Adventurer’s Club says its last “Kungaloosh!”
Today is the last day of operation for the Adventurer's Club (and the rest of the bars at Disney's Pleasure Island) in Orlando. Although not strictly a tiki bar, the Adventurer's Club featured many elements that appealed to the tiki crowd: talking masks and stone heads, live comedic characters, and mostly decent drinks.
The club's motto, "Kungaloosh!" was also the name of one of its best beverages. There were at least two distinct recipes: pre-2000 and post-2000. The post-2000 version was (in my opinion) a dreadful combination of blackberry brandy and commercial strawberry mix. The pre-2000 is a lot more interesting and much more flavorful:
Old Kungaloosh Recipe - Circa 1997
1 1/4 ounce vodka
1 1/4 ounce Malibu Rum
3/4 ounce Midori (melon liqueur)
2 tablespoons 1 ounce pineapple juice
1 splash cranberry juice
Mix well in a shaker.
Word has it that the Pleasure Island area never really made enough money to justify its existence — and it drove a huge wedge between the overly crowded Disney Marketplace and the not-crowded enough Westside. The hope is that by eliminating the clubs and filling the space with shops and restaurants, the traffic will flow smoothly though the entire area. To that I say, "Balderdash!"
UPDATE: My wife and I made and taste-tested the recipe above as a tribute since we couldn't make the event itself. Our findings:
1) 2 tablespoons = 1 ounce. It seems odd to me that a mixologist would make a rookie mistake of marking the quantity of pineapple juice as 2 tablespoons when all the other quantities are labeled as ounces. It makes me wonder if this is a misprint and the original actually calls for 2 teaspoons.
2) The above recipe, as is, tastes pretty much as I remember it — very funky. I think in a good way. It's not really a "refreshing" taste. I think surprising is a better word.
3) Using a full ounce of Midori instead of 3/4 improved the flavor somewhat.
4) All of the ingredients are nearly colorless except the Midori and the cranberry juice. Can anyone confirm that this drink was predominantly green pre-2000? Adding more cranberry juice moves the color closer to brown, since red and green are opposites on the color wheel, but the Midori colors the Kungaloosh green, green, green!