After breaking into the business of booze with Cabo Wabo tequila, rockstar Sammy Hagar set his sights on a new spirit: rum. To help promote his brand, Sammy’s Beach Bar Rum, he appeared on an episode of “American Restoration.”
On this History Channel reality show, Rick Dale and his Las Vegas shop fix up all sorts of vintage items — classic Coke machines, slot machines, neon signs, etc. — to make them look new again. Since I’m a fan of retro stuff (and mindless reality TV) we tune in fairly regularly.
For “Right Here, Rum Now,” which first aired September 26, 2012, Rick’s project for the former Van Halen rocker was to repurpose an old refrigerator into a custom rum dispenser — a “Rumerator,” as they called it. Since Sammy’s rum is distilled on Maui and made from local sugarcane, he wanted the final product to reflect Hawaii and the brand’s tropical lifestyle image. Rick talked over some ideas with Dave, who seemed to be just the right guy for the job (note the tiki tattoo).
The Rumerator has some hot rod style to it, with the shiny black top and neon sign. Glasses are placed on a mini surfboard mounted to the front, and the fin cleverly acts as a handle to open the door. A couple nitrogen tanks in the back keep the contents on tap chilled.
Sammy owns a home on the island, and you can tell he’s also into tikis from browsing his web site, where he can be seen with a tiki surfboard at the end of his holiday message video.
These five Ku tap handles poured simultaneously with one pull to “get the liquor quicker.” (They brought to mind the Enchanted Tiki Room beer tap handles at Trader Sam’s and the tiki beer tap I spotted at Sea World awhile back.)
In addition to those taps, there were also two more tikis worked into the design underneath, along with bamboo, sugarcane and a black and white graphic leaf-like pattern echoed from the rum label.
According to the show, The Rumerator was installed for the opening of Sammy’s Rockin’ Island Bar & Grill in Roseville, CA, outside of Sacramento. You can catch this episode again on the History Channel on Sunday, January 20, 11:30 p.m./10:30c.
(Image by Tiki Farm)
Crazy Al and his band Ape performed at a launch party for Sammy’s Beach Bar Rum, and this spawned a collaboration on a new tiki mug, “Sam Ku,” which is bright red in honor of Sammy’s nickname “The Red Rocker.” (The tiki is even holding a “Sammy Hagar” special edition Gibson Explorer guitar.) Tiki Farm‘s share of the 250 mugs sold out in minutes. However, Crazy Al is offering 25 custom-glazed mugs on eBay. Sign up for his mailing list to get the scoop on that.
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Serendipity on the web. Gotta love it!
I just watched this episode of American Restauration and wanted to share a comment on the awesomeness of having rum on tap with The Rumerator”. I came across your site and found it had the best explanation.
While on your site I visited your review of Lani Kai and it reminded me of many fun nights spent in our own “Trader Vic’s” down the road from Marbella, in Puerto Banús. A few years ago that went and became “Polynesian’s”. You have inspired me to go visit it and support our local tiki bar!
If you’re ever in this neck of the woods, do visit and share your expert opinion!
(I include their website below for reference, hanging my head in shame for not having been there myself yet.)
Mahalo, Mike! Glad you enjoyed the post and the show. Thanks for the pointing out Polynesian’s — I’ll definitely have to get there someday! The Trader Vic’s in Los Angeles just closed so we’re reminded again to support our tiki bars.