It’s a neighborhood in Ballard that I have never heard of. My friend Robb mentioned that I should check out a bar there called Essex. Every Tuesday is Tiki night. Okay, cool. I’ll go check it out!
At some point, my love of scooters and Tiki was going to overlap…
Every year, my scooter club hosts a ride. This year, I thought it would be a cool to make it Tiki/Hawaiian-themed. So Day One of our rally was spent rolling around Seattle eating at Hawaiian places and drinking at Tiki bars! Kickstands up…let’s go!
The third and final act of the night of day one of Tiki Kon 2017 was The ‘Verb. Seattle representing again! The ‘Verb busted out some awesome surf rock that had everyone dancing, including me! The go-go dancers came back on stage to show the crowd how it’s done!
Kicking off the live music for Day One of Tiki Kon 2017 was Seattle’s own the Delstroyers! They rocked out with full-throttle surf rock with go-go dancers to boot! The crowd loved it!
It was one year ago, almost to the week. I was at Hula Hula chatting with the bartender. She had good news and bad news.
The bad news was that Hula Hula was closing because the building was getting leveled for new development. The good news was that Hula Hula would live again in a new location. The owners just needed to find the right place…
There are many reasons why people don’t drink alcohol. Some people can’t drink because of health reasons. Others don’t because they feel it’s just not a good idea anymore. But one of the most important reasons not to drink is pregnancy.
Bobby is a good buddy of mine. We are heavily into Vespa scooters and have spent many hours riding (and probably even more hours wrenching just to make our scooters run!). Bobby had never been to a Tiki bar and was interested in checking one out. When Bobby’s wife Birgitta heard we were going to the North Shore Lagoon, she was bummed. She’s pregnant, which meant no drinking for her. It was all good for Brigitta, though! We were going to do some drinking, but we were going to do it the Straight Edge Tiki way: no alcohol!
If I had a nickel for every time someone said this to me, I would be rich! Okay, well maybe I would have enough to buy a cup of coffee, but I digress.
Yes, starting a Tiki bar is a dream of mine, but it’s not easy and it’s not cheap. You need to find a place that’s in a good location and somewhere you can afford the rent. You also need a license to serve alcohol AND a license to sell it. I haven’t even talked about the money needed for décor.
One idea I thought of was doing a “pop-up” bar. I was down in Los Angeles and they got pop-ups for everything including food, clothing, music, and of course, booze. The idea is to rent a space out for a week, a month, or even a day. I thought a Tiki pop-up bar would be a great idea. Well, great minds think alike. Duffy De Armas made my a dream a reality! He opened the Tiki pop-up bar: the Low Tide Lounge.