Rum cocktails at the Canal Club in Venice

July 14, 1:19 AMLA Cocktails ExaminerAaron Vanek

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A Tiki Mai Tai (left) keeps company with a Caipirinha at the Canal Club in Venice

Canal Club
2025 Pacific Ave.
Venice, California, 90291
310-823-5397
Map

Venice is one of Los Angeles’ main arteries—its essence freely flows from the Pacific Ocean to downtown Main Street. Venice began as its own city in 1905, founded by tobacco magnate Abbot Kinney after he “won” the marshland south of Santa Monica from his business partners in a coin toss.

As part of his desire to make a “Coney Island of the West,” Kinney built a series of canals around his new town that were united by a central lagoon (now the turnaround at Windward, Grand, and Main). In 1924, in an attempt to modernize Venice of America and prevent its annexation to the bloating City of Los Angeles, the civic leaders deigned to convert the canals into roadways. A series of lawsuits followed, but in 1929, despite Venice already being appropriated by LA, the dirt trucks arrived and paved the gondola thoroughfares north of Venice Boulevard. The south canals survived and remain to this day, due to a combination of the Great Depression, the contractor’s bankruptcy, the then underdeveloped condition of the area, and the lack of need for more roads.

The Venice Volcano flaring at the Canal Club 

So after a pleasant walking tour of some of the most expensive real estate in the city, visit the Canal Club (opened in the 80’s), just a block away from the historic waterways.

Maybe it’s the waves, maybe it’s the herbal aromatics, but Venice has long been a refuge for eccentrics. Which is probably why the Canal Club is so schizophrenic.

Their menu boasts both an open wood grill and a sushi bar, draft beers and Saki. The décor mixes light marble tiles, lamps made of Hawaiian T-shirts, a lot of bamboo, and a steel wave-shaped wall that breaks the dining area from the sunken bar impersonating a beach cabana.

There’s a wide selection of drinks, from tropicals in Tiki-head shaped glasses to strong margaritas and specialty mojitos. I tried to order the Venice Volcano—$20 of mixed liquids in a hula-girl decorated ceramic bowl with flaming 151 rum in the center, but the bartender insisted that this drink for two-plus was too big for me, despite my exhortation that I planned on being there awhile. Nope, too big.

July is rum month for Examiner.com, so I stretched my taste buds and went for the Caipirinha, Brazil’s National Cocktail, instead.

Caipirinha (kay-peer-REEN-ya): Sagatiba cachaça rum, muddled limes, sugar

It’s like a lime frosty, foamy and refreshing, with an unexpected aftertaste that departs before identification. If you’re used to the majority of rums with molasses, this clear spirit distilled directly from sugar cane is an intriguing, mouth-puckering cousin.

Once my meeting started, I convinced the table to indulge in the Venice Volcano.

Venice Volcano: Bacardi 151 rum, Bacardi Limon, Captain Morgan, Peach Pucker, orange juice, pineapple juice, cranberry juice, grenadine

The volcano, which is indeed flaming in the middle, comes with a side or 151 that makes for great lava spills over the side plus Poke-Your-Eye-Out-sized straws, but overall, the drink is more novelty than tasty. It’s Hawaiian punch for grown ups, but by the time the ice cubes melted and shaded the bowl pink, our party of seven, myself included, was through with it.

The bartender was right, as they usually are.

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