The Best Year Ever!

On Monday, August 4th, Three Dots and a Dash will properly celebrate The Best Year Ever — our first year! We’re going to throw the tiki party of our lives:

• Paul McGee will be behind the bar serving up a menu of five brand new cocktails!
• Two new custom Tiki Farm mugs ($20 each): The Rum Barrel and The Fijian Mermaid!
• New Sea Horse swizzle sticks!
• For the first 150 people, we’ve got t-shirts and tote bags!
• For everyone else, Three Dots and a Dash temporary tattoos and sunglasses!

Special birthday cocktail menu (all $13):

• Ruby Mae’s Surfin’ Bird - Dark Bermuda Rum, Dark Jamaican Rum, Campari, Ruby Port, Pineapple, Lime, Passionfruit
• Aikau Aikau - Light Carribean Rum, Overproof Guyanese Rum, Blue Curacao, Falernum, Pineapple, Lemon
• BËSK I Ever Had - Rhum Agricole Blanc, BËSK, Pineapple, Coconut, Creme de Menthe
• Spinning in Infinity - Gin, Jamaican Rum, Light Carribean Rum, Navy Strength Jamaican Rum, Pineapple, Honey, Peach, Mint
• Tic Tac Taxi - Overproof Jamaican Rum, Coconut, Lime, Lemon, Passionfruit

Tees and totes!

Aikau Aikau

BËSK I Ever Had

Sea Horse swizzle sticks

Spinning in Infinity

Fijian Mermaid, custom mug by Tiki Farm

Aikau Aikau

BËSK I Ever Had

Rum Barrel and Fijian Mermaid, custom mugs by Tiki Farm

Rum Barrel, custom mug by Tiki Farm

Tic Tac Taxi

Here Comes The Bum!

At Three Dots and a Dash, we have a lot of folks to pay homage to. First, there is Don the Beachcomber. Then Trader Vic. Then Stephen Crane. And Martin Cate, too. But most of all, we have to give thanks to Jeff "Beachbum" Berry. Without him, so many beloved tiki drinks would be lost to history in the form of untold secret recipes and yellowed pages in ancient bartender notebooks. The most potentially devastating example of that fact is the very cocktail Paul McGee loved so much he named this very bar after: Three Dots and a Dash! How would Chicagoans survive the never ending winter of 2014 if they did not have this subterranean tropical escape? It is The Bum we can thank for these one-night vacations.

Just in time for all this snow to never melt, The Bum has come out with a new book, and lucky us! He's bringing it straight to Three Dots and a Dash. Paul got his hands on an early copy, and picked seven of his favorite recipes to serve on Sunday night (March 9th, 5pm-2am):

We've also asked Chicago's resident tikiphile, Rob Christopher (read his musings on tiki here and here, or listen here), to DJ the event. But in true island-time fashion, he'll be DJing from his barstool! Here's a little peek at the musical environment he'll be creating just for the occasion:

So mark your calendar to swizzle on down to 435 N. Clark Street this Sunday evening (5pm-2am), and tiki with Three Dots and a Dash as we host Beachbum Berry! 

HBD, DtB!

We have a patron saint, and his name is Don the Beachcomber. Our tiki bar is named after his Three Dots and a Dash cocktail, and we live by his words: What one rum can't do, three rums can.

Donn Beach's birthday was just this past weekend, and we're celebrating on Monday (2/23) and Tuesday (2/24) with a special menu of Paul McGee's beachcombin' favorites:

Happy National Crab Rangoon Day!

The purpose of this post is to discuss the history of fried wontons filled with cream cheese and crab meat with you. Cool? Cool!

Though the history of Crab Rangoon is a little murky, it is widely accepted to have been invented in 1950s United States by Polynesian-style (read: Tiki) restaurateurs. In fact, the oldest dated menu featuring Crab Rangoon was the Trader Vic's in 1956 San Francisco. Fair to say they are the best invention of the Twentieth Century? We think so!

And look what day has finally arrived: National Crab Rangoon Day! For the occasion, our Chef Doug Psaltis has created a special sampling of Crab Rangoon:

Green Curry Rangoon

Smoky & Spicy Rangoon

Blue Crab Rangoon

2 pieces of each, $11

We're open from 5pm-2am today, for all of your fried cream cheese needs.

Stephen Crane's Birthday!

Don't you love it when your birthday falls on a Friday? We bet Stephen Crane did, too. And this Friday is his birthday!

In honor of the birth of the Jet Pilot's inventor (one of our most beloved classic tiki cocktails), on Friday, February 7th, we'll be serving Crane's version of the Scorpion Bowl, from his famed faux-Polynesian restaurant The Luau in Beverly Hills.  

Scorpion Bowl 

Stephen Crane, The Luau in Beverly Hills

Gin, Gold Puerto Rican Rum, Armagnac, Lime, Orgeat

$30, serves 4-5

Sharon Tate giving Stephen Crane a birthday kiss.

"Nothing tops four on a pineapple punch!"

Fur jacket + tropical bikini = totally appropriate Chicago winter tiki wear.

Stephen Crane with his very own Scorpion Bowl.

The Luau in Beverly Hills.