The milestone cocktail was served at the Polynesian eatery at 2230 Shelter Island Drive, known for its seafood, bay views, and ultra-potent mai tais, on Monday, May 20.
With a bar full of expectant regulars looking on, a guest identified as Sean, walked in and ordered the rum-based cocktail while sitting next to Bali Hai’s two millionth mai-tai cocktail winners from 16 years prior, Amy Wyte and Ted Harris. Those two were also contending to become the three millionth mai tai drinkers at Bali Hai, which has operated since 1954.
“We rang in his order and boom, Sean was sipping on the three millionth mai tai,” noted Bali Hai’s ownership. Sean’s prize was a new Tiki mug, a $1,000 Bali Hai gift card, and exclusive membership in the restaurant’s unofficial mai-tai hall of fame.
There is an interesting tale concerning how Bali Hai created – and earned – its well-deserved reputation for being the mai tai capital of San Diego. Restaurant general manager Tommy Baumann related how Bali Hai’s “ticker,” which keeps a running tally of how many mai tai’s have been sold, originated.
Pointing out he is part of his family’s third generation owning and operating Bali Hai and Tom Ham’s Lighthouse, Baumann said his grandfather, a public accountant, was the one who got them into the restaurant business.
“He was very much a numbers person into sales trends, etc.,” said Baumann. “In the early 2000s, my older brother, another numbers person interested in menu items and drinks sold, was running Bali Hai. It was my older brother who went back to the early ’60s (tabulating mai tais sold).”
“Given that we took over the Bali Hai in 1954, my brother figured we were well into more than a million mai tais sold,” continued Baumann. “My brother installed an analog ticker, like a stock ticker, over the bar to count them (mai tais) – and it’s still there today. It reads, ‘World Famous Mai Tais’ and gives the year to date on how many have been sold.”
Baumann added, that as Bali Hai approached its two millionth mai tai sold in the spring of 2008, there was a definite “buzz” among clientele in the bar, small then accommodating only about a dozen guests, in anticipating the serving of mai tai No. 2 million. On a Sunday, Wyte and Harris ate some appetizers and shared Bali Hai’s two millionth mai tai served. Both have remained regulars who are “like family,” said Baumann.
Characterizing a mai tai as “a phenomenal drink bridging generations,” Baumann pointed out, “We have had grandmothers bringing in their grandchildren to get a mai tai for their 21st birthdays. It’s become a part of the fabric of Bali Hai. It’s a world-renowned drink.”
Baumann added that it also didn’t hurt that mai tais fit in “100%” with Bali Hai’s tropical Polynesian theme.
Given that Bali Hai’s ticker indicates patrons consume approximately 70,000 mai tais annually, Baumann calculated an ETA on when the restaurant’s four millionth trademark cocktail will be served. “Hopefully, we’re having this conversation in about 12 years,” he concluded adding, “I would be ecstatic (just) to have been in business that long (82 years).”
BALI HAI MAI TAI
½ oz Sweet and Sour Mix (or ¼ oz Lemon Juice and ¼ oz Simple Syrup).
¼ oz Orgeat.
¼ oz Triple Sec.
2½ oz Cruzan Light Rum.
2½ oz Coruba Dark Jamaican Rum.
Shake with ice.
MAI TAI’S ORIGIN
The history of the mai tai, a tropical rum-based cocktail, is disputed, but Victor Jules Bergeron, also known as Trader Vic, is generally credited with its creation. In 1944, Bergeron, a bartender at his Tiki-themed restaurant in Oakland, served the drink to two friends from Tahiti. After tasting it, one of his friends exclaimed “Mai tai-roa aé,” translating as “out of this world – the best!” Bergeron then named and created the drink. He introduced the mai tai to Hawaii and added juices to create the Royal Hawaiian mai tai, which became the islands’ unofficial drink.
