Three Dots and a Dash, which started as one of the vanguard spots in the tiki revival, has evolved over the years into one of the nation’s greatest bars, a mecca for rum lovers and a place not only for tropical classics, but also ambitious modern cocktails. This summer, Three Dots celebrates a decade in business, and I sat down with the head mixer himself, Kevin Beary, to discuss the evolution of the bar and his plans for the celebration.

Beary, who has been with the bar for eight of its 10 years (the opening tiki guru, Paul McGee, went on to open Lost Lake), describes the changes over the years as a move from faithful replication to its own innovation. “When I took over, Three Dots was very focused on reintroducing some of these really classic tiki and tropical drinks, and trying to reinterpret those in the most accurate and classic way,” explains Beary. In part, this was because the nation was just being reintroduced to genuine tropical drinks; only a very few of the classic tiki bars remained in business, and most of what guests thought they “knew” about these drinks likely came from artificially flavored junk poured over crushed ice at beach bars.

“As we evolve, we can take it so much further,” says Beary. “We got more comfortable taking more liberties, and as we got better versed in the historic cocktails, we were making modern iterations and that’s when things got exciting for us.” There have always been modern tropical drinks on the Three Dots menu, but over the years, the menu has gotten more and more unique and the bar has developed its own identity. For longtime fans of the bar, this summer’s celebration menu is a dream — a whole series of Three Dots originals from the entire life of the bar are back on the menu. In some cases, it’s even possible to see the progenitor drink right next to its modern counterpart. As Beary puts it, these are “The bangers from every menu across 10 years.”

For example, when Three Dots opened, one of the iconic drinks (and the one that seemed to appear in every single photo) was the banana daiquiri, complete with the adorable banana dolphin garnish. Beary took the drink off the menu when he joined but continued to work on creating the ideal banana flavor, using clarification, a centrifuge, and other modern techniques to concentrate tastes without the need to blend in fruit. Now, the OG banana daiquiri is back on the menu, next to the Idle Hands, a 2018 version of the banana drink with “super banana cordial” and a blend of Barbados and Jamaican rums.

Another example of “classic beside modern” is the 2044 Mai Tai. As a bit of a mai tai fanatic myself, I always order the original 1944 version of the mai tai created by Trader Vic himself and am suspicious of variations. Beary is in the same camp; “I am such a student of the mai tai, and I’ve been making them for eight or nine years,” he laughs. “I’ve done competitions, I’ve been on panels, I’ve traveled all over the world. For me to interpret a modern mai tai, it has to be true to Trader Vic’s original 1944 recipe.” The 2044 Mai Tai takes the same proportions as the original, replaces the curacao with yellow chartreuse, and uses a special blend of three different unaged rums that Beary will gush about for as long as you’ll sit still. One of the benefits of Three Dots being a world-renowned spot to drink rum is that Chicago has become a bit of a launch site for boutique rums. “We have had the opportunity to steward new rums from across South America and the Caribbean into the Chicago market,” says Beary.

As a hopping bar in River North that seems endlessly popular, Three Dots has had plenty of opportunities to cut corners and rest on its laurels. Beary says absolutely not. “We are relentless, that’s part of our success,” Beary insists. “We could say oh, it won’t matter if we actually use this fresh ingredient, no one is going to notice. If we had fallen into that, we wouldn’t have made it this far.”