, interviews with
old folks who are still alive,who were there interviews with
(30:11):
the, the new, rejuvenators ofthe cocktail like Jeff Berry
and, and all the other folks.
but you, you made a reallyinteresting choice in that, in
the voice of Don Beach, you, youhave an animation, you tell us
what that is about.
It's the most shocking andinteresting and fun thing.
And tell us about that recordingthat you found.
Yeah.
Max (30:31):
Sure.
So when we were doing ourresearch, we came across this
interview that Don had given afew years before he died.
I think it was 86 was theinterview.
And it was a, it was atranscript, right?
So we had the, the paper versionand we thought, okay, if it's a
transcript, there must be arecording somewhere.
I.
and we were able to track itdown and when we finally got
permission to use it in thefilm, you know, we heard it for
(30:53):
the first time and it was thiscassette tape that was recorded
in 1986.
So it wasn't in great condition.
We were a little concerned, um,but our, our sound editor was
able to bring it back so.
it was so delightful just tohear Don's voice and hear him
kind of telling his stories andwe thought, oh, this is
fantastic.
(31:13):
But we didn't want to just havea, you know, shot of a reel to
reel tape player spinning in adark room, which is kind of this
like documentary trope, youknow?
Francis (31:23):
Yep.
Max (31:24):
we needed a strong visual Alex had the idea to, to have
Dawn presented as a stop motionpuppet, basically.
So
the-restaurant-guys_3_ (31:34):
Amazing.
Max (31:35):
It, it was a brilliant idea.
We weren't sure if it was goingto work or if we could have the
budget to do it, but we, wefinally figured it out.
We have some friends that we'veworked with before who do stop
motion and they were willing towork with us a little bit, and
it also allowed us to kind ofcreate this fun version of Don.
So the, the, the puppet wassculpted originally by Kevin
(31:57):
Kidney.
Kevin and Jody do a lot of workwith Disney, and he's got this
really fun, whimsical.
Uh, Approach.
So Don is there on screensitting in his 1930s bar,
Mark (32:07):
you make him one of the narrators of, of the story,
which, which really I thinkbrings us all in and brings us
into to who Don is and who hewas.
Francis (32:16):
And it's a freaking puppet.
It's a.
And honestly, it's really, it'sin keeping with the whole
fantasy of Tiki.
It, it, it was brilliant.
It's brilliant.
Yeah.
Max (32:27):
Yeah.
And we kind of went with anolder style, you know, a lot of
people sort of remember like theRudolph, the reindeer
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (32:34):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
That's, that's the feel forsure.
Rudolph, Rudolph Red KnowsReindeer, Dave and Goliath my
Sunday mornings, who's not?
Alex (32:40):
The other thing that, you know, max did as a, as a
director of photography for thatis.
We lit him, we lit the puppetthe exact, with like, sort of
the exact same setup we wereusing for all of these
bartenders that we wereinterviewing in real life.
So that when, when you see thepuppet, everything aside from
him being a puppet feels exactlythe same as how we shot
(33:01):
everything else so that it feelsthat much more real, even
though, you know, it's obviouslynot, but your brain does start
to trick you as, as you'rewatching and you're, you're just
like, well, this is Don.
It's his voice.
And
Francis (33:12):
Yeah.
Yeah,
Alex (33:13):
in this peacock in his bar.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (33:15):
he is.
Alex (33:16):
like Jeff Berry's in his bar, and Marie King's in her
bar, and you know, why, would itnot be Dawn?
Mark (33:22):
when we do the documentary of the restaurant guys, we're
definitely gonna have you guysshoot that because it was
amazing
Francis (33:29):
and hopefully you can have an animatronic figure'cause
we're not that hot.
So, alright, so let's go back toDon.
So World War II comes, oh, it's1939, and what, what happens to
him in the war?
In the war is great.
There should be a film or atelevision series about this.
So tell us about the World WarII years.
Max (33:50):
Yeah.
So Don, well Don was actuallylooking at opening a, a place in
Hawaii and he had taken out alease on a space in 1941 and he.
out of that lease because, uh,obviously Pearl Harbor happened.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (34:06):
Yeah.
Timing.
Yeah.
Max (34:07):
So, he knew that he was gonna be enlisted.
He was unmarried.
He had no children.
So, he knew at that pointGeneral Doolittle, who was a
major at the time when, whenDawn knew him.
they were aware of Don's uniqueskillset, right.
So he wasn't out there.
Boots on the ground.
Right.
They, they.
Had special purpose in mind forDon.
(34:28):
And so he was setting up theseofficer clubs and, was
requisitioning, you know, liquorand cigars and everything he
could find.
So he, hotels?
Yeah, hotels.
He, he ends, he goes to NorthAfrica and then he ends up in
Italy and most of his time inthe war is spent in Italy.
And he really makes it, uh, youknow, he, he does everything he
can to give.
(34:50):
The guys there on the ground,sort of the Don the Beachcomber
hospitality, which is worldfamous.
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20- (34:55):
Yeah,
Mark (34:56):
That's amazing.
I mean, he creates thesebasically, which is his life
story.
He creates these little oasis inplaces where they just don't
belong.
Right?
In these, in these deserts ofhospitality, in war torn Europe
and, and all of a sudden youhave.
The right sheets and you havethe right cocktails, and you
(35:16):
have the right hospitality, andeverybody's dressed a certain
way and acting a certain way,and you wouldn't expect that in
a, in a war torn country.
Max (35:25):
Right.
Yeah, no, I mean that wasincredibly rare.
You know, you think about thatenvironment, you know, Europe
and World War ii, that'scompletely bombed out and, and
and Don had, he was veryparticular, right?
His attention to detail wasextraordinary, I will say.
And he went to great lengths toreally make these places
special.
Yeah, I don't, I don't know thatthere was anybody who could have
(35:45):
done it as well as he did.
Alex (35:46):
No, again, it's like, it, it comes back to his, his time
traveling the world and kind of,you know, gathering rummaging
and gathering and trading withpeople in his twenties.
And now, you know, here he is inWorld War II doing the exact
same thing and war torn Europe.
It, it, it's like everything isjust so perfectly suited to this
guy in his, his past.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (36:08):
So his narration of this is pretty
amazing.
You know, it's funny when yousaid that he, when he was first
on the ship, he was the chiefsteward trying to, and he had to
make sure that everything got towhere it was supposed to go.
Strikes me that for most of hislife, he tried to make sure that
things didn't get to where theywere supposed to go, and they
got to him.
Uh, so he, so he winds up partof the narration where he's,
they give him a bunch of goldbecause obviously there are no
(36:29):
currencies that are worthanything there.
So he goes with a bunch of goldstrapped to him tell, and a
pistol and, and a truck to tellthe story.
Max (36:36):
Yeah, so the, I, the idea is, uh, you know, he, he
finally, well, he, he wasactually, when he was traveling
to Northern Europe, his ship,um, they got hit by a couple of
subs and he was in the hospitalfor a while.
He finally reconnects with, uh,Doolittle in, uh, Casablanca, I
think.
Yep.
And then,
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (36:54):
Which seems appropriate, just so you
know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Max (36:56):
Yeah, exactly.
And then he sort of gets thisassignment.
He, you know, they're gonna drophim off in Italy and so yeah,
like you said, he is got goldbars strapped to his body, he's
got his 45 and a Jeep and theysay, okay, go ahead and don the
being this incrediblyresourceful guy.
He goes around and he makesfriends with the locals and he's
(37:18):
got one other guy working withhim who kind of helps
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (37:21):
So.
Max (37:21):
Yep.
And he's able to pull together,you know, food and booze and
cigars and yeah, theseincredible spaces.
I mean, he, I, I wish we hadmore time in the film to explore
hi his adventures, during WorldWar II because.
He does have some amazingstories.
Alex (37:37):
Yeah.
And his translator said, thefirst thing that Don said when
he met him was, or maybe it wasthe second thing.
Maybe the first thing was, I'm,I'm Don, I'm Don Beach.
Uh, but the next thing he saidis, do you know where there's a
barbershop where I can get somewax or my mustache?
Like that was his concern whenhe arrived.
Francis (37:55):
I love it.
I love it.
Well, so you gotta be the man.
You gotta look like the man.
Max (37:59):
Oh yeah.
He looked the part always.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (38:02):
I'm gonna say he had a significantly
better time in World War II thanmy father who was pinned down by
Japanese machine gunfire.
It was if my father had only hadhospitality skills, you know
what I mean?
Um, so, so he goes through WorldWar ii.
He's quite successful.
The war ends.
Um, I'm sure he made a profitfor himself while he was doing
all this for the Army,'causethat's the kind of guy he was.
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20- (38:21):
Yeah.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (38:22):
so what happens after World War II
and you know, he is, had someproblems with the bars.
He initially started up, he gotmuscled out by the mob to his
initial places.
And what has happened to hisbrand when he comes back?
What does he do when he comesback?
Alex (38:35):
well he, and, and you know, without going into all the
details, basically his wifebefore he left for the war, sort
of ends up with ownership of thebars and restaurants.
So when he comes back,
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-2 (38:48):
Hold on.
His wife backed by the mob,
Alex (38:51):
Yes.
Right,
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (38:52):
as
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20 (38:52):
right.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (38:53):
and the tell in the movie, and you
should see the movie so you canget the, the background of all
this.
And as we say, in New Jersey,allegedly backed by the mob.
Alex (39:00):
Allegedly, allegedly.
Um, but yeah, so he, when hecomes back, um, you know,
they're sort of like, we don'treally need you.
When you were off in the war, wewere doing fine.
Um, and he can't open it on thebeach comer in his name because
they legally own it.
So he moves to Hawaii, which isnot a state yet.
And the contract says, becauseit's not a state, he can open a
(39:22):
on the beach comer there.
So he goes to Hawaii in theforties you know, kind of sets
up camp there.
Mm-hmm.
And
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20-2 (39:30):
I think becomes more important
than he ever has.
Right?
Yeah.
That's,
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20- (39:33):
yeah.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20-2 (39:33):
I think so much of his legacy is
around that Hawaii time of hislife and, and what he creates.
Max (39:41):
It is.
And he, you know that that earlytrip he did around the world,
you know, that that was such aformative experience for him.
And so he wanted to kind of getback to the tropics again.
You know, Hawaii to him was thismagical place.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (39:54):
Me too, by the way.
Max (39:55):
Well, I mean, anybody who goes there really, right?
How do you not love Hawaii?
so yeah, he goes up there and heopens, uh, he builds these three
or four buildings to start, andthis is 46, I think.
you know, a year or two after hegets back, yeah, he has his down
the Beachcomber location inHawaii and he starts really
working with the, the Hawaiianpeople there.
(40:16):
to bring that element into thehospitality.
So you think about traditionalHawaiian music and dance and,
and all that stuff.
You, you weren't necessarilygonna get that experience in
Hollywood or Chicago.
I.
But Don kind of made that hismission to incorporate that into
the, the Hawaiian version.
Alex (40:37):
Yeah.
And not just Hawaiian, you know,when he was opening his places,
the entertainment, like thedancing music, it, it was very,
he wanted it to be Polynesian.
Um, and he tried to include asmany of the Polynesian cultures
authentically as he could bybringing people from those
islands who knew the song, knewthe dance, and.
(40:58):
allowed them to do their thingand, and he sort of just stood
back and, let it be a draw tohis restaurants.
Mark (41:05):
Antique just continues to evolve as this amalgam of
different cultures and, and partfantasy and part reality, and it
continues to grow like a, like asnowball rolling down a hill.
I.
Max (41:19):
Yeah.
Yeah, it does get bigger and youknow, so Trader Vic, who we
haven't talked about at thispoint, but he kind of got his
start in the late thirties and,and that is expanding, right
Don?
The beach comer on the mainlandcontinues to expand.
yeah, I mean through the fortiesand fifties it just keeps
getting bigger and bigger.
Alex (41:36):
Yeah.
A
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (41:36):
So.
Alex (41:37):
like GIS coming home from the war, you know, spent a lot
of time in Polynesia and youknow, wanted to experience that
when they came back.
So they start popping upeverywhere, like in the Midwest
and,
Max (41:48):
south Pacific, the, the book.
So it's kind of this perfectstorm of interest from the
general populace in the SouthPacific
Francis (41:55):
and there ain't nothing like a dame.
Um, but, um, the, talk to usabout the don.
Don the beach comers in thecontinental United States and
Victor Bergeron who had trade revix, who was the big competition
at Don the beach comer.
So you have three basic forcesin the tiki world, right?
You have the real Don beach,with Don the beach comer in
Hawaii.
(42:15):
You have the don the beachcomers that were stolen from him
by the mob and his ex-wife.
And you have the, the traderVix.
What's going, how do youdistinguish those three parts of
that universe?
Max (42:25):
It is a, yeah, good question.
I mean, I, I will say there werea lot of sort of other players
in there too.
Um, Steve Crane was a big one.
Steve Crane's, luau and, and afew other places.
But Don, the, Don the Beach,Gomer Chain and Trader Vic,
those ones kind of really lastedmore than most.
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20- (42:41):
Yeah.
Max (42:41):
I will say Trader Vic really, uh, probably had better
food, right?
I mean, he, he had a, he had areally excellent palate, and so
I think, yeah, the Trader Vicexperience was, was, I mean,
they were excellent cocktails
Alex (42:54):
for cocktail nerds.
You know, trader Vic reallystarted experimenting with other
things besides rum.
Yeah.
Uh, following Don's, you know,Don sort of took the planter's
punch and was like, well, maybeI'll mix rums to make this rum
more palatable.
I'll add this rum, make it alittle darker, a little
brighter.
Um.
Trader Vic sort of took whatDawn did to the Planter's Punch
(43:16):
and was like, well, maybe I'll,I'll add some gin or sherry to
this drink, you know?
Um, and, and really kind ofreinvented what Dawn had already
reinvented.
So put, he definitely put hisstamp on it and, brought a lot
to the table.
It, he wasn't just.
A copy of Don.
He, he definitely brought hisown sort of flare to the entire
(43:39):
thing, and I think that's whyDon and Vic stand out the most
historically.
Yeah.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (43:44):
So I, I really wanna take this back
to the, the original Don.
And the story is amazing and thefilm is amazing and you, you get
to a lot of things that, that wesimply don't have time to talk
about here.
But one of his very firstmarketing moments and it, it's
when you realize that, thatDon's gonna change the world,
(44:05):
right, is when he said.
Two zombie limit.
No one can have more than twozombies, right?
And everybody's like, well, Ican have three zombies.
Why can't I have three zombies?
I'm a, I'm a man, aren't I?
I can, I can have three zombies.
You can't tell me.
Uh, it's just genius.
Yeah, I was genius.
Max (44:22):
One of, one of the things we learned during this film is
that Don was an absolute masterof these kind of marketing
gimmicks.
Right.
And, and the.
The limit too on the zombie ismaybe the most well-known
example of that, but yeah.
Well, to be fair, the originalzombie had four ounces of rum in
it, so more than two might'vebeen a bad idea anyway, but you
(44:44):
know, that got so many people togo into the bar and, and take
that as a challenge.
Right, right.
And, and I think that thatmarketing gimmick combined with
the fact that it was a gooddrink, and then you had all
these kind of like Hollywoodpeople sort of there drinking
those and endorsing it in thatway.
I mean, it just took off.
You know?
He also, he also, uh, when hewas in Hawaii, he had this, um,
(45:08):
restaurant in the tree house.
So in the middle of theinternational marketplace, which
he helped build, they had thisrestaurant that was the smallest
restaurant in the world capacityof two.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-2 (45:18):
Most exclusive restaurant in the
world.
Right.
That's awesome.
Max (45:21):
restaurant in the world.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20-2 (45:22):
I love it.
I love it.
Max (45:24):
And so people would go up there.
I mean, most of the people whowent up there were people who
were gonna write about it.
Yeah.
Right.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (45:31):
Sure.
Max (45:31):
and then people read an article and they make their way
out there and, and enjoy all theother spaces.
Right.
So
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20- (45:37):
yeah.
Alex (45:37):
Seems like brilliant marketing for a lot of people.
The magic number is three, butfor Don it was two.
You know, you, you limit it totwo and you're gonna get a lot
of press.
Yeah.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (45:47):
Well, you know, I think one of the
reasons that this film is soimportant is, the desert of the
cocktail world.
I mean, cocktails died in theeighties.
They died from the lateseventies to the eighties when
everybody gave up.
It was rebelling against yourfather's brown drinks and
martinis and the mad men culturethat was passe, that was
unfashionable.
And, but the last real cocktailmovement created.
(46:10):
Was the tiki movement.
Yep.
And then that came to an end,and then we had that pause.
And then Del Degra resurrectedthe, the current golden age of
the cocktail, which is thegolden age of the cocktail.
so this is a really importantstory to, to tell, and it's a
story of resurrection and Ithink you guys did a fantastic
job.
So, gentlemen, I, I was gonnasave this until, mine and
(46:31):
Francis' wrap up, but I, but I,but I want you to be here so I
can share it with you.
So.
Francis and I met in 1984 in acollege dormitory, and the first
thing Francis saw when he walkedinto my dorm room was the tiki
bar that I had pulled up out thebamboo and wrought iron tiki bar
(46:52):
that I had pulled out of myparents' basement and brought to
my college dormitory in 1984.
Yeah, I went, I went to collegewith John Belushi right over
here, but it was great.
It was great.
Max (47:05):
Wow.
What a wonderful dorm room.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (47:08):
Uh, it was, it was a cool place.
I had one of my roommates, had abad back and slept on the floor,
so he took his bed out of theroom and replaced it with the
tiki bar.
Alex (47:17):
Wow.
Oh man, that's amazing.
That's awesome.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-2 (47:20):
It's very important to our story.
You guys are fantastic.
Everyone should go see the film,what's called the Dawn of Tiki,
the mostly true story of Don theBeach Comer.
You guys are wonderful and thankyou for this contribution to
cocktail.
Mark (47:31):
Thank you gentlemen.
We look forward to seeing youhere in New Jersey and we will
work on setting up a screeninghere, in New Brunswick with you.
Max (47:37):
Fantastic.
We love it.
Yeah.
Looking forward to it.
the-restaurant-guys_3_ (47:40):
Alright, thanks for everything guys.
We'll be right back.
You're listening to theRestaurant Guys.
Restaurant guys podcast.com.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (48:01):
Well, that was a ton of fun.
Yeah, that was great.
The movie, by the way, the movieI enjoyed.
A lot.
I mean, I really enjoyed thefilm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
It was, it was, it was great.
It was informative.
I learned a ton of stuff.
I didn know, I learned, Ithought I knew a lot about Tiki.
Yeah.
And also I thought I knew whatwas bullshit and what was real,
and I was wrong about a littlebit of that.
Very informative, super fun.
(48:21):
And that animatronic Don Beachwas, was terrific.
Fantastic.
So, uh, we need to talk a littlebit about 1984 again, just, just
for a moment.
The novel.
No, no, not the novel.
Oh.
When we met in college, like Isaid, I had this tiki bar Oh, oh
yeah.
With the wrought iron, chairsand bamboo.
Wr You were John Belushi incollege.
I don't know if anybody knew,but you, you were John, be.
(48:43):
It was, but when we talk about.
The bullshit tiki.
That's what we're talking about.
That's it.
We're talking about that momentin our lives was exactly, that
was the bullshit.
Tiki was the, was the fakedrinks, but let's be fair,
everyone had forgotten by 1984.
Mm-hmm.
Every Don Beach died that year.
Right.
And everyone had forgottenabout.
(49:05):
The, the Tiki cocktail.
Mm-hmm.
And, and Dale DeGraff was nineyears away.
well, we were making fakepunches and fake tiki drinks and
we were doing that for parties.
And it was fakey fake.
Fake fake.
You mean fakey fake?
You mean like the blue whale?
The blue whale.
That's exactly that.
We made in a.
Garbage can with Country TimeLemonade that came way later in
1986.
(49:25):
Country Time Lemonade, bluecarousel, and who knows what
else was in that damn drink.
Yeah.
But it was, uh, best drunk outof a red solo cup as I recall.
Um, but no, but to be fair,let's.
Recognize this, the allure ofTiki that just goes to show you
we wanted that.
I mean, it is cool.
We have friends who have tikibars in their backyard.
Mm-hmm.
And they don't necessarily serveauthentic multi rum tiki drinks,
(49:49):
but in the summertime they putin a Hawaiian shirt, they sit in
the backyard, they have somepeople over.
And what's cool about this is weare now creating everything that
it once was, but even as ashadow of its former self.
Yeah.
You know, it's like sex andpizza, even mediocre.
It's pretty good than none.
But those, those of you whoaren't our age, you don't
remember the fake Polynesianrestaurant of the seventies
(50:09):
You'd sit in your little tikihut with the stuffed parrot and
have the poo poo platter and itwas a whole cultural.
Movement.
It was a movement in the wrongdirection, but it was a
movement.
Well, it was just that thequality of what they delivered
was crap, you know?
Yes.
And, but the quality of what yougot in a lot of bars back then
was crap.
For sure.
And it's great to see it comeback and it's super fun and
everybody should just relax.
(50:29):
And if you don't get a tikidrink.
Exactly right.
That's okay.
If you wanna get it, you can buyJeff Berry's.
Books.
there are lots of great recipesout.
Yeah, lots stuff out there thatare real and have real
ingredients and are delicious.
So we're gonna bring therecording of this podcast to a
close and oddly enough.
We're gonna go to a partytonight with, uh, Jeff Berry in
New York City.
We're gonna go to a tiki party,so we're gonna go, we're gonna
live the dream.
(50:49):
I'm Francis Shot.
And I'm Mark Pascal.
You're the restaurant guys.
You can always find outmore@restaurantguyspodcast.com.
Aloha.
Hello everybody and welcome.
You are listening to theRestaurant Guys.
I'm Mark Pascal and I'm herewith Francis Shot.
Together, we own stage left inCaptain Lombardi restaurants.
We're here to bring you theinside track on food, wine, and
the finer things in life andtiki cocktails because our
guests and cocktails today.
Our guests today are Alex Lamband Maxwell.
They have put together anamazing movie, a documentary on
(00:32):
Don Beach, on the Beach Comer,but they'll be joining us in a
little bit.
But, uh, what do we have to talkabout before that, mark?
I want to tell people aboutsomething that happened more,
mostly to you.
Uh oh.
at a, an event we went to, soyou and I went to an event.
We went to somebody's restaurantwho we were planning on having
on the show.
Okay.
(00:52):
Oh, and yeah, Francis said, oh,oh yeah.
We who we, who we were planningon having on the show and we
wanted to go, we frequently liketo go to the person's restaurant
before we have them on the show.
So we have something, somethingto talk about.
Well, we went to this person'srestaurant.
Nice person.
A nice person, and had a lovely,lovely meal.
(01:12):
Yeah.
Lovely meal.
Okay.
And.
Uh, you know, everything wentpretty well.
The food was very good.
We en, we enjoyed ourselves andhe, this person lived a
restaurateur's nightmare.
Oh yeah.
Okay.
So he's supposed to be on theshow a couple days later and he
lives a restaurateur'snightmare.
Oh yeah.
We're in a car on the way homeand we get a phone call from the
(01:36):
restaurant.
And there's a frantic mare d onthe phone says, excuse me.
Excuse me.
Was the person who was allergicto pine nuts, did they eat the
cookie?
Did they eat the cookies?
Any of the cookies?
And so now I don't know thatthis is what's going.
I'm allergic to pine nuts.
Very allergic to pine nuts.
And I don't know any of this isgoing on, but the, the, uh,
(01:57):
Julie is, was with us.
We took her and, and she's like,uh, yeah, hold on.
Um.
Francis did you?
So she knows what has been saidin her ear, but we don't.
It's just, Francis, did you eatthe cookie tonight?
And I was like, oh yeah, I lovedthem.
I had two.
It's like, oh yes he did.
Why?
I'm like, that is made entirelyof pine nuts.
Oh, it's they're ba, they're notpinoli cookies, but they're
basically pine nut.
(02:18):
Ridden.
Yeah, probably flour.
And they were delicious, lemmetell you.
Oh goodness.
Well, sure.
It's a unfamiliar flavor, right?
Well, and so look, you serve amillion meals.
You know, everyone will make amistake sooner or later anyway.
But the mistake was, this is thenightmare though.
Oh, it's a nightmare.
Okay.
Remember, this is somebody who'ssupposed to come on our show in
a couple of days.
Right.
And they don't know that we'renot dicks.
Right?
Right.
We're not, they don't know thatwe're not using their name in
the podcast.
(02:39):
They don't know that we'regonna, we might tell the story,
but anonymously other than, Hey.
We just poisoned that guy.
Yeah.
And you know what's funny?
So the kind of allergic that Iam is, I don't go into
anaphylactic shock or anythinglike that, but I, I, I suffer
severe and prolonged six hoursof gastrointestinal distress
where it's bad, right?
And it doesn't come on rightaway.
(03:00):
And it, and it takes five hoursto hit.
I've only, I've been hit likefour or five times in my life.
I know when it's gonna come andI'm driving the car home.
I know what's coming in fourhours.
Oh, goodness gracious.
And uh, so we drive the wholestaff home.
We drop, we drop Rudy off, and,and it came that night and I
was, I was very sick and youknow.
I mean, the moral of the storyis number one, mistake's gonna
happen even in the best ofplaces.
Um, and, you know, did I callthe restaurant and say, you're a
(03:23):
jerk, and how dare you, and youknow, I'm gonna sue you or
anything?
Mm-hmm.
No, I mean, mistakes, I, itwasn't dangerous.
And by the way, I think it wasgreat that they called, so I
wasn't wondering.
At one o'clock, what in themorning, what had happened?
I think they handled that verywell.
Mm-hmm.
Um, and you know, but it alsogoes to show that, you know, I
think that restaurants handleallergies and food sensitivities
(03:46):
pretty well right now.
what we do when, when, whenallergies come into the
restaurant, when someone saysthey're allergic.
It goes on the ticket.
Everyone is notified, the busboyis notified everyone, but the
code check girl knows thatthere's this allergy in this
position on this table, and wetreat it with, and sometimes
with new young people in therestaurant, they don't get how
(04:06):
serious we are.
Well, and then you have the,the, the old school.
Mentality of, oh, they're notreally allergic, they just don't
like that thing.
One of the reasons people havethat mentality is because look,
if you don't want, if you don'tlike some food.
Don't, don't tell people you'reallergic to mushrooms, even
though you're not, becauseyou're afraid they're gonna
(04:26):
sneak a mushroom by that.
You want it treated as if it'sa, a health related issue.
Right?
Because a lot of people willtell us, oh, I'm allergic to
butter or something, and thenthey get to dessert and they
order that.
And you say, I thought you wereallergic to that.
And they're like, oh, well no, Ilike, sometimes I like it.
It happens a lot, a lot that,that, that happens so much more
than, people would realize that,that somebody tells us they're
allergic to something theproblem is, is a disservice to,
(04:48):
and, and it's desensitizing.
Restaurant staffs from peoplewho really do have an issue.
Sure.
Because you see, you see 10times someone told you they were
allergic to something and thenthey betray by the end of the
meal.
Mm-hmm.
Or the third visit, they're notreally, and that really bugs
you.
But what had happened in thisrestaurant, and I, and I saw it
happen.
Was, they were not super busywhen we first got there.
(05:10):
And, and the beginning of themeal, everything was, was very
smooth.
And they did actually tell usabout something that there was a
pie nuts in.
And we continued through themeal.
But what happened was the placegot very busy.
Mm-hmm.
And the staff that was there gota little bit overwhelmed.
it was just a little more thanthe staff could handle.
And they were just teetering,service wise.
(05:31):
And that's when the problem withthe cookies happened when people
were at their limits already in,in from a service perspective.
That that's what happened.
But I do, I do have to say that,I really respect that they
called us.
Mm-hmm.
And I really respect that allthe way down to whoever figured
it out and said.
Wait a second.
Wasn't there a pine that allergyon Table 35?
(05:51):
Oh my God.
And, and they didn't go, don'ttell anybody.
Right.
Don't tell the chef, we'll getfired.
They the culture of thatorganization.
So kudos to that chef.
Yeah.
The culture of that organizationis when you make a mistake, you
fix it and you run at it.
You don't run away from it.
And they did.
And the best restaurants do thatwhen there's a problem.
they run at the problem, notaway from the problem.
good job.
Yeah.
And so, so that speaks to me of,of an organization with a great
(06:11):
culture.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, no harm, no foul.
Everything's good.
and I wanna go back.
You're okay?
Yeah, for sure.
Absolutely.
For sure.
Anyway, we'll, we'll be back injust a moment.
We're gonna talk about Tiki AllThings Tiki in just a moment.
So if you're feeling rummy stickwith us.
You can always find outmore@restaurantguyspodcast.com..
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (06:28):
Hey there everybody.
Welcome back.
Our guests today are Alex Lamband Maxwell.
They're the director's, editorand cinematographer of an
amazing new film called the Donof Tiki, the mostly true story
of Don the Beachcomber.
we love this film.
We saw it in previews.
It's not out in widedistribution yet, but it will be
shortly.
You've gotta check it out.
We couldn't be happier towelcome you guys to the show.
(06:48):
Hey guys, welcome to the show,Alex Max.
Alex (06:50):
Thank you so much for having us.
Yeah, happy to be here.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (06:53):
Yeah, this is a tremendous documentary
'cause I, I think that mostpeople know there's a story
behind Tiki.
It's obviously a, a fantasystory, but it really comes down
to one or two guys who startedthe whole thing and invented it
out of whole cloth.
And the story of Don theBeachcomber is pretty wild de.
How, how did you come to makinga documentary part of the
(07:16):
definitive documentary aboutthis guy?
Um, about which there's so muchhistory and so much legend and
so much bullshit.
Max (07:25):
Well,
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (07:25):
I.
Max (07:26):
thanks, we'll take definitive.
That sounds good.
Yeah.
Um, you know, we didn't set outactually to make a Dawn Beach
film when we started., We didthis project originally, um,
starting in 2020 when everythingwas kinda shut down for COVID.
Alex had the idea to do a shortpiece on a couple of the tiki
bars in la.
Uh, we thought, you know, we'dprobably be able to get in'cause
(07:47):
nobody was there and you know,they're visually interesting.
There's a little bit of history.
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20- (07:52):
Yeah.
Alex (07:52):
Um, then the more people we talked to, the more, you
know, everyone was like, well,you know, there's these stories
about Dawn Beach and it reallyall started with him.
And, and the stories were justfascinating.
And I knew a little bit aboutDawn Beach.
We, we went home from a, from apre-interview we had done and we
opened up one of spend Kirsten'sbooks.
I.
Showed Max is like, here, here'slike a chapter about Don Beach.
(08:14):
And we were looking at it, wewere like, if, if half the stuff
is true, you know, this would bean amazing story for a feature
length documentary.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (08:21):
and almost half of it is true.
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20- (08:22):
yeah.
Alex (08:23):
Yeah,
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-2 (08:23):
nearly.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (08:24):
but the other thing is here was
charlatan, a huckster, a, a guywho created obvious fantasy,
right?
So you knew when you walked intoa tiki bar, you weren't walking
into an authentic Polynesian,you know, piece of cultural
history.
So he created a, a, a fantasy.
But he, but he, he blended whatwas true and what wasn't, and
it's even his name.
(08:45):
You didn't quite know what wasreal and what wasn't, which just
plays into the whole tiki thing.
It's, it's incredible.
Did you find most people hadmisimpressions and believed
stories that weren't true andvice versa as you researched?
Max (08:58):
We did.
Yeah.
And, and you know, to yourpoint, it's like.
Uh, Tiki is really a Hollywoodcreation.
Don's first, Don the BeachcomberBar was in Hollywood in 1933.
And people think of, uh, youknow, Polynesia, they think of
Hawaii.
Some people think of theCaribbean, right, with all the
rum, but it's just a, a mashupof all of these different
(09:18):
things.
And, and we learned that Don waskind of uniquely suited to be
able to do this from hisbackground and his travels
around the world.
yeah.
Yeah.
It's, it's this funny thingwhere people associate it with
all these sort of differentcultures, but I mean, really
Tiki is Hollywood.
Alex (09:34):
You know, I, I think one of the things we learned is that
it, it tiki the, the genesis ofTiki is really kind of
autobiographical to Don.
Um, he was sort of the onlyperson at that time who could
have come up with this thing.
'cause he had done the travelingwhen he was in his twenties.
He learned.
How to make a planter's punch inthe Caribbean.
He, he had run rum with hisbrother, so he had an in with
(09:57):
the rum industry and knew how tosell rum to a generation of
people who really weren't thatinterested in drinking rum.
And until he created thesecocktails, um.
He also, he had collected allthese things on his travels that
he was using as props in, infilms, uh, in the 1930s.
So he just kind of threw a bunchof stuff on the wall and, you
(10:20):
know, the tiki bar was born.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20-2 (10:22):
I just wanna put out that you said
he had run rum and I don't thinkthat everyone's gonna realize
that a rum runner was a personwho ran from the law during
prohibition with rum.
So he had a colorful start, youknow, in crime.
Well, one of, one of the thingsthat you point out in the movie
that I thought was reallyterrific is so he gets one of
those very first liquor licensescoming out of Prohibition,
(10:44):
right?
And his bar is ready to go with,with spectacular cocktails that
have all been planned out.
And, you know, it's, it's prettyclear that there's no way that
he could have just opened.
Yeah.
at full go.
Here's the way he opened, right?
The first week out, coming outof Prohibition here, here's my
(11:05):
five-year-old real, I made ityesterday.
Max (11:07):
Right.
Yeah.
And you know, Don, he createdwell over 60 cocktails, you
know, and so for people in therestaurant and and beverage
industry, you know, to open a, aplace and have a menu with 60
cocktails on it, like thatdoesn't happen overnight,
obviously.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (11:24):
Well, 60 original cocktails that no.
Max (11:26):
cut, right?
Yeah.
So he had been doing this for atleast a couple of years before,
before prohibition was lifted.
Alex (11:35):
Yeah.
That's kind of our, our evidencethat, that he had to have had a
speakeasy before.
You know, obviously there's notgonna be any record of that, but
just logistically, it would'vebeen impossible for him to open
his door the day afterprohibition without having like,
you know, tested these cocktailsout.
And where did he have liquor theday after prohibition?
the-restaurant-guys_3_ (11:56):
exactly.
Legal.
Now this
Alex (11:59):
Yeah.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (12:01):
said, you mentioned earlier, you said
that.
Background had uniquelyqualified him to be the only one
that could be him.
What was his background thatthat uniquely qualified him to
be the, the dawn of Tiki?
Max (12:13):
So he, he grew up in East Texas.
Uh, his family was kind of inthe, in the oil fields there in
East Texas, and there's a littlebit of.
Question about whether theyactually found oil themselves.
Um, we know that they had aboarding house and a lot of the
guys who worked in the oilfields lived there.
So it is maybe a bit like thegold rush thing, right?
(12:34):
Like the people who actually didwell were the ones who sold the
shovels.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (12:37):
Yeah.
Max (12:38):
so at, at some point they had a little bit of money and
they gave don an option when hewas, of age that he could go to
college or he could travelaround the world.
And so he took his share of thefamily money he traveled around
the world twice.
you know, he was through theSouth Pacific, so that was
Hawaii.
(12:58):
Tahiti, the Cook Islands,Australia, New Zealand.
He made his way to China, India,and then all through the
Caribbean.
So, and you know, this is in the1920s, so this is rare at that
time.
Right.
This is not something people aredoing often.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (13:14):
Well, and and importantly, he didn't
do it in a first class cabineither.
He really got to get his handsdirty.
Can you tell us about that?
Max (13:22):
Yeah, so he had a, there was a family member, uh, of
Don's, I think it was a cousinof his dad's who had a, uh, a
ship that they were trying toget from Los Angeles to
Australia.
And so Don took a job on boardas the, the super cargo, he was
kind of in charge of.
Keeping track of the crew fromport to port, and also making
(13:45):
sure that the stuff on board theship ended up where it was
supposed to be.
So he was working, you know, Imean, he was a, came from this
very blue collar background andtraveled around that way.
And then he worked on board someother commercial ships.
So he wasn't, you know, itwasn't like he was sailing
around the world on a yacht.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05 (14:01):
Right.
Well.
Importantly, that meant that hegot to work with people of a lot
of different cultures and hangout with, and have dinner with
and party with or, you know, uh,with all, all these people of
all these different cultures atdifferent places he came from
and on the ship, hard work.
Max (14:14):
Yeah, it was, and, and those connections that he made
in those early years proved tobe very fruitful because he,
over decades after that,continued to import, uh, things
from, from all of these otherplaces.
Right?
So that was carvings and art.
Uh, and jewelry and artifactsYeah.
And stuff like that.
Alex (14:33):
One of the things that we didn't go super deep into in the
documentary, but it, it's kindof funny, is that when everybody
started copying him after hisbar was really successful, they
would buy decor from Don'causehe had all these connections.
So he would, he would get allthis stuff from the South
Pacific and then sell it to hiscompetitors so they could open
up tiki bars.
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20- (14:54):
Yeah.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (14:54):
So let's get to there.
So he does, he does thesetravels around the world.
He's got a unique perspective onthings.
He comes back.
And then how does, how does itbegin?
How does the Tiki begin with hisfirst bar in Holly?
Max (15:05):
he starts working in Hollywood.
his brother, his older brother,Hugh, is working in the silent
film industry at that time.
Don gets connected in theHollywood community there and he
starts working as a technicaladvisor on some of these South
Seas films, which are reallypopular in that era.
And, you know, he's able to notonly supply some of the, the
(15:26):
props and the set dressing, buthe also was brought on to kind
of consult, So he, we don't knowexactly how he found this spot,
but there's a little spot thatopens up the MCC hotel.
McCadden Hotel.
Hotel.
It was formerly a tailor shop.
Is that right?
I think it was a tailor shop.
(15:46):
Yeah.
And so that space opened up andDon rents it out and he just
starts decorating it, you know,so he's got all this, he's got
bamboo and, and this kind offlotsam and jet some, and then.
he and his brother, both at thattime during prohibition, were
running rum.
Right.
They were involved in the, inthe illegal, illegal liquor
(16:07):
trade.
So he had the
the-restaurant-guys_ (16:09):
Allegedly.
It was allegedly, allegedly NewJersey, allegedly.
Yeah.
Go ahead.
Max (16:14):
Yeah.
So we know that, that he hadaccess to the booze at that
point.
He had this collection of stuffand, and I don't know why he
exactly decided to do this, buthe just.
for it.
Alex (16:27):
Yeah.
And, and it's also important,uh, historically to realize that
at that time in the 1930s, RUMwas not a popular drink with
people in the us but because.
Of the unavailability of otherliquors that people wanted.
You know, it was kind of thesafest thing to drink because
you were getting it from placesthat were legally allowed to
(16:49):
produce it.
So it, they had regulations,they weren't making it in a
bathtub or, you know, moonshine,so
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (16:56):
So you were, you were less likely
to go blind if you drank.
Yeah.
Alex (16:59):
You're much less likely to go blind.
And because Don knew about thismixology, he knew how to make
rum palatable for an American.
A guest or at, at hisrestaurant, at his, at his bar.
So again, it's, it's just veryunique to his specific knowledge
and his specific experiencesthat led to him opening this
(17:20):
place.
I.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-2 (17:21):
What I found so cool about this whole
tiki culture is right.
It's got this basis in realityand this, it kind of spins out
into fantasy at the same time.
And you, you have some thingsthat are completely real and
factual and, and on the moneyand some things that are just
made up completely.
(17:42):
That's fantasy.
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20- (17:42):
Yeah.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (17:43):
He comes out with this beautiful
dreamland of here's, here's tikiand, and it's its own thing and
enjoy it.
Max (17:51):
Yeah.
And you know, here we are nearlya hundred years later and it's
quite popular now and, and Ithink that's really kind of the
lasting appeal is that sort ofthat element of, you know, you
walk into a dark space and turna corner and you're sort of
transported to another time oranother place and.
You know, it kind, it's sort ofdifferent things for different
(18:12):
people, but that sort offantastical escapist element I
think kind of has long lastingappeal.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (18:18):
So with that first bar, is that
where he came up with all of thecocktails, with the majority of
those cocktails?
Alex (18:24):
we believe
Max (18:24):
so, yeah.
there were things that wereadded to the menu.
Yeah.
Over the years.
But most of the drinks he had inthose early days, so that was
like 32 to 37.
They moved into a bigger spaceacross the street in 1937.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (18:41):
So he had a, he had a real problem
with people trying to stealthose drinks, right?
Those, these, his own creations,
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20-202 (18:47):
he did it.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (18:48):
you know, every great restaurant,
every great bar has that issue,right?
People are gonna steal your bestpeople and people are gonna try
and get your recipes and try anddo what you're doing.
It's happened to us, we get it,it's out there and people are
like, oh, let me, I can shortcutthis, this transaction.
So
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20-202 (19:05):
Oh yeah.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (19:05):
why don't you tell us some of the
things he did
Alex (19:07):
Yeah, he, he had a big problem with people stealing his
bartenders, um, offering themmore money to go work for them.
And a lot of them would, and,and at first they knew how to
make the drinks, so they werestealing his bartenders and
because of that, they werestealing his, his cocktail
recipes.
So then he started.
Codifying his, his recipes.
Mm-hmm.
(19:28):
Um, in numbered bottles.
So, you know, his bartenders ofsort of the next generation of
bartenders.
All they knew was.
A zombie is this many ounces ofthis, this many ounces of this
number, this many ounces of thismix.
But they didn't know what any ofthose things actually were.
Don was the only one who handledany of that stuff.
So then people started stealingas bartenders and they would be
(19:51):
like, you have mix number two?
Without mix number two, I can'tmake a zombie.
And he sort of halted it rightthere.
It, it's amazing that it workedbecause it would've been such a
major operation to try to pulloff and.
He did.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20-2 (20:05):
I heard the rumor.
I don't know if this is true,that he used to go in the
kitchen alone and lock the doorand no one was allowed in the
kitchen.
Uh, so they couldn't evenreverse engineer what he put
into Don's mix number one, Don'smix number two, Don's mix
number.
Or three.
And the, the, the rumor I heardthe urban legend I heard was
that he, he used to actuallysometimes throw stuff out in the
kitchen so people couldn'tmeasure like what was missing so
(20:27):
that he could make the drinkthe, the mixes, but.
Alex (20:32):
It's very, it's very likely that could be true.
There's no way of us knowing,but I wouldn't put it past him.
Absolutely.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-2 (20:37):
Well this led to, and we're skipping
ahead and I want to come backand, and touch the middle of his
career.
'cause it's fascinatinginvolving lovers and mobsters
and, you know, all annulmentsand marriages and all kinds of
crazy stuff.
But in the end, that secrecy ledto.
The tiki almost disappearingbecause in the eighties when
people didn't care anymore, andthese old bartenders, there were
(21:00):
very few people who knew how tomake these things.
And it was Jeff Berry who's inyour film, who exhaustively went
and interviewed these people allaround the world and clawed back
those recipes for the mixes fromthe brink of oblivion.
And Jeff's in your, in your, uh,film and, and, uh, your
conversations with him areamazing.
Max (21:18):
Yeah, Jeff Beachbum Berry, you know, he's a, he has an
amazing place himself in NewOrleans, latitude 29, which is
an excellent bar and restaurant.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-2 (21:26):
Yes,
Max (21:27):
so in the early, uh, like mid nineties, Jeff Berry and a,
and a few other people in thattime, I.
They sort of became fascinatedwith this thing that was almost
completely gone.
Right.
By the eighties, there werealmost no tiki bars left at all
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (21:41):
and not written down.
Max (21:42):
and not written down.
Right?
Right.
And so they started going tothese places.
You know, there were a couple ofold Chinese restaurants here in
LA where the, they would go andthey, the bartenders would have
a couple of these like tropicalcocktail drinks on here.
And so Jeff became fascinatedwith this and he started talking
to these guys and saying, youknow.
What, what goes into thisexactly?
(22:04):
How do you make that, what's it,what kind of rum is that?
And, and you know, there's theclassic example of, uh, Ray U
and from Tiki T, which has beenthere since 1961 here in la and
the, the response was always,it's Roman fruit juice, which is
basically true, right?
But, um.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (22:21):
But I ain't telling you.
Yeah.
Max (22:22):
But, but Jeff kind of, uh, befriended some of these guys
and slowly started whittlingaway and figuring out what went
into some of these drinks andthere, and he, he still had to
piece some of this stufftogether because he would, he
would know, okay, it's, it'sthese three things and Don's mix
number three.
And nobody knew, even the guys,the bartenders who worked at
(22:42):
Don's, restaurant in thethirties and forties, like.
They didn't know.
Right.
So there was a little bit ofreverse engineering.
Yeah.
And, and slowly, slowly hewhittled away and, and got to
the, to the bottom of thesethings.
Alex (22:55):
started becoming known as the, the guy, uh, that was
collecting all this stuff.
And as bartenders would passaway, their families would,
would send these notebooks of,of their, their father or their
grandfather to Jeff.
Um, and he was able to kind ofstart to piece it together.
And Rosetta Stone it.
Like this guy says that in thisdrink, he puts cinnamon and he
(23:17):
puts grapefruit, or, you know,uh, that's actually, that's
actually a bad example.
'cause that I think Jeff had toreverse engineer.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (23:24):
Yeah.
Alex (23:24):
taste.
Yeah.
But you know, Don Don's, theDon's mix that's in the zombie
is cinnamon and grapefruit.
And once he kind of cracked thatcode by seeing, you know,
something in one guy's recipeand something in another guy's
recipe, and you can kind ofRosetta stone it together once
you have all this information,was the first guy to put
together a 1934 zombie thatdidn't taste like crap.
(23:47):
And
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (23:47):
Yeah.
Alex (23:48):
we were like, oh, this must be what it tasted like, you
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (23:51):
Well, it's, people don't realize that
how important the historian isto, to creating and recreating
these cocktails and thismovement.
The historians are the peoplewho chronicled these things and
then brought them all backtogether, and like you said,
Rosetta, stone it together.
A little piece from here, alittle piece from there.
Will that.
(24:11):
That adds together and, andmakes sense.
And you had, and at the sametime you have a guy who made a
lot of crap up.
So you gotta throw out thetrash.
Yeah.
And, and match the things thatare, that are truly correct.
Max (24:24):
Yeah.
He did not make it easy.
No.
there were other challengesbecause sometimes the recipes
sort of morphed over time, youknow, so the, the official
recipe in 1934 was maybedifferent than the official
recipe in 1953.
Right?
Right.
So you have to kind of gothrough and,
Alex (24:39):
and look at that.
And it's still a challenge today'cause RUM is different today.
You know, like we don't knowthat.
Uh, you know, Meyer's Rum todaytastes the way that it tasted in
the thirties.
Um, Marie King told, Marie Kingtold us.
It, it actually, you know, itprobably tasted more the way
that Caruba tastes today.
which is why you kind of have tostart then changing these
(25:02):
recipes again to make itpalatable or to try to make it
taste like what we think itmight've tasted like, but over,
you know, at the end of the day,there's not really any way to
ever know for sure exactly howthese.
Cocktails tasted in 1933.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05 (25:16):
Here's what you guys have done.
And what Jeff Berry did and DaleDegraf did, is I remember that I
got a hold of the gentleman'scompanion when I was bartending.
We were bartending together atanother bar in the eighties, and
I also looked at the old Mr.
Boston book and which, you know,in the 1950s, the Mr.
Boston guy was a great book.
By the way.
We were at the Far Hills RummageSale.
(25:36):
I remember the day Francis foundit, and he said, guess what?
I just bought for 25 cents.
Yes.
But, but no, but here's thething that the cocktail
revolution hadn't happened yet.
And I remember we tried to makesome of the drinks outta that
book and we were like, thesedrinks taste like crap.
Yes.
Those people didn't know whatthey were talking about.
Not realizing that I had toRosetta stone it.
(25:59):
And that ingredients changed.
And, you know, with the Mr.
Boston, the book itself changed.
Um, but so, and we will comeback to the middle'cause the
fascinating middle of the storyafter the break.
But just in the end, Don Beachpassed away in the eighties.
And that was before therenaissance of, of tiki culture.
what's the state of, of, of theTiki drink today?
(26:19):
I mean, it's amazing.
Yes.
Max (26:20):
It is amazing.
Yeah.
So Don, I mean, Don's.
kind of blew up in the thirtiesand forties and you kind of look
at fifties and sixties and it'ssuch a mainstream American pop
culture phenomenon by you get,by the time you get to that
point.
Right?
You've got the tiki, theenchanted tiki room at
Disneyland, 1963.
And then, yeah, I mean by the,you know, he died in 89 and at
(26:43):
that time Tiki was almostcompletely dead.
Had he lived another.
or eight years, he would'vestarted to see it come back a
little bit.
So it's kind of ironic that he,he missed that.
Yeah.
But today it's, it's really
Alex (26:56):
huge again.
And the, the craft cocktailmovement I think was really
helpful because when craftcocktails started coming back
and people started really caringabout recipes again, they
started rediscovering tiki andrediscovering these, these
cocktails the way they shouldbe, you know?
Um.
I would say, you know, like a1944 ma Thai compared to like a
(27:19):
1980s Ma Thai is world ofdifference.
Right.
Right.
Mark (27:24):
No sour mix in 1940.
Well, is it, is it ever moreimportant to have real juice
than in a tiki cocktail?
Yeah.
Yeah, right.
Is that, is there any drink inthe world that needs to have
real juice more than a tikicocktail?
Max (27:34):
And you look at some of these recipes that might have 7,
8, 9, 10 ingredients and it'sfresh juices, it's, it's, you
know, freshly made syrups, allof the
the-restaurant-guys_3 (27:43):
Grenadine or, you know, grenadine for 30
years was one of the mostdisgusting things you could
drink,
Max (27:48):
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (27:51):
so.
Max (27:51):
are making it the right way again, right?
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (27:53):
So why?
Yeah, we, we started ourcocktail program in 1993 and we,
in 1994, we made our ownGrenadine.
'cause it was the only way toget, you know, grine.
'cause you had to, and ourGrenadine is awesome by the way.
But, um, if you wanna come tostage left and have a drink,
it's pretty awesome.
But So why did Tiki die?
What was the demise of Tiki fromthe seventies into the eighties?
(28:15):
What killed it?
Alex (28:16):
I think there is combination of things.
One, is it, it was, you know, itwas everybody's mom and dad's
generations thing.
Nobody wanted to go to theseplaces that, you know, were
popular for their parents.
I think also the 1980s was kindof a, you know, A time when a
lot of ev everyone wanted thingsfast and quick.
(28:39):
They didn't necessarily careabout how good it was.
Francis (28:42):
Right.
Alex (28:42):
and that's sort of what I think happened to cocktails in
general, but also to the tikitiki bar with without good
cocktails is not gonna be a veryfun experience.
Mark (28:52):
Well, it got a little dfi, right?
You, you used the Disneyreference before.
that's kind of what happened toit.
Francis (28:57):
the cocktail recipes, got TV, dinner.
Right, right.
It was really just fruit and rumbecame Bacardi white rum, which
is basically the vodka of rums,you know?
And so it wasn't, it wasn't aflavorful and interesting thing.
Alright, so listen, stick withus everybody.
We're gonna come back on theother side of the break and
we're gonna talk about gangstersrum running World War ii, the
end of World War ii, dissolvedmarriages, betraying lovers.
(29:19):
It's gonna be a great time.
Don't go away.
We'll be back in just a moment.
You're here at the restaurant,guys.
Of course, you can always findout
more@restaurantguyspodcast.com.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (29:27):
Hey everybody.
Welcome back.
Our guests today are Alex, lamband Maxwell.
They're the directors, editorand cinematographer.
Of the dawn of Tiki, the mostlytrue story of Dawn, the
Beachcomber.
It's an extraordinary film.
You really should go see it,even if you're not a cocktail
nerd like we are.
It's super fun.
and I wanna get into everythingyou now have to cache what I
promised with my mouth,everything before the break.
(29:50):
Well, also, one of the things wehave to set up after the show is
the screening we're gonna do inNew Brunswick for this movie.
Absolutely.
At one of the theaters here.
and the huge party we're gonnahave afterwards with lots of
tiki cocktails.
Alright, so, but before we getinto the meat of the matter,
your film is fun and it's amelange of like, interviews with
old folks who are still alive,who were there interviews with
(30:11):
the, the new, rejuvenators ofthe cocktail like Jeff Berry
and, and all the other folks.
but you, you made a reallyinteresting choice in that, in
the voice of Don Beach, you, youhave an animation, you tell us
what that is about.
It's the most shocking andinteresting and fun thing.
And tell us about that recordingthat you found.
Yeah.
Max (30:31):
Sure.
So when we were doing ourresearch, we came across this
interview that Don had given afew years before he died.
I think it was 86 was theinterview.
And it was a, it was atranscript, right?
So we had the, the paper versionand we thought, okay, if it's a
transcript, there must be arecording somewhere.
I.
and we were able to track itdown and when we finally got
permission to use it in thefilm, you know, we heard it for
(30:53):
the first time and it was thiscassette tape that was recorded
in 1986.
So it wasn't in great condition.
We were a little concerned, um,but our, our sound editor was
able to bring it back so.
it was so delightful just tohear Don's voice and hear him
kind of telling his stories andwe thought, oh, this is
fantastic.
(31:13):
But we didn't want to just havea, you know, shot of a reel to
reel tape player spinning in adark room, which is kind of this
like documentary trope, youknow?
Francis (31:23):
Yep.
Max (31:24):
we needed a strong visual Alex had the idea to, to have
Dawn presented as a stop motionpuppet, basically.
So
the-restaurant-guys_3_ (31:34):
Amazing.
Max (31:35):
It, it was a brilliant idea.
We weren't sure if it was goingto work or if we could have the
budget to do it, but we, wefinally figured it out.
We have some friends that we'veworked with before who do stop
motion and they were willing towork with us a little bit, and
it also allowed us to kind ofcreate this fun version of Don.
So the, the, the puppet wassculpted originally by Kevin
(31:57):
Kidney.
Kevin and Jody do a lot of workwith Disney, and he's got this
really fun, whimsical.
Uh, Approach.
So Don is there on screensitting in his 1930s bar,
Mark (32:07):
you make him one of the narrators of, of the story,
which, which really I thinkbrings us all in and brings us
into to who Don is and who hewas.
Francis (32:16):
And it's a freaking puppet.
It's a.
And honestly, it's really, it'sin keeping with the whole
fantasy of Tiki.
It, it, it was brilliant.
It's brilliant.
Yeah.
Max (32:27):
Yeah.
And we kind of went with anolder style, you know, a lot of
people sort of remember like theRudolph, the reindeer
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (32:34):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
That's, that's the feel forsure.
Rudolph, Rudolph Red KnowsReindeer, Dave and Goliath my
Sunday mornings, who's not?
Alex (32:40):
The other thing that, you know, max did as a, as a
director of photography for thatis.
We lit him, we lit the puppetthe exact, with like, sort of
the exact same setup we wereusing for all of these
bartenders that we wereinterviewing in real life.
So that when, when you see thepuppet, everything aside from
him being a puppet feels exactlythe same as how we shot
(33:01):
everything else so that it feelsthat much more real, even
though, you know, it's obviouslynot, but your brain does start
to trick you as, as you'rewatching and you're, you're just
like, well, this is Don.
It's his voice.
And
Francis (33:12):
Yeah.
Yeah,
Alex (33:13):
in this peacock in his bar.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (33:15):
he is.
Alex (33:16):
like Jeff Berry's in his bar, and Marie King's in her
bar, and you know, why, would itnot be Dawn?
Mark (33:22):
when we do the documentary of the restaurant guys, we're
definitely gonna have you guysshoot that because it was
amazing
Francis (33:29):
and hopefully you can have an animatronic figure'cause
we're not that hot.
So, alright, so let's go back toDon.
So World War II comes, oh, it's1939, and what, what happens to
him in the war?
In the war is great.
There should be a film or atelevision series about this.
So tell us about the World WarII years.
Max (33:50):
Yeah.
So Don, well Don was actuallylooking at opening a, a place in
Hawaii and he had taken out alease on a space in 1941 and he.
out of that lease because, uh,obviously Pearl Harbor happened.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (34:06):
Yeah.
Timing.
Yeah.
Max (34:07):
So, he knew that he was gonna be enlisted.
He was unmarried.
He had no children.
So, he knew at that pointGeneral Doolittle, who was a
major at the time when, whenDawn knew him.
they were aware of Don's uniqueskillset, right.
So he wasn't out there.
Boots on the ground.
Right.
They, they.
Had special purpose in mind forDon.
(34:28):
And so he was setting up theseofficer clubs and, was
requisitioning, you know, liquorand cigars and everything he
could find.
So he, hotels?
Yeah, hotels.
He, he ends, he goes to NorthAfrica and then he ends up in
Italy and most of his time inthe war is spent in Italy.
And he really makes it, uh, youknow, he, he does everything he
can to give.
(34:50):
The guys there on the ground,sort of the Don the Beachcomber
hospitality, which is worldfamous.
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20- (34:55):
Yeah,
Mark (34:56):
That's amazing.
I mean, he creates thesebasically, which is his life
story.
He creates these little oasis inplaces where they just don't
belong.
Right?
In these, in these deserts ofhospitality, in war torn Europe
and, and all of a sudden youhave.
The right sheets and you havethe right cocktails, and you
(35:16):
have the right hospitality, andeverybody's dressed a certain
way and acting a certain way,and you wouldn't expect that in
a, in a war torn country.
Max (35:25):
Right.
Yeah, no, I mean that wasincredibly rare.
You know, you think about thatenvironment, you know, Europe
and World War ii, that'scompletely bombed out and, and
and Don had, he was veryparticular, right?
His attention to detail wasextraordinary, I will say.
And he went to great lengths toreally make these places
special.
Yeah, I don't, I don't know thatthere was anybody who could have
(35:45):
done it as well as he did.
Alex (35:46):
No, again, it's like, it, it comes back to his, his time
traveling the world and kind of,you know, gathering rummaging
and gathering and trading withpeople in his twenties.
And now, you know, here he is inWorld War II doing the exact
same thing and war torn Europe.
It, it, it's like everything isjust so perfectly suited to this
guy in his, his past.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (36:08):
So his narration of this is pretty
amazing.
You know, it's funny when yousaid that he, when he was first
on the ship, he was the chiefsteward trying to, and he had to
make sure that everything got towhere it was supposed to go.
Strikes me that for most of hislife, he tried to make sure that
things didn't get to where theywere supposed to go, and they
got to him.
Uh, so he, so he winds up partof the narration where he's,
they give him a bunch of goldbecause obviously there are no
(36:29):
currencies that are worthanything there.
So he goes with a bunch of goldstrapped to him tell, and a
pistol and, and a truck to tellthe story.
Max (36:36):
Yeah, so the, I, the idea is, uh, you know, he, he
finally, well, he, he wasactually, when he was traveling
to Northern Europe, his ship,um, they got hit by a couple of
subs and he was in the hospitalfor a while.
He finally reconnects with, uh,Doolittle in, uh, Casablanca, I
think.
Yep.
And then,
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (36:54):
Which seems appropriate, just so you
know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Max (36:56):
Yeah, exactly.
And then he sort of gets thisassignment.
He, you know, they're gonna drophim off in Italy and so yeah,
like you said, he is got goldbars strapped to his body, he's
got his 45 and a Jeep and theysay, okay, go ahead and don the
being this incrediblyresourceful guy.
He goes around and he makesfriends with the locals and he's
(37:18):
got one other guy working withhim who kind of helps
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (37:21):
So.
Max (37:21):
Yep.
And he's able to pull together,you know, food and booze and
cigars and yeah, theseincredible spaces.
I mean, he, I, I wish we hadmore time in the film to explore
hi his adventures, during WorldWar II because.
He does have some amazingstories.
Alex (37:37):
Yeah.
And his translator said, thefirst thing that Don said when
he met him was, or maybe it wasthe second thing.
Maybe the first thing was, I'm,I'm Don, I'm Don Beach.
Uh, but the next thing he saidis, do you know where there's a
barbershop where I can get somewax or my mustache?
Like that was his concern whenhe arrived.
Francis (37:55):
I love it.
I love it.
Well, so you gotta be the man.
You gotta look like the man.
Max (37:59):
Oh yeah.
He looked the part always.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (38:02):
I'm gonna say he had a significantly
better time in World War II thanmy father who was pinned down by
Japanese machine gunfire.
It was if my father had only hadhospitality skills, you know
what I mean?
Um, so, so he goes through WorldWar ii.
He's quite successful.
The war ends.
Um, I'm sure he made a profitfor himself while he was doing
all this for the Army,'causethat's the kind of guy he was.
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20- (38:21):
Yeah.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (38:22):
so what happens after World War II
and you know, he is, had someproblems with the bars.
He initially started up, he gotmuscled out by the mob to his
initial places.
And what has happened to hisbrand when he comes back?
What does he do when he comesback?
Alex (38:35):
well he, and, and you know, without going into all the
details, basically his wifebefore he left for the war, sort
of ends up with ownership of thebars and restaurants.
So when he comes back,
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-2 (38:48):
Hold on.
His wife backed by the mob,
Alex (38:51):
Yes.
Right,
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (38:52):
as
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20 (38:52):
right.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (38:53):
and the tell in the movie, and you
should see the movie so you canget the, the background of all
this.
And as we say, in New Jersey,allegedly backed by the mob.
Alex (39:00):
Allegedly, allegedly.
Um, but yeah, so he, when hecomes back, um, you know,
they're sort of like, we don'treally need you.
When you were off in the war, wewere doing fine.
Um, and he can't open it on thebeach comer in his name because
they legally own it.
So he moves to Hawaii, which isnot a state yet.
And the contract says, becauseit's not a state, he can open a
(39:22):
on the beach comer there.
So he goes to Hawaii in theforties you know, kind of sets
up camp there.
Mm-hmm.
And
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20-2 (39:30):
I think becomes more important
than he ever has.
Right?
Yeah.
That's,
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20- (39:33):
yeah.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20-2 (39:33):
I think so much of his legacy is
around that Hawaii time of hislife and, and what he creates.
Max (39:41):
It is.
And he, you know that that earlytrip he did around the world,
you know, that that was such aformative experience for him.
And so he wanted to kind of getback to the tropics again.
You know, Hawaii to him was thismagical place.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (39:54):
Me too, by the way.
Max (39:55):
Well, I mean, anybody who goes there really, right?
How do you not love Hawaii?
so yeah, he goes up there and heopens, uh, he builds these three
or four buildings to start, andthis is 46, I think.
you know, a year or two after hegets back, yeah, he has his down
the Beachcomber location inHawaii and he starts really
working with the, the Hawaiianpeople there.
(40:16):
to bring that element into thehospitality.
So you think about traditionalHawaiian music and dance and,
and all that stuff.
You, you weren't necessarilygonna get that experience in
Hollywood or Chicago.
I.
But Don kind of made that hismission to incorporate that into
the, the Hawaiian version.
Alex (40:37):
Yeah.
And not just Hawaiian, you know,when he was opening his places,
the entertainment, like thedancing music, it, it was very,
he wanted it to be Polynesian.
Um, and he tried to include asmany of the Polynesian cultures
authentically as he could bybringing people from those
islands who knew the song, knewthe dance, and.
(40:58):
allowed them to do their thingand, and he sort of just stood
back and, let it be a draw tohis restaurants.
Mark (41:05):
Antique just continues to evolve as this amalgam of
different cultures and, and partfantasy and part reality, and it
continues to grow like a, like asnowball rolling down a hill.
I.
Max (41:19):
Yeah.
Yeah, it does get bigger and youknow, so Trader Vic, who we
haven't talked about at thispoint, but he kind of got his
start in the late thirties and,and that is expanding, right
Don?
The beach comer on the mainlandcontinues to expand.
yeah, I mean through the fortiesand fifties it just keeps
getting bigger and bigger.
Alex (41:36):
Yeah.
A
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (41:36):
So.
Alex (41:37):
like GIS coming home from the war, you know, spent a lot
of time in Polynesia and youknow, wanted to experience that
when they came back.
So they start popping upeverywhere, like in the Midwest
and,
Max (41:48):
south Pacific, the, the book.
So it's kind of this perfectstorm of interest from the
general populace in the SouthPacific
Francis (41:55):
and there ain't nothing like a dame.
Um, but, um, the, talk to usabout the don.
Don the beach comers in thecontinental United States and
Victor Bergeron who had trade revix, who was the big competition
at Don the beach comer.
So you have three basic forcesin the tiki world, right?
You have the real Don beach,with Don the beach comer in
Hawaii.
(42:15):
You have the don the beachcomers that were stolen from him
by the mob and his ex-wife.
And you have the, the traderVix.
What's going, how do youdistinguish those three parts of
that universe?
Max (42:25):
It is a, yeah, good question.
I mean, I, I will say there werea lot of sort of other players
in there too.
Um, Steve Crane was a big one.
Steve Crane's, luau and, and afew other places.
But Don, the, Don the Beach,Gomer Chain and Trader Vic,
those ones kind of really lastedmore than most.
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20- (42:41):
Yeah.
Max (42:41):
I will say Trader Vic really, uh, probably had better
food, right?
I mean, he, he had a, he had areally excellent palate, and so
I think, yeah, the Trader Vicexperience was, was, I mean,
they were excellent cocktails
Alex (42:54):
for cocktail nerds.
You know, trader Vic reallystarted experimenting with other
things besides rum.
Yeah.
Uh, following Don's, you know,Don sort of took the planter's
punch and was like, well, maybeI'll mix rums to make this rum
more palatable.
I'll add this rum, make it alittle darker, a little
brighter.
Um.
Trader Vic sort of took whatDawn did to the Planter's Punch
(43:16):
and was like, well, maybe I'll,I'll add some gin or sherry to
this drink, you know?
Um, and, and really kind ofreinvented what Dawn had already
reinvented.
So put, he definitely put hisstamp on it and, brought a lot
to the table.
It, he wasn't just.
A copy of Don.
He, he definitely brought hisown sort of flare to the entire
(43:39):
thing, and I think that's whyDon and Vic stand out the most
historically.
Yeah.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20- (43:44):
So I, I really wanna take this back
to the, the original Don.
And the story is amazing and thefilm is amazing and you, you get
to a lot of things that, that wesimply don't have time to talk
about here.
But one of his very firstmarketing moments and it, it's
when you realize that, thatDon's gonna change the world,
(44:05):
right, is when he said.
Two zombie limit.
No one can have more than twozombies, right?
And everybody's like, well, Ican have three zombies.
Why can't I have three zombies?
I'm a, I'm a man, aren't I?
I can, I can have three zombies.
You can't tell me.
Uh, it's just genius.
Yeah, I was genius.
Max (44:22):
One of, one of the things we learned during this film is
that Don was an absolute masterof these kind of marketing
gimmicks.
Right.
And, and the.
The limit too on the zombie ismaybe the most well-known
example of that, but yeah.
Well, to be fair, the originalzombie had four ounces of rum in
it, so more than two might'vebeen a bad idea anyway, but you
(44:44):
know, that got so many people togo into the bar and, and take
that as a challenge.
Right, right.
And, and I think that thatmarketing gimmick combined with
the fact that it was a gooddrink, and then you had all
these kind of like Hollywoodpeople sort of there drinking
those and endorsing it in thatway.
I mean, it just took off.
You know?
He also, he also, uh, when hewas in Hawaii, he had this, um,
(45:08):
restaurant in the tree house.
So in the middle of theinternational marketplace, which
he helped build, they had thisrestaurant that was the smallest
restaurant in the world capacityof two.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-2 (45:18):
Most exclusive restaurant in the
world.
Right.
That's awesome.
Max (45:21):
restaurant in the world.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20-2 (45:22):
I love it.
I love it.
Max (45:24):
And so people would go up there.
I mean, most of the people whowent up there were people who
were gonna write about it.
Yeah.
Right.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (45:31):
Sure.
Max (45:31):
and then people read an article and they make their way
out there and, and enjoy all theother spaces.
Right.
So
squadcaster-ed0d_2_05-20- (45:37):
yeah.
Alex (45:37):
Seems like brilliant marketing for a lot of people.
The magic number is three, butfor Don it was two.
You know, you, you limit it totwo and you're gonna get a lot
of press.
Yeah.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (45:47):
Well, you know, I think one of the
reasons that this film is soimportant is, the desert of the
cocktail world.
I mean, cocktails died in theeighties.
They died from the lateseventies to the eighties when
everybody gave up.
It was rebelling against yourfather's brown drinks and
martinis and the mad men culturethat was passe, that was
unfashionable.
And, but the last real cocktailmovement created.
(46:10):
Was the tiki movement.
Yep.
And then that came to an end,and then we had that pause.
And then Del Degra resurrectedthe, the current golden age of
the cocktail, which is thegolden age of the cocktail.
so this is a really importantstory to, to tell, and it's a
story of resurrection and Ithink you guys did a fantastic
job.
So, gentlemen, I, I was gonnasave this until, mine and
(46:31):
Francis' wrap up, but I, but I,but I want you to be here so I
can share it with you.
So.
Francis and I met in 1984 in acollege dormitory, and the first
thing Francis saw when he walkedinto my dorm room was the tiki
bar that I had pulled up out thebamboo and wrought iron tiki bar
(46:52):
that I had pulled out of myparents' basement and brought to
my college dormitory in 1984.
Yeah, I went, I went to collegewith John Belushi right over
here, but it was great.
It was great.
Max (47:05):
Wow.
What a wonderful dorm room.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-20 (47:08):
Uh, it was, it was a cool place.
I had one of my roommates, had abad back and slept on the floor,
so he took his bed out of theroom and replaced it with the
tiki bar.
Alex (47:17):
Wow.
Oh man, that's amazing.
That's awesome.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05-2 (47:20):
It's very important to our story.
You guys are fantastic.
Everyone should go see the film,what's called the Dawn of Tiki,
the mostly true story of Don theBeach Comer.
You guys are wonderful and thankyou for this contribution to
cocktail.
Mark (47:31):
Thank you gentlemen.
We look forward to seeing youhere in New Jersey and we will
work on setting up a screeninghere, in New Brunswick with you.
Max (47:37):
Fantastic.
We love it.
Yeah.
Looking forward to it.
the-restaurant-guys_3_ (47:40):
Alright, thanks for everything guys.
We'll be right back.
You're listening to theRestaurant Guys.
Restaurant guys podcast.com.
the-restaurant-guys_3_05- (48:01):
Well, that was a ton of fun.
Yeah, that was great.
The movie, by the way, the movieI enjoyed.
A lot.
I mean, I really enjoyed thefilm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
It was, it was, it was great.
It was informative.
I learned a ton of stuff.
I didn know, I learned, Ithought I knew a lot about Tiki.
Yeah.
And also I thought I knew whatwas bullshit and what was real,
and I was wrong about a littlebit of that.
Very informative, super fun.
(48:21):
And that animatronic Don Beachwas, was terrific.
Fantastic.
So, uh, we need to talk a littlebit about 1984 again, just, just
for a moment.
The novel.
No, no, not the novel.
Oh.
When we met in college, like Isaid, I had this tiki bar Oh, oh
yeah.
With the wrought iron, chairsand bamboo.
Wr You were John Belushi incollege.
I don't know if anybody knew,but you, you were John, be.
(48:43):
It was, but when we talk about.
The bullshit tiki.
That's what we're talking about.
That's it.
We're talking about that momentin our lives was exactly, that
was the bullshit.
Tiki was the, was the fakedrinks, but let's be fair,
everyone had forgotten by 1984.
Mm-hmm.
Every Don Beach died that year.
Right.
And everyone had forgottenabout.
(49:05):
The, the Tiki cocktail.
Mm-hmm.
And, and Dale DeGraff was nineyears away.
well, we were making fakepunches and fake tiki drinks and
we were doing that for parties.
And it was fakey fake.
Fake fake.
You mean fakey fake?
You mean like the blue whale?
The blue whale.
That's exactly that.
We made in a.
Garbage can with Country TimeLemonade that came way later in
1986.
(49:25):
Country Time Lemonade, bluecarousel, and who knows what
else was in that damn drink.
Yeah.
But it was, uh, best drunk outof a red solo cup as I recall.
Um, but no, but to be fair,let's.
Recognize this, the allure ofTiki that just goes to show you
we wanted that.
I mean, it is cool.
We have friends who have tikibars in their backyard.
Mm-hmm.
And they don't necessarily serveauthentic multi rum tiki drinks,
(49:49):
but in the summertime they putin a Hawaiian shirt, they sit in
the backyard, they have somepeople over.
And what's cool about this is weare now creating everything that
it once was, but even as ashadow of its former self.
Yeah.
You know, it's like sex andpizza, even mediocre.
It's pretty good than none.
But those, those of you whoaren't our age, you don't
remember the fake Polynesianrestaurant of the seventies
(50:09):
You'd sit in your little tikihut with the stuffed parrot and
have the poo poo platter and itwas a whole cultural.
Movement.
It was a movement in the wrongdirection, but it was a
movement.
Well, it was just that thequality of what they delivered
was crap, you know?
Yes.
And, but the quality of what yougot in a lot of bars back then
was crap.
For sure.
And it's great to see it comeback and it's super fun and
everybody should just relax.
(50:29):
And if you don't get a tikidrink.
Exactly right.
That's okay.
If you wanna get it, you can buyJeff Berry's.
Books.
there are lots of great recipesout.
Yeah, lots stuff out there thatare real and have real
ingredients and are delicious.
So we're gonna bring therecording of this podcast to a
close and oddly enough.
We're gonna go to a partytonight with, uh, Jeff Berry in
New York City.
We're gonna go to a tiki party,so we're gonna go, we're gonna
live the dream.
(50:49):
I'm Francis Shot.
And I'm Mark Pascal.
You're the restaurant guys.
You can always find outmore@restaurantguyspodcast.com.
Aloha.
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