Some people like to quietly sip a tiki bar classic like a mai tai in a cozy corner of the Boo Loo Lounge – others, though, go all in and feel skulls and a flaming pineapple filled with rum are just what they need before heading into the theater to watch a movie.
There are bars – good bars, fun bars – that serve you some alcohol in a glass.
Then there are tiki bars, where you can order a rum-filled pineapple with flames coming out of the top.
“It’s exotic escapism,” said Bryonna Johnston, the general manager of Orinda’s Boo Loo Lounge – which is hidden in plain sight at the front of the Orinda Theatre. The sign, which only went up recently, doesn’t jump out, and though the name “Boo Loo” comes from a classic tiki drink, it doesn’t quite have the ring of Trader Vic’s or Forbidden Island, two famed East Bay tiki bars.
But what the Boo Loo Lounge does have going for it is a direct connection to another kind of escapism: movies.
“The concept works well with the theater,” said Johnston – and in fact, the Boo Loo Lounge’s new menu is like a movie script.
“Act One,” said Johnston, “is full of the classics.” That means mai tai’s, zombies, painkillers and other rum-based drinks that fit with the concept that Hollywood bartender Don the Beachcomber came up with way back in 1934.
The idea, during the dark days of the Depression, was to bring the magic of the South Pacific into a bar, and since rum was the sailor’s choice, rum became the basis of the tiki drink list. Not long after, Jules “Vic” Bergeron opened Trader Vic’s in the East Bay and invented the mai tai – which remains a staple of bars everywhere.
The menu’s second act features more inventions, a variety of staff creations including a daitoryo, which is a tiki take on a martini.
But Johnston knows that not everyone likes rum, so “Act III features rum-less tiki drinks such as the Curse of the Ruby Skull, a whiskey-based concoction, and the Colonizer’s Downfall, which uses tequila as a starting point, (And yes the names are part of the escapist fun.)
Actually, tequila isn’t that different from rum in terms of its flavor profile, and Johnston sees the mai tai and margarita as sharing some basic bartending concepts.
“They follow the same formula,” she said. “They have the same balance.”
And you can find good-sipping rum just as you can with tequila – so Johnston recommends El Dorado 15 for those who want to give a smooth, aged rum a try. In fact, she maintained that “rum is the champion of smooth-sipping alcohol.”
One reason is that rum is made from a variety of sugar-based plants, starting with sugar cane but also including sugar cane syrup and molasses. And of course, the Boo Loo Lounge has plenty of varieties of rum to choose from.
But there’s more to the tiki vibe than rum-based drinks.
Somehow even those classics don’t taste quite the same if they’re served in a brightly lit bar with up-to-date hip-hop in the background. No, a tiki bar needs to be dark and filled with South Pacific tchotchkes that recall a simpler time.
“The atmosphere is important,” said Johnston. “It has to be relaxing.”
And the cozy Boo Loo Lounge has that feel.
What used to be the Cine Cuvee was transformed early in 2024 using items owner Derek Zemrak had collected over the years – and stepping into the dark interior out of the bright September sunshine is definitely stepping into a different world.
Some people, though, have had trouble finding that alternate reality because part of the original concept was making the Boo Loo Lounge seem like a Depression-era speakeasy as well – you had to be in the know to find it.
But more visible signs have gone up, and more and more visitors to Theatre Square are finding their way inside. (And Johnston wants to make sure moviegoers know they can take their tiki drinks into the theater.)
Once inside, the tiki bar vibe is inescapable – though Johnston makes it clear that just because there might be some fruit in a drink, or an umbrella on top, the too-sweet category is studiously avoided.
“We make very dry tiki drinks,” she said, “not too sweet.”
But that doesn’t mean there’s no show. “The drinks have such a cool presentation,” she said. “We like making them look good.”
And in the case of the Boo Loo for Two, they like setting them on fire.
