I will admit that prior to planning a trip to New Orleans, I didn’t know much about Beachbum Berry but after reading a little it seems I should give him a HUGE “THANK YOU” for having a big hand bringing Tiki back.

Head over to his site to learn more about him, and I urge you to read about his mission to find Don the Beachcomber’s original Zombie recipe.

But I’m here today to talk about a visit to his bar/restaurant, Latitude 29 in New Orleans, LA…

I’ll start with the decor which was fantastic and amazing! It was a very clean, crisp bamboo build with a good number of interesting tikis. My favorites, of course, were the duel tiki drummer replicas from Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room (I only have 1). The way they utilized different bamboo and paneling really gave me some good ideas for my bar. The other item that really stood out was the map of tikis behind the bar, full with limited edition tiki mugs. And, finally, my wife and I were trying to figure out how to hijack one of the Tahitian fish trap lanterns to repurpose as a Trader Jay’s centerpiece.

  

The decor is all well and good, but most people go to a tiki bar for drinks and Latitude 29 does NOT disappoint. I started with the drink that Berry spent 20 years searching for the original recipe… Don the Beachcomber’s Zombie (seriously, read about his hunt here).

It tasted just like I feel like it should… strong without hurting, mixed very well and the final secret ingredient (cinnamon syrup) really shined.

My wife ordered a Paniolo which was also very delightful. It has Macadamia Nut liquor in it which is a Trader Jay’s house favorite.

For our second round I went with the Banshee… it was delish with the coconut, banana, lime and, of course, rum (plus I really needed a Latitude 29 coconut mug for my bar). My wife went old school with a Navy Grog. She is finding that she is a Grog fan and this didn’t let her down (she especially enjoyed the cone ice and Union Jack).

Which brings me to maybe my favorite thing about Latitude 29… the garnish station! They take garnishing their drinks to a whole new level! All their signature drinks have at least 1 special garnish, and many have more. Everything from their signature stirrer to plastic snakes, mermaids and monkeys. A drink arriving is an event and I loved watching all the different ones go by. (Side note: thank you to our waitress who let me raid the garnish station!)

 

A quick word about the food… Obviously the drinks are the star, but the food should never be a side thought here, it was exceptional! We started with Taro Chips (order them just for the siracha mayo alone) and Rumaki. I’m not a big chicken liver guy but let’s say that the Rumaki were so good that my wife had a second order as her dinner. I went with the Hawaiian Cuban Sandwich and it was also fantastic. I enjoyed the Hawaiian pulled pork mixed into a traditional Cuban… very flavorful and a good portion.

Finally, as if all this wasn’t enough, our appitizers were brought to the table by none other than Mrs. Beachbum! She was very nice to take a few minutes out of her evening to talk about my Tweeting the restaurant earlier, discuss the decor (and my tiki bar-work-in-progress) and Berry’s Zombie recipe mission. It was very much a pleasure meeting her!

So, there ya go, the overarching theme is that if you are in New Orleans, you MUST make Latitude 29 a stop! The location is great… it’s not in the middle of Boubon Street madness but also close to everything. Stop in for a Zombie… Without the Beachbum we would still all be drinking imitations!