BevX 2024: The Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar Make Tiki Cocktail Magic
The Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar in the Fairmont San Francisco hotel, which first opened its doors in 1945, has long been a Tiki institution and immersive experience. Tables surround a large central “lagoon,” once the hotel’s indoor swimming pool, while tropical rain, thunder and lightning storms occasionally blow through and a band plays from a floating boat.
The hotel recently decided it was time for a major drink menu overhaul for Tonga Room, a BevX 2024 winner for Innovative Independent. In 2023 it enlisted the beverage consultancy Liquid Kitchen to spearhead the effort.
While upgrading the beverage menu, it was important to preserve the theme and keep the original structure of the drinks, “adding signature riffs on them with ingredients like our house-made orgeat syrup and Tonga Room’s orange Curaçao blend,” says Kathy Casey, president, Kathy Casey Food Studios ─ Liquid Kitchen.
A noteworthy enhancement to the beverage menu includes a description under each of the classic Tiki drinks describing the history of the cocktail. “We also added a signature section to the cocktail menu with inspired Tiki cocktails created exclusively for the concept,” says Casey.
Having an alcohol-free section to the menu was also important to include, ensuring that families with children can still come and enjoy The Tonga Room. “We also wanted these to be really special,” Casey notes.
Eye-catching yet easy drinks
Casey’s team focused on creating drinks that the bar team could prepare quickly and easily while delivering Instagram-worthy presentations and exceptional taste — encouraging guests to order more than one.
To further enhance the guest experience, they introduced cost-effective and creative drink options to replace the “have your drink in a pineapple” upgrade, which had been implemented years prior but is extremely time consuming in today’s labor market.
For instance, the riffs on Tiki classic drinks can be topped with the bar’s hot pink 151 dragon fruit float, “which is a fun upsell and so visually vibrant and appealing,” Casey notes. “The newly added Colada is also available in a golden Tiki glass that guests can purchase and take home as a souvenir.”
The program implemented a cocktail kitchen that prepares all menu drink batches and garnishes, as well as a week-long intensive front and back-of-house training covering everything from sales techniques to the basics of bartending, batching protocols and bar organization.
Casey also developed detailed training resources for each bar, including precision cocktail recipes with presentation photos, prep manuals and operational tools.
Popular and profitable
The new cocktails have been embraced enthusiastically by both Tonga Room team members and guests. Profitability has improved as well: Menu costing fell from the 30% range to an average drink cost of 14.5%, while still serving spirit-forward and delicious cocktail profiles, Casey says.
The “Hand-Shaken Colada,” priced at $20 and made with Plantation pineapple rum, Bacardi Superior rum, Giffard pineapple liqueur, cream of coconut, fresh lime, pineapple and orange juices, topped with a Cruzan black strap rum, emerged as the standout star of the new menu. The Fairmont San Francisco sold 11,566 Coladas from November 2023 to July 2024, says Sarah Sims, the hotel’s director of food and beverage, generating about $255,000 in revenue.
What’s more, the average check increased from $55.18 in the same period last year to $59.18 this year. “Even with San Francisco being a little sleepier right now, we still welcome an average of 550 covers a night,” says Sims.
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