Golden Tiki’s new menu full of light bites, heavy pours — PHOTOS

The kitschy bar’s biggest menu revamp yet includes a drink so potent, you won’t be served more than one.

“This is us just being dumb,” Nick Brink jokes about the development of one of The Golden Tiki’s newest drinks.

The general manager of the Chinatown favorite was overhauling the cocktail menu with beverage director Constantin Alexander when things got a little out of hand.

He’s speaking of a drink that’s an ode to one of the fathers of modern Las Vegas and his bodily fluids.

But Brink also could have been referring to another of the new cocktails, one that’s so potent, the menu notes, “we’re not lighting it on fire because it could explode.”

An emphasis on lighter foods

The Golden Tiki wasn’t exactly losing its luster, but a little menu makeover never hurts.

“I’ll admit there were bars starting to come up with some really cool ideas that were better than some of our bigger hits,” Brink says. “It’s a fine line between, ‘Oh, I love that place. You always know what you’re going to get’ and ‘Eh, it’s the same old stuff we’re used to.’”

So he embarked on the menu’s biggest revamp since the kitschy watering hole opened in 2015.

Before coming to The Golden Tiki five years ago, Brink ran Fong’s Pizza, the Asian-influenced pizzeria and tiki bar in Des Moines, Iowa. He wanted to incorporate some of what he learned there in the new offerings.

“I am a front-of-house guy, but I understand how kitchens operate,” Brink says. “I understand flavor profiles, how to put things together.”

He was looking to move The Golden Tiki’s small kitchen away from its reliance on fried foods in favor of some lighter, snack-type options that would encourage customers to stay for another round of drinks.

Figuring out what to serve wasn’t easy, considering the bar at 3939 Spring Mountain Road shares a parking lot with numerous gustatory adventures, including Partage, Mas Por Favor, Shokku Ramen and Hot N Juicy Crawfish.

“There are so many great restaurants within walking distance of us, much less a short drive. It doesn’t make sense for me to try to go into business against them,” Brink acknowledges. “Why do I wanna have the 38th-best crab rangoon in a six-block radius? But if I can do it as a dip, that’s something a little different. Not that many places do it.”

That crab rangoon dip ($14), served with pita chips, joins the likes of curried cashews ($8) and Gochujang cucumbers ($6) marinated in Korean chili paste on the menu, 30 to 40 percent of which is new.

Remembering Howard Hughes

Tiki culture is all about homages to Donn Beach and Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron. Every tiki bar worth its tacky shirts serves drinks created by or inspired by those pioneers.

“But a lot of them don’t do anything for Stephen Crane,” Brink says, referencing not the author of “The Red Badge of Courage” but the former actor who opened The Luau in Beverly Hills as well as the Kon Tiki and Ports o’ Callchains.

“Donn Beach made the Jet Pilot. Stephen Crane’s version was the Test Pilot,” Brink continues. “(We said) let’s do our version of his version of that drink but throw in a little Las Vegas twist (and) give it a Howard Hughes reference.”

Actually, there are a couple of references to the legendary aviator turned casino owner.

The Spruce Gooser ($15) is a play on the nickname of the infamous Hughes H-4 Hercules aircraft that only flew once — and barely at that.

The drink is garnished with a small container of the Italian liqueur Strega that’s meant to resemble one of the jars of bodily fluids the reclusive billionaire reportedly kept.

The Strega is intended to be poured into the cocktail for an extra kick alongside the Las Vegas Distillery Spiced Rum, Ferino Amer, Bettie Page Spiced Rum, Leopold Bros. Orange Liqueur, Velvet Falernum, lime and Angostura.

“It really does actually help the flavor profile of the drink. It does add that little kind of component that it needs,” Brink insists. “And it’s just that fun, wow, like, ‘what the hell is this?’ sort of visual.”

More rum than you can handle

Other new cocktails include A Negroni Killed My Pet Lizard ($16), which the menu describes as being “as bitter as most goth girls,” the 1956 Zombie ($17) and the Bruce Campbell-“Army of Darkness” tribute, This Is My Boomstick ($16), made with Zaya rum, Laphroaig Islay scotch, cinnamon, lemon, pineapple, Chinese five-spice and Blackstrap Bitters.

The one you really need to be careful with, though, is the bar’s take on Donn Beach’s classic Demerara Dry Float ($25), the name of which substitutes a racier word.

Between the Lemon Hart 151, Hamilton 151 and Goslings 151, it contains a staggering 6 ounces of alcohol. It’s so strong, you won’t be served more than one. It even caught Brink and Alexander, two highly experienced rum consumers, by surprise.

“We do a lot of damage when we go out,” Brink notes. “If we can feel it after one, I can’t imagine some poor housewife from, like, Delaware that this is her one drink a year.”

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567.