A
couple of years after he arrived in Los Angeles, Gantt happened upon a newly vacated
tailor shop at 1722 North McCadden Place, just off Hollywood Boulevard. Where he built a little bar that seated about
two dozen customers and scattered a few tables around the rest of the area. The decorations for the place were his South Pacific mementos, along with some old nets and
pieces of salvaged boats he scavenged from the coastline. His watering
hole became Don the Beachcomber.
It was Gantt’s outgoing personality
and the uniqueness of his cocktails that proved irresistible to the locals as well as the Hollywood celebs. Among the
first drinks was the Sumatra Kula, which cost a quarter. A well-dressed man
named Neil Vanderbilt came in one day and ordered one, then another and
another. He said it was the best drink he’d had in years. He was a writer for
the New York Tribune, and he soon came back with friends, including Charlie
Chaplin. Word of Don the Beachcomber began to spread through Hollywood and
beyond. “If you can’t get to paradise, I’ll bring it to you,” is what Gantt would tell his
customers.
Today he is best remembered for being the "father of the Tiki scene" and his famous Zombie cocktail. This is a man from the past that is still having a huge influence on the cocktail world today.
