A Beverly Hills rooftop bar is bringing back a boozy tiki classic

A tropical classic is making a comeback high above Beverly Hills.

Gemma, the rooftop restaurant and bar at the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, is leaning into the building’s tiki history with a large-format scorpion bowl meant to be shared straight from the same oversized vessel.

The connection is more than decorative.

“This exact location actually was a Trader Vic’s,” said Jim Kearns, director of beverage at the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, noting that the famed tiki bar operated there from 1955 to 2017.

Kearns said that history helped inspire Gemma’s cocktail program, which includes familiar tiki staples such as a piña colada and mai tai alongside the scorpion bowl.

“The bar program is geared toward kind of fruity, refreshing cocktails that are easy to understand, easy to drink, nice on a warm day, kind of quintessentially outdoor rooftop LA,” Kearns said.

The scorpion bowl is the heavyweight of the lineup.

Kearns builds the drink with fresh lime, orange and passion fruit juice, along with orgeat, an almond syrup commonly used in tiki drinks.

Then comes the booze.

The bowl gets three different rums, followed by two ounces of Monkey 47 gin and two ounces of Hennessy cognac.

“So, a nice light, low-ABV cocktail,” Kearns joked after adding the spirits.

The drink is poured over ice, piled high with crushed ice, topped with orchids and finished with extra-long straws.

Unlike a punch served into individual glasses, the scorpion bowl is designed to be communal, with multiple people drinking directly from the same bowl.

For Kearns, the goal is part flavor, part nostalgia.

He said he hopes the drink transports guests both to a tropical setting and back to an earlier era of tiki culture, while still fitting naturally with Gemma’s Pan-Asian food and rooftop setting.

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