Mixocalypse

How Bartender Eric Tecosky Invented ‘The Surfer on Acid’

Tecosky
Tecosky Photo: Tito’s Vodka

Eric Tecosky, bartender at Jones Hollywood and the only memorable feature that comes to mind when recalling Beverly Hills’ understandably short-lived Erbe Matte, should be the first guy who gets his name on a shamrock at the new Tom Bergin’s. According to KCET, the guy’s been coming here roughly three nights a week for the last seven years. Recalling the days when Carry Grant would spirit his flames here and feasting on reuben balls, Tecosky breaks down the origins of one of his own cocktail creations, The Surfer on Acid, a drink that’s gone national in the past few years. Calling his baby, “the most lowbrow drink”, Tecosky cites the libations birth back to “a club on Sunset in the early ‘90s.” He says, “a bunch of young twentysomethings came up to the bar and ordered ‘Surfer on Acid.’ I had never heard of it, so I asked them what it was.”

We know how much bartenders love it when people throw out obscure drink names and expect them to know it, but these bros proved a boon for Eric. Scrapping their ill combination of “banana schnapps, Bailey’s, and a bunch of other crap,” Tecosky says, “I decided that their shot was never going to take off, but it was a good name.” He stole the title for a Jägermeister-based shot he’d been working on with Malibu rum and pineapple juice and a star was born.

The bartender admits, “It always made me scratch my head how it got around the country.”

Midnight Snack: Tom Bergin’s with Eric Tecosky [KCET]

How Bartender Eric Tecosky Invented ‘The Surfer on Acid’