From Florida, heavily influenced by Cuban culture, to California, the birthplace of tiki in the 1930s (and the troubled, brutal connections between rum and the slave trade in early US days), the United States is a rum nation with a rum culture that has influenced the world. Whether last-of-their-kind historic bars like San Francisco’s Tonga Room (1945), LA’s tiny Tiki Ti (1961), San Diego’s Bali Hai (1954), Mai-Kai in Ft. Lauderdale (1956) or Hala Kahiki in River Grove, IL (1964), US-born tiki bars are often the source of the best rum selections. But tiki bars aren’t the only odes to rum. Here, we have a list of eight of the best rum bars across the States.
THE SPARROW
12 W Elm Street, Chicago, IL 60610
www.sparrowchicago.com
The seductive 1927 Art…
