Smuggler's Cove: 400 Years of Rum in a Shipwreck

650 Gough Street. Not tiki in the plastic-flamingo sense. Tiki as serious academic discipline — what happens when a bartender spends twenty years researching rum and opens a bar treating 400 years of maritime drinking history as the menu. Cocktails organized by era and origin, footnoted with history. Ordering feels like browsing a bibliography.

Three stories of shipwreck decor: rope, driftwood, lanterns, a waterfall between levels. Kitschy, yes. But the execution is so committed and the drinks so excellent that kitsch becomes atmosphere. The Zombie is limited to two per customer (house rule from Don the Beachcomber, 1934), made with three rums and a potency justifying the limit. The crowd is cocktail people and rum enthusiasts who know rum is the world's most diverse spirit.

Monday for fewer people and bartenders with time to explain what's in your glass — answers include history, geography, and the specific estate where the molasses was pressed.