The Experience, Emeryville: Trader Vic’s Getaway

The Experience:

The water is calling you!

Meet your friends down at Emeryville Marina overlooking San Francisco Bay for Happy Hour and indulge in appetizers and exotic drinks. It’s your midweek reward. Mai Tais, happy hour prices, Wednesday through Friday 4–6 PM. Pair it with potato tostones. Trader Vic’s light bites done right! These potato tostones are crispy, golden, and dangerously easy to keep reaching for. The perfect little something to pair with a cocktail, Mai Tais and good company.

Hang on the water this weekend in Emeryville! And get that vacay feeling by doing some browsing in their gift shop.

About Trader Vic’s + the Mai Tai

Decades ahead of his time, Vic ‘The Trader’ Bergeron chose to offer Chinese dishes alongside the then-contemporary Continental cuisine, creating maybe the original fusion menu. Today, Trader Vic’s continues the tradition and still uses the Chinese Wood-fired Ovens featuring dishes from the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Asia, and Japan. And, as we all know, Trader Vic’s claims to be home to the original Mai Tai.

According to the Trader, Vic Bergeron, “In 1944, after success with several exotic rum drinks, I felt a new drink was needed. I was at the service bar in my Oakland restaurant. I took down a bottle of 17-year-old Jamaican J. Wray Nephew rum, added fresh lime, some Orange Curaçao from Holland, a dash of Rock Candy Syrup, and a dollop of French Orgeat, for its subtle flavor. A generous amount of shaved ice and vigorous shaking by hand produced the marriage I was after. Half the lime shell went in for color, I stuck in a branch of fresh mint, and gave two of them to Ham and Carrie Guild, friends from Tahiti, who were there that night. Carrie took one sip and said, “Mai Tai – Roa Ae” In Tahitian means “Out of this World- The Best”. Well, that was that, I named the drink ‘Mai Tai.’”

Hours: Wednesday-Sunday: