Crafted bites pair with tropical tipples at new Tiki Oasis dinner event

This week, Scottsdale’s iconic Hotel Valley Ho will welcome Tiki revelers from all over the country to the annual Arizona Tiki Oasis. 

This year, however, the four-day “island lifestyle meet-up” is shaking things up with a new exclusive dining experience, The Hotel Valley Ho Supper Club. The special ticketed event on Thursday night is part cocktail reception, part cooking and mixology demo and all things Tiki with a curated three-course dinner.

Hotel Valley Ho’s Head Chef Russell LaCasce will lead the way on food offerings, which will be paired with drinks from renowned Valley mixologist Jason Asher of Juniper and Jigger Hospitality Co. 

The goal, LaCasce said, was to give Tiki Oasis-goers a more immersive, educational, and exclusive option for dining on their first evening. 

“The Tiki Oasis group are great food and beverage people. We are always trying to up our game each year to make sure people are happy and provide what they want,” LaCasce says. “In the past we have been doing luaus with roasted whole pigs, and incorporating fashion shows into the first evening. Those did well, but we felt that there was a niche for something a little more high-end and interactive.”

Knowing that the weekend’s attendees spend as much time attending panels and educating themselves on history and nuances of crafting cocktails as they do sipping one, LaCasce found inspiration in Hotel Valley Ho’s Sip and Shop Summer Market Series. 

During those market events, attendees can mingle, taste cocktails and enjoy music while doing a little “retail therapy,” LaCasce says. To enhance the event, the team added Friday-night dinners featuring guest chefs and mixologists. 

“We would do a demo on a stage, and it’s just a fun and educational entertainment-style dinner where we would run three courses and have a small reception, where they would talk about the techniques and flavor profiles,” LaCasce says. “We looked at that idea and said, ‘Why don’t we offer something like that on the Tiki side of things?’” 

What’s on the menu?

The menu for the Supper Club event is designed to reflect the flavors and flair of Tiki Oasis. At the reception, attendees will taste their way through small bites including hamachi tartare with Arizona kosho, sesame and pork chicharone; Peruvian scallop casino with chorizo and chile butter; and roasted beets with fromage blanc, honeydew and balsamic. These bites will lead into a starter of Hawaiian Ahi tuna poke. 

From there, guests will be instructed on how to prepare the main course. Dinner features a green peppercorn and black garlic prime rib with brandy veal jus and beech mushrooms.

“I wanted to do something accessible that would also lend well to the timetable we have, so we are doing this incredible double-cut prime rib-style ribeye. It’s got some Asian flavors that lend itself to the Tiki theme, and a really cool technique that I think people will appreciate,” LaCasce says. 

Attendees will also be able to take the recipe home. Dessert includes a trio of macarons. 

With the dining menu locked and ready, LaCasce had only one person in mind for the cocktail pairing. He turned to his friend and fellow industry expert, Jason Asher of Juniper and Jigger Hospitality Co. 

“He plays such a part in the Tiki culture anyway, (he’s) such a big name in the mixology and beverage side of things,” LaCasce says, describing Asher as “a wizard when it comes to beverages.”

Asher is no stranger to most Tiki Oasis goers. He co-founded the immersive tropical escape Undertow, which set a high bar for the rest of the Valley’s cocktail scene. But that familiarity inspired Asher to lean into something new for this year’s event. 

“I think that a lot of these folks have known my drinks for over 10 years now, and so for this event I wanted to bring some tropically inspired Southeast Asian cocktails for the occasion,” Asher says. 

A first taste of Hornbill

Guests of the Supper Club will be in for an exclusive treat, as Asher plans to debut the signature cocktail of his upcoming bar, The Hornbill. The new concept is moving into The Market by Jennifer’s on 36th Street and Indian School Road, and is planned to open this summer. 

“A lot of these drinks on the Supper Club menu will follow that path of several of Hornbill’s offerings – tropical with a bit of an Asian flair,” Asher says. 

The cocktail reception will be the first time anyone has had the opportunity to taste what Asher has been shaking up with this new venture. The signature Hornbill will be on the menu, featuring Roku gin, cognac, Cointreau, cherry liqueur, pineapple and kalamansi, served with a faux peanut.

“The welcome cocktail, which is the mainstay drink for the Hornbill, is inspired by the Singapore Sling, which originated at Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. Traditionally, there is a ceremony when drinking the Singapore Sling as it is served there: you drink the drink, and you eat some roasted salted peanuts and toss the shells on the floor,” Asher says. “For us, the peanut, and idea of throwing the peanut on the floor, is probably not the best idea. But the ceremony of it is very much important.”

To keep the essence of the ceremony alive, Asher’s team created a “faux peanut,” made of chocolate and flavored with sesame. 

For the final course, LaCasce and Asher are teaming up for a dessert that combines their culinary and cocktail skills and gives a nod to one of the most celebrated Tiki sippers of all time. 

“For the final drink of the night, we have a showstopper inspired by the classic Tiki cocktail The Saturn. Russell and his pastry chef have developed a gin-infused passionfruit sorbet, and then on the cocktail side, we built a deconstructed version of the drink, minus the passionfruit flavor,” Asher says. “The glass will come out, it’s black, the sorbet will be in the middle, and we will top it off with the carbonated version of the cocktail, and that will all come together right there in front of the guest.”

“The deconstruction allows us to essentially float one drink inside of another, which is so cool,” LaCasce adds.

For LaCasce and Asher, building the Supper Club experience has been an opportunity to embrace the playfulness and creativity of their roles in the food and beverage scene for a captive audience of cocktail aficionados who know their stuff. 

“At the end of the day, we are just trying to have fun, and do some things at a high level to just create a very fun environment for these guys. They like food and beverage, and we felt like it was a good time to do something different on the dinner side,” LaCasce says, noting that the team is excited to debut this new event for like-minded “people who absolutely love the craft of it all.”

The Arizona Tiki Oasis Supper Club will take place at The Sands inside The Hotel Valley Ho on Thursday, April 16 at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $199 and include tax and gratuity. VIP experiences are available for $249 and include 6 p.m. early access to the event, reserved seating and a meet-and-greet with LaCasce and Asher. 

Arizona Tiki Oasis Supper Club

April 16, 6:30 p.m.
Hotel Valley Ho
6850 E. Main St., Scottsdale