Three Dots and a Dash.

I walked into Three Dots and a Dash on a Wednesday evening and was initially a little apprehensive of the large tiki cocktail menu. It was well curated, but as someone who loves craft cocktails and especially funky rum, I wasn't quite sure where to begin.

Enter Justin.

Before I'd even made it through the menu, Justin seemed to pick up on my energy and offered, "I can make something off-menu too. What do you like?" I told him I loved funky rum and was thinking about some kind of rhum daiquiri. Without missing a beat, he suggested a Hemingway daiquiri featuring Rhum J.M. agricole. Absolutely delicious. He even poured me a little J.M. to taste on its own.

Later, Ricardo took over my side of the bar, and an already excellent experience became something truly exceptional.

I asked for a daiquiri with a blend of Jamaican rum and rhum agricole. Ricardo delivered a beautifully balanced cocktail, but what really caught my attention was his technique. After shaking and straining the drink back into a Boston shaker tin, he used a spindle mixer—the kind you'd normally associate with making milkshakes—to whip an incredible amount of fine, silky foam into the cocktail. He then poured it into a gorgeous rounded coupe (a balloon coupe), with a shape that helped concentrate the aromas right at your nose.

And with funky rum, the nose is half the experience! All those wild, grassy, fruity, sometimes downright bizarre aromas come alive before you even take a sip. I've spent plenty of time experimenting with daiquiris myself, and this was a technique I'd never seen. I loved it.

But Ricardo wasn't finished.

For my final drink, I asked whether he could make something with Haitian clairin. He smiled and said he'd hook me up, disappeared upstairs to retrieve a bottle of Clairin Casimir, and returned to make what I can confidently say was the best daiquiri of my life.

Savory, complex, wildly aromatic, and absolutely beautiful. A simple daiquiri, elevated by an extraordinary spirit and impeccable technique.

Ricardo clearly knows his rum. We talked about how you can make three daiquiris with essentially the exact same ingredients, changing only the rum, and end up with three completely different cocktails. That's precisely what makes rum so fascinating to me, and it was wonderful to find a bartender who shared that enthusiasm and understood the nuances so deeply.

He also brought out a bottle of Habitation Velier Savanna HERR from Réunion for me to taste. Mmmm - An absolute explosion of funk, with these incredible bubblegum and banana notes. Another highlight of an already memorable evening.

Meanwhile, the bar transformed around me. What started as a relatively quiet Wednesday became a packed, energetic room. I met a fun group celebrating. This place somehow manages to be both a wildly entertaining tiki destination and a serious, world-class rum bar. People around me were enjoying elaborate tropical creations and theatrical presentations, while I was happily sitting at the bar exploring agricole, Jamaican rum, and Haitian clairin with two bartenders who genuinely loved their craft.

I never ordered a single cocktail from the menu, and I had a great cocktail experience.

If you love great cocktails, go. If you love rum, absolutely go. And if you really want to experience what this bar is capable of, grab a seat at the bar and talk to the people making the drinks.

I cannot recommend this place highly enough.