Smuggler’s Cove: Three Dots and a Dash

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Living the tiki dream: Martin and Rebecca Cate at Smuggler’s Cove. (Photo courtesy of Smuggler’s Cove) (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)

Tropical rum-based cocktails may have fallen out of fashion since the Don the Beachcomber days of the 1930s and ’40s. But the owner of Smuggler’s Cove, Martin Cate, is on a quest to restore tiki drinks to their former glory. At his Bay Area oasis, Cate’s menu boasts 105 meticulously crafted cocktails that represent the range and regionality of rum’s 300-year-old history. Contrary to our misconception that these day-glo punch bowls of sugary instant flavor mix and Bacardi 151 could be anything but offensive to the tiki gods, the Caribbean-inspired cocktail recipes of old were balanced. In fact, they were full of nuance and never overly sweet.

But as hotspots like The Beachcomber, Trader Vic’s and Tiki-Ti fell out of favor, the 13-ingredient classics gave way to synthetic coconuts, artificial colors and syrups. At his bar, Cate pays tribute to Donn Beach with a twist on the tiki legend’s classic Three Dots and a Dash. The name means “victory” in Morse code. The original World War II version of the drink calls for garnishing your glass with three maraschino cherries — the “dots” – and a rectangular wedge of pineapple — the “dash.”  For his dash, Cate opts for a pineapple frond over a wedge.

Find this recipe and many more in Cate’s new book, “Smuggler’s Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki.”

THREE DOTS AND A DASH

Using a technique called “flash blending,” Cate pulses his mixture with cracked ice for 3-5 seconds to quickly chill the drink.

Ingredients
½ oz fresh lime juice
½ oz fresh orange juice
½ oz Smuggler’s Cove honey syrup (recipe follows)
¼ oz John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum
¼ oz St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram
1½ ozs rhum agricole vieux (Duquesne Élevé Sous Bois or J.M Gold)
½ oz blended aged rum (Appleton Estate Reserve or Real McCoy 5-Year)
1 dash Angostura bitters
12 ozs crushed ice
A footed pilsner glass

Instructions

Prepare the garnish: Spear 3 maraschino cherries and a pineapple chunk using a cocktail pick. Or you can skip the pineapple chunk and include a pineapple frond in your glass instead (pictured above).

Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Fill the shaker with 12 ounces crushed ice and flash blend. Pour the contents into a footed pilsner glass. Add the garnish.


SMUGGLER’S COVE HONEY SYRUP

Yield: Makes 3 cups or 24 ounces

Ingredients
1½ cups honey
1½ cups water

Instructions

Heat 1½ cups of honey in a saucepan over medium heat until runny and not viscous, nearly to a boil but not quite. Next, add 1½ cups of water to the hot honey and whisk together. Remove immediately from heat and let cool.

To store: Transfer the honey syrup to a lidded bottle or another sealable container and store in the refrigerator. The syrup will keep, refrigerated, for several weeks.

All photos courtesy of Smuggler’s Cove