The Bamboo Club is experiencing a wonderful evolution with its newly launched rum dinner series. While tiki bars tend to lean toward their cocktail menus and pan-Pacific offerings, rarely do they allow their teams to use their connections to create spirit dinners.
Chef Joseph Herrera has been building five-course menus around featured rums. And with it, giving guests a new reason to settle in at Bamboo while showcasing a side of the kitchen beyond its regular offerings.
“It’s really drawn in people who aren’t familiar with Bamboo,” said owner Kevin Larsen. “And for those who do know us well, it gives them a reason to explore beyond the menu they’re familiar with. Throw in the fact that some of these rum brands are our strongest partnerships and the dinners just make sense.”
The dinners are also a fitting reflection of where Bamboo Club is headed under owner Kevin. Since taking over earlier this year, Kevin has made it clear that he values the character that made the space a Long Beach favorite. He’s also given his team room to introduce ideas that let it evolve—something needed for a bar that has been relatively unchanged across its seven-year existence.
A new way to experience Bamboo Club
Bamboo Club has never needed much help convincing people to drink rum. But a dinner built around the spirit gives both the bar and the kitchen a different kind of stage. Instead of choosing a cocktail and ordering from the usual menu, guests get a progression of food and drinks designed to be experienced together—sometimes literally, like when Chef Joe put a coconut rum from Flor de Caña in his ceviche for the space’s most recent rum dinner.
It’s an invitation for rum lovers to explore different expressions of an often-dismissed spirit and for diners to see what Chef Joe can do when given the freedom to build a menu for a single evening.
That opportunity feels especially significant considering Chef Joe’s place in Bamboo’s recent evolution. A mentee of the late, great Chef Arthur Gonzalez, Chef Joe helped lead the bar’s updated food menu earlier this year, bringing in lighter options and more seafood alongside Bamboo’s established favorites.
At the time, Kevin told me he wanted the kitchen to approach its food with the same care Bamboo gives its cocktails. The rum dinners carry that idea forward: The drinks remain central, but the food has plenty to say, too.
Looking back at the Bamboo Club’s most recent rum dinner with Flor de Caña
The Oct. 22 dinner featured Nicaragua’s Flor de Caña—one of the world’s most respected rum brands—and offered a clear look at how much ground Chef Joe can cover across five courses.
The evening opened with shrimp ceviche alongside a Monkey Pod, Bamboo’s cocktail made with Flor de Caña, lime, tamarind, and coconut. From there, the menu moved to a goat cheese and beet salad paired with the seven-year rum.
Photos by Brian Addison.
Pork belly with pineapple rum barbecue followed, served with the 12-year expression, before a New York strip with chimichurri arrived alongside the 18-year. The dinner closed with chocolate bread pudding paired with a cocktail featuring Flor de Caña 25—but that didn’t stop the drinks. Flor de Caña global rep and strategic partner Luis Báez not only poured everyone a tasting of the brand’s 30-year-old spirit but sent home folks with bottles.
Up next: Mount Gay on Nov. 12 with industry vet Lauren Trickett
“It’s exciting to personally bring the warmth of Barbados to Long Beach in November with rums from Mount Gay,” said National Brand Ambassador and all-around great human Lauren Trickett. “We will be exploring selections from the world’s oldest running rum distillery and doing so in one of Long Beach’s most beloved spaces. A little bit of education, some exploration, and certainly a lot of tasting.”
The lineup will include:
- Mount Gay Silver
- Mount Gay Eclipse
- Mount Gay Navy Strength
- Mount Gay XO
For the food, Chef Joe turns toward a menu with a strong Mexican influence, paired with rums from Mount Gay.
The welcome course brings together a shrimp tostada and a Lava Flow. A chicken mole flauta follows, with roasted vegetables and a rum glaze. The third course offers an al pastor taco while a churro donut with chocolate rum sauce comes in for dessert.
It’s a different menu from the Flor de Caña dinner, and that’s part of the appeal: Each featured rum gives the kitchen another starting point, while guests get a reason to come back and see where Chef Joe takes it.
The Bamboo Club is located at 3522 E. Anaheim St. in Long Beach. The next rum dinner is Thursday, Nov. 12, at 5PM. Tickets are $65 and are available through Bamboo Club’s website.
