When it came time to develop a spooky cocktail menu for the Bamboo Club's month-long Halloween pop-up event, Tremble Club beverage director and longtime horror fan Dustin Rodriguez knew exactly what to do. The Long Beach tiki bar, one of the best in southern california – is inspired by classic cocktails with some spooky tweaks, some with bony plastic skeleton arms or mini pumpkins sticking out of the rims of the glasses, others with bat toothpicks or gummy eyeballs.
One of Rodriguez's most popular concoctions is The Fall of Romulus, which pays homage to the most recent “Alien” film, as well as the peach-and-mint icon of tiki legend Donn Beach: The Fall of the Missionary.
“The Missionary's Downfall is a really fresh and bright cocktail — it's classic tiki,” Rodriguez said. “However, it's usually tiki with a lower alcohol content, which is a little strange since most of them are pretty drunk. I can’t have those low ABV drinks here at Bamboo Club, so I bumped it up a little bit.”
Add additional rum to the mix of fresh mint, peach schnapps and pineapple, then finish with a bloody float made of fresh raspberry, “which keeps it really nice and tart without getting too sweet,” Rodriguez said. Although dressed up for the season with that red raspberry “blood” and garnishes, the Fall of Romulus is bright and fruity, making it a perfect year-round cocktail without the addition of its Halloween trimmings.
This is also a recipe that requires minimal appliances beyond the essentials for the cocktail: you can use a jigger to measure the liquids and honey, a metal shaker to prepare both the honey syrup and the drink, and any type of blender to prepare the raspberry syrup. , whether immersion, countertop or food processor.
