The fresh mint is just one of the ingredients in the Mai Tais.

I’ve been fixated on something ever since last week.

Day dreaming and maybe even obsessing a little.

It’s a mai tai…the one I was treated to last week at Trader Vic’s, located at the southeast corner of Central and Mockingbird, in Dallas. (www.tradervicsdallas.com)

The ice, crushed. The rum, dark. The mint, fresh. Like a new boyfriend, I can’t get it out of my mind. Supposedly the mai tai was invented at Trader Vic’s, so I guess it’s no wonder they make a mean one.
But the minty cocktail was just the beginning to a wonderful tasting supplied by Trader Vic’s new executive chef, Michael Owens. He’s been there all of a month, but you might remember him from Oceanaire’s and more recently Morton’s. Wow. The new chef treated us to a Polynesian feast.
Loved the crispy panko-crusted shrimp, the Asian-influenced chopped salad with its cilantro rice vinegar, the cold-smoked pork spring rolls and the soy-marinated Chilean sea bass. Both the sea bass and the Szechwan-style salmon were a hit with are party. Maybe it’s because Chef gets his seafood fresh daily, and he demands it be a low mercury, low iodine fish. The “blistered” green beans, whatever he does to them, also could be the star of any meal.
Trader Vic’s opened in ‘67, closed in ‘87 and reopened in ‘07, so seven must be some sort of magic number. The re-styled restaurant boasts a private dining room that restaurant wiz Fredrick Merrill (he says the girls get to call him “Freddie”" reworked, and you can call that room “the office.” But when singer James Taylor was in town, that’s not where he took his pre-show meal…it was in the main dining room with the regular folks.
So who knows who you’ll see at the revamped Trader Vic’s…But if it’s me, I’ll be drinking a Mai Tai.
When do you want to go for cocktails?