Category Archives: Bar & Restaurant Reviews

The Terrace at Trump Tower Chicago Turns Polynesian

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Bar & Restaurant Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

The Tasting Table Chicago newsletter tipped us off that The Terrace at the Trump hotel in Chicago was featuring Polynesian-themed food and drinks this summer. We were in the Windy City for Memorial Day weekend, so I insisted we check it out.

This proved to be a bit more difficult than I thought it would be with all the wacky weather we had. The first night we tried to go, The Terrace was closed because high winds were knocking glasses right off the tables!

But when we did make it up to the sixteenth floor (next to restaurant Sixteen), I was absolutely blown away by the view. You could walk right up to the glass divider, with the Wrigley Building and Tribune Tower front and center, and the river below.

The hostess led me, Mr. Baseball and his brother and sis-in-law to this spacious, freestanding booth. We thought it was pretty neat until we noticed that it was already inhabited…by about a dozen big spiders that had spun their webs between the bamboo.

Generally speaking, tiki drinks are not cheap—and if they are you can bet you won’t be getting something made with quality rum or fresh juices. But throw in a swank setting with a killer view and the prices can get pretty outrageous. (Expense accounts definitely recommended here.)

The summer cocktail menu features eight “Divine Nectars” and we tried half of them. The best of the bunch was the Motu-Ahe ($19), made with Cruzan light rum, dark rum, papaya, mango and guava juice. The other two were good but I wasn’t as wowed by the Coconut Castaway ($23)—the bar was out of coconuts so this concoction of Ciroc coconut vodka, pineapple juice and Ketel One vanilla was served in a melon instead—or the The Lagoon ($18), composed of light and dark rums, blue curacao, grenadine, pineapple, orange and lime juice.

The Terrace is open until 12:30 a.m., but the kitchen closes earlier. Mr. Baseball went for the marinated beef and pineapple skewers with Thai peanut sauce (they were tasty, but twenty bucks, really?). Also on the menu were seafood platters, sushi, curries and other global eats. I can’t resist a whimsical dessert, so I got the Mai Tai Push Pop ($13) with Mai Tai sorbet, Myers’s rum and guava gelée. It was just like the push pops I remember from being a kid, except alcoholic (and expensive).

Us ladies decided to close out the night with the Tahitian Traveler ($34), served in dramatic fashion with wisps of dry ice materializing from the hollowed out pineapple. I never would have guessed at all the liquor they loaded in it: Belvedere vodka, Beefeeater 24, 10 Cane, Cruzan rum and Amaretto.

The official Trump web site steers away from the “T” word (instead saying the theme is “Polynesian Chic”) but I did spot some tiki masks around the bar. The prices might still be causing me sticker shock, but the view is worth a million bucks (or two, just ask Patrick Kane).

The Terrace at Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago
401 North Wabash Ave., Sixteenth floor
Chicago, IL 60611
312-644-0900

The Terrace at Trump on Urbanspoon_)

Chef Shangri-La – North Riverside, IL

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Bar & Restaurant Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

A few months ago, Mr. Baseball and I had the pleasure of visiting Chef Shangri-La, a Chinese restaurant in North Riverside in the western suburbs of Chicago. It was opened in 1976 by Paul Fong, a chef from a restaurant called Shangri-La (hence the name) who had also worked at the original Don the Beachcomber and Mai-Kai before that.

Mr. Baseball wanted to know how a Chinese restaurant could be tiki, so I explained that when Donn Beach opened his first Polynesian-themed restaurant in the 1930s, his chef was Chinese. Cantonese cuisine seemed “exotic” enough for the time and it became popular with tiki spots. Likewise, Chinese restaurants around the country embraced the trend by adding tropical drinks to their menus.

The decor is kind of eclectic, with Chinese touches mingling with Christmas lights and tiki masks, but most impressive are the Orchids of Hawaii lanterns and large carved Witco tikis. According to Tiki Modern, the restaurant acquired the Witco pieces not long before the iconic furniture company shut down. (This was after the mid-century heyday of tiki, after all.)

It just happened to be the third Saturday of the month, when the restaurant hosts an event called “An Evening in Shangri-La” with live bands and a free tiki-themed raffle. We were lucky enough to win a neat Exotica 2003 poster (now up in my tiki room) and we thoroughly enjoyed the sounds of The Western Casuals, especially their cover of “Folsom Prison Blues.”

I love crab rangoon, but Mr. Baseball doesn’t like seafood so we started off with an order of potstickers ($5.50). These suckers were huge!

And it was a cold November night (I know, I’m trying to catch up) so Mr. Baseball warmed up with a bowl of wontwon soup ($5.25).

I was quite pleased when the “Volcano Beef” ($13.95) arrived at our table and it was ON FIRE. It wasn’t as pyrotechnic as the Flaming Ambrosia at Kowloon in Boston, but still a nice touch.

Fortune cookies and almond cookies come with the bill. I don’t think either of our fortunes were very exciting since I didn’t think to hold on to them. (As if I wouldn’t have lost them by the time I finally got to posting this.)

What also makes Chef Shangri-La stand out is that they serve their own original cocktails in addition to classic tiki drinks like the Fogcutter, Navy Grog, Scorpion and Mai Tai. For the first round, I went for their signature Dr. Fong (seen in the pic at the beginning of the post) but I preferred the Port of Love. After dinner, we went to the bustling bar area where there’s a few booths and a circular bar capped off with a thatched roof.

I thought the drinks were pretty good for the price ($6.50 for small, $9.50 for large) and we had a ton of leftover food. It’s quite a trek from the north ‘burbs, but I’m looking forward to getting back to Chef Shangri-La again when I have the chance.

Chef Shangri-La
7930 W. 26th St.
North Riverside, IL 60546
708-442-7080

Chef Shangri-La on Urbanspoon

Sandbar Sports Grill Has a Tiki But It’s Not a Tiki Bar

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Bar & Restaurant Reviews and tagged with , ,

While we were in Florida, we visited some of the old haunts from Mr. Baseball’s time at the University of Miami. Coconut Grove was chock full of bars catering to the co-ed crowd, including the Sandbar Sports Grill.

By the light of the neon beer signs, I spotted a tiki—but one tiki and some surfboards does not a tiki bar make. This distinction can be tricky sometimes. People visiting the Tiki-Ti for the first time might not be able to tell just by the look of it that it’s one of the best tiki bars. (Though as soon as they tried a Ray’s Mistake I think that would be apparent.)

But we were looking for a place to watch “The U” football game against Florida State, and not a tiki bar, so Sandbar and all its giant TV screens fit the bill perfectly.

I should have followed Mr. Baseball’s lead and gotten beer, but I decided to adopt some school spirit and ordered the Hurricane. (Miami Hurricanes, get it?) They had them organized by different “categories” and I can only imagine how heinous the Category 5 must be with all its 151. (Surely not Lemon Hart…)