Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #21 The Streamlined Tiki Medford, OR

The Streamlined Tiki

Home Tiki bars: where should you build one?

Most of the time, someone’s Tiki escape is down in the basement or maybe in the garage. For Sweetie Suz and her husband Dave, it’s in their living room! Why limit your love of Tiki to some spare bedroom when you can show it to everyone who walks through the door? This is the story of the Streamlined Tiki…

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Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #20 The Porthole Portland, OR

The Porthole

When you start collecting Tiki mugs, one turns into two, then two turns into three, and pretty soon you have an army of Tiki mugs trying to take over your house! What can you do? You build a home Tiki bar to display them! Rhonda and Bill Reedy did just that. They converted their basement into the Porthole and Tiki mugs are proudly displayed on shelf after shelf that spans its length. Here is Rhonda and Bill’s story…

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Tiki Apartments Tacoma, WA

Tiki Apartments Tacoma WA

Back in the ’50s and ’60s, Tiki was big, I mean really big! Large Tiki establishments like the Mai Kai and Trader Vic’s were in every town. Many of the Mid-Century homes had bars and tons of those were being converted into home Tiki bars.

Polynesian pop was so popular that Tiki-themed hotels and motels started popping up. Taking things one step further, Tiki apartment complexes were built! Imagine walking out your front door and having a large Tiki to greet you every morning as you go off to work. Many Tiki apartments were built across the country, but by the ’70s, most of those apartments were torn down or converted to some other theme. I did find one survivor in Tacoma, WA. It’s named—yep, you guessed it—the Tiki Apartments.

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Tiki Field Report #10 1/28/17 Portland, OR Duke And Lola, No Bones Beach Club, Hale Pele, and Janu-waii Laua!

Ray TIm Sara Lola and Duke at Hale Pele
Ray TIm Sara Lola and Duke at Hale Pele

“Hey man! Next time you are planning a trip to Oregon, let us know. We would love to include you in one of our YouTube videos.”

And with this message, the start of an awesome day of Tiki in Portland OR began!

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Tiki VIP #17 Jason Alexander (Tacoma Cabana)

Jason Alexander

I’ll never the forget the first time I set foot in Tacoma Cabana.

Standing behind the bar was this dude wearing an Aloha shirt and fez on his head. I didn’t know anything about this guy, but he had a presence to him that made him really stand out. Without saying a word, the message was clear: I’m here to make Tiki cocktails and trust me, they will blow you away. This man was and is Jason Alexander. He is the owner of Tacoma Cabana. Let’s get to know Jason a little bit more…

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Tiki Bar Review #28 Otto’s Shrunken Head, NYC

Otto's Shrunken Head

Hey, this used to be Barmacy!

When I first walked into Otto’s Shrunken Head, I felt like I’d been there before. I lived in New York back in the early 2000s and before Otto’s was Otto’s, it used to be Barmacy. Barmacy was a bar that was supposed to be a pharmacy that turned into a bar. Pretty interesting idea, but a Tiki bar is so much cooler!

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Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #19 The Kanaloa Lounge Calgary Alberta, CA

The Kanaloa Lounge

Fun fact: Calgary is known as Cowtown! Even though Calgary is in the heart of Alberta, Canada, it has a cowboy/country feel to it. They even have a rodeo called the Calgary Stampede. You wouldn’t expect to see denim, daisy dukes, and cowboy hats in a metropolitan Canadian city. You kniow what else you wouldn’t expect to see? An awesome home Tiki bar! It’s called the Kanaloa Lounge and the man behind it is Aubrey Hallis. Here is his story…

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Comparing Tiki Bars To KISS

Ray with Kiss Alive photo by Trash TV Streaming

“You wanted the best and you got them! The hottest band in the land: KISS!”

Back in the ’70s, KISS ruled the school. They were huge! There were KISS toys, KISS comic books, KISS, well, pretty much anything Gene Simmons could think of! KISS was so big that the band even had it’s own army, the KISS Army!

Kiss Army
Kiss Army

Why was KISS so big and why were they so successful? One reason: seeing KISS live was a breathtaking, rocking spectacle that couldn’t be duplicated!

Why?

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