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It was a Saturday night and I didn’t want to go out. The kids were driving me crazy as our family limped to the finish line of summer, though, and I needed a drink and a reason to look pretty. So husband and I headed out to The Last Rodeo (6637 SE Milwaukie Ave., the-last-rodeo.com), the “depressed Palm Springs cowboy”–themed bar in Westmoreland.
The slushie dispensers behind the bar caught my eye—gorgeous green batches of pandan colada, one with The Last Rodeo’s rum blend ($13), the other nonalcoholic ($9). Without even really considering the rest of the menu, I said, “I’ll have that.”
The bartender brought me a glass pineapple containing the vibrant green slushie and a little pink umbrella. The vanilla-like pandan brought me back to celebratory pandan waffles I once ate at a Vietnamese restaurant in Denver on New Year’s Eve (shout-out to New Saigon), and the slushie dispenser made me feel like a tween at the movie theater about to down 32 ounces of Icee—both super-positive memories. The coconut gave the slushie a complexity and texture that Icees could only dream of, though, and pineapple juice lent sweetness while lime punched in the acidity.
“The bright green draws a lot of attention,” says general manager Sid Chi, who originally came up with the recipe at sister bar Holy Ghost. “It killed everything else we had on the summer drink menu, which was great.”
It’s been a hit at The Last Rodeo, too, though the bar’s top seller remains the draft margarita, since it pairs so naturally with the Matt’s BBQ Tacos menu. And Chi plans to keep it on the menu until around January. The NA version comes in its own collectable, color-changing cup, an idea Chi cribbed from his friends at Palomar.
The pandan colada turned my night around and made me forget that I had just hosted a four-hour “Patisserie Delights”–themed birthday party for my daughter at Sellwood Pool and Park. Depressed Palm Springs cowboys and overwhelmed Portland moms, maybe this drink can work some rum magic for you too.
