This Rum Cocktail Is South Bay’s Strongest Drink
A lot of places claim to have “signature drinks” but what really makes one is when people go there specifically to get that particular cocktail. It’s an attraction, not just a menu item. Old Tony’s in Redondo Beach, CA, certainly has one and it’s the potent Fire Chief. I know; I’ve had quite a few of them.
By Kevin Wilkerson, Editor & Publisher, PubClub.com
When restaurants and bars open, or put out a new menu, they like to claim thier mixologist has created craft “signature” drinks.
But they are not true signature drinks because they don’t have any history with the place. A signature drink is something that is associated with a bar that makes it a destination.
People go in for it, much in the way they go to a particular restaurant for, say, its sensational pizza, chowder or its burgers.
In Redondo Beach, CA, there is a place that has a true signature cocktail. It’s a stuck-in-time restaurant on the pier called Old Tonys, and the drink is the Fire Chief.
A kind of Mai Tai on steroids – it’s topped with 151 rum – the Fire Chief makes Old Tony’s a destination. Especially at its upstairs bar known as the Crow’s Nest.
This is the South Bay’s strongest drink, so strong that having one will make you happy, two will make you chatty and three will have you trying to make friends with anyone within a 10-mile radius of the place.
It’s a conversational cocktail, one that loosens the lips and makes you want to start conversations with everyone else in the bar.
They should give this to people who suffer from depression; they would be giddy and laughing in no time.
Plus, you get to keep the glass. As a result, every household and apartment in the South Bay has dozens of Old Tony’s glasses.
The fact that a classic cocktail is served in such as classic place makes it all that much better.
Walking into Old Tony’s is like walking into a Magnum p.i. episode. The bartenders are dressed in classic Aloha Hawaiian shirts, there are small round tables surrounded by classic booth-like chairs and what PubClub.com calls the “Pizza Hut” candle holders, you know, those red ones.
After sunset there’s a guy with a guitar and that’s when things calm down a bit, for Old Tony’s reaches its peak as the sun reaches its settling point in the sea.
The Fire Chief is indeed a signature cocktail and come to think of it, Old Tony’s is the signature bar on the Redondo Beach Pier.
Old Tony’s Address: 210 Fisherman’s Wharf, Redondo Beach, CA
Kevin Wilkerson is the founder of PubClub.com, an award-winning journalist and former South Bay resident who spent years living in Hermosa Beach and covering its nightlife scene. He has covered destinations, events and entertainment for more than two decades and received an Associated Press award for investigative journalism while working as a newspaper reporter.
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• A Look At The Evolution Of The Hermosa Beach Pier
• PubClub Classics: Manhattan Beach 6-Man Historical Photos
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