Bergeron, Victor J

Victor J. Bergeron Jr. (1902–1984) grew up in a food-oriented family: his father worked as a waiter at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, and the family lived over the small grocery store they owned in Oakland, California. In 1934, Victor Jr. decided to strike out on his own: he borrowed money and opened a small beer-and-beans parlor called Hinky Dinks in Oakland, California. Two years later he opened a larger bar and restaurant and christened it Trader Vic’s. He filled it with artifacts, especially from the South Seas. One early menu item was “ham and eggs Hawaiian” with pineapple and bananas. He soon rounded out the menu with more Polynesian-themed dishes and exotic rum-based mixed drinks, such as the Scorpion, the Samoan Fog Cutter, and the Doctor Funk of Tahiti. Bergeron published his first book, Trader Vic’s Book of Food & Drink, in 1946 and followed it up two years later with his Bartender’s Guide, which became a standard reference work. In it, Bergeron claims to have invented the Mai Tai cocktail in 1944. Others claim to have originated the name “Mai Tai,” but it was Bergeron’s formula for the cocktail that became the basis for the Mai Tai’s popularity during the following decades.