Episode 2445 – Chan’s Dragon Inn
Chan’s Dragon Inn was one of the last original tiki bars in New Jersey and closed during the pandemic in 2020 or so. One of the drinks they had was an Eastern Dream, a variation of the Eastern Sour. This video shows a memory of Chan’s and how to make one of their famous cocktails from the 1970s.
Chan’s had good Chinese-American food, but lacked in the cocktail department. Often, they would keep the same sweet and sour mix and just change the name along with the base spirit. So essentially, the drink with rum was the exact same drink as something else only made with vodka, gin, whiskey, whatever.
When they finally closed, Lee’s Hawaiian Islander hired some of their chefs, and then the quality of the food went up, and they already had the cocktail game going. Lee’s as of February 2024 is the last original tiki bar in New Jersey.
