Michael Lombardozzi is a Native New Yorker and longtime bartender. Michael would visit Hawaii with an ex, and tasted some of the freshest pineapples, guavas, lavender, macadamia nuts, which later became the influence to open a sandwich menu based on the food of Hawaii, that then became the reason to get into tiki. With a love of the cocktail craft, Michael decided to go on his own and venture into the Tiki realm. Having being self-taught, Michael took his interest to the world of rum. Tiki was a good direction to go in Bushwich for at that time there was no one doing it and if they were, it wasn’t being done with love!
In 2016 he opened Dromedary Urban Tiki Bar to provide a laid back, nontraditional tiki bar offering high quality, well-crafted cocktails at a moderate price.
I have grown to understand the differences between region and agriculture and the effect they have on cane, in the past 2 years I’ve been a supporter of St. Lucia distillery and now Santa Teresa in Venezuela. I find ways to incorporate the rum into cocktails in order to get guests to be more excited about rum. It works. In 2015 i was thinking of different bar concepts and realized that rum is so versatile and had a wider range of flavor profile then other spirits. It was a lot of fun to play with the styles and blending techniques to get a most out of the spirit.
Rum keeps popping up from all over the world, making it more and more of a challenge to incorporate into cocktails, in a good way. So the more they make, the more interesting the cocktails will be.
Favorite cocktail right now is at The Polynesian, Via Con Tiki. I believe its roots are a painkiller, with a blend of cayenne and coconut and ginger, that I’ve attempted to replicate for my own personal consumption, but that madman Brian Miller, has too many secrets. LOL
I think rum will make a bigger footprint in the industry then it already is. The cost and production are much more affordable and the versatility makes it more complimentary to mixing. Though i believe sugar cane will become scarce with the current change of weather conditions, but I’m not a meteorologist.
I read Metallica is making whisky and the technique is to vibrate the barrel with sonic aging…these types of bizarre methods can definitely help make spirits in general more interesting to purchase at a higher cost.
No one really mentored me, but i do have some favorite influencers in the industry, though they don’t know nor care.
So Tiki is trending right now, like out of control. Bars open and serve a frozen piña colada and put up Asian facades and they label themselves as “tiki”. That’s getting to me. I think there is more of a craft, a dedication and a respect that goes into calling yourself a tiki bar. Put a little effort into it and show us why you call yourself that.
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