Paige and Christian Luna both have a love for tiki and goth. Outside behind their home in Santee CA, you will find a little shack. It used to be a home office, now it’s the Luna Lagoon. The Luna Lagoon is named after their favorite Universal Monster movie, The Creature From The Black Lagoon and their last name, “Luna” which in Spanish means moon. Paige and Christian created a cozy spooky tiki goth bar that showcases their passions and it’s what makes The Luna Lagoon so special. Here is Paige and Christian’s story…
What is the tiki scene like where you live?
We are in San Diego County just 20 minutes from all the major SD tiki bars. The tiki scene is vibrant, diverse, and active in all areas as we are the host city of Tiki Oasis every year. There are many tiki organizations such as the San Diego Tiki Ladies, Aloha Caftan Society, Mandatory Mug Monday, and now Tiki Goth Club that are established that meet and keep the aloha spirit alive! There are endless incredible tiki bars to patron in San Diego such as False Idol, Bali Hai, Grass Skirt, and so many more. We are blessed to have every tiki bar host so many wonderful rum clubs, bingo events, live tiki musicians, and so much more! There are an insane amount of incredible home tiki bars to that open their homes to house parties and events to keep the tiki spirit alive all year long until Tiki Oasis comes around!
What brought you into the tiki lifestyle and how long has it been part of your life?
My tiki entry point was fashion and tiki history. I (Paige) have been collecting vintage fashion and collectables from the 1950’s since childhood and it only grew after college when I settled into San Diego.
My tiki entry point (Christian) was through mixology since I had been working in the San Diego restaurant industry and bartending for many years and started studying tiki cocktails. In 2023, I (Paige) met my tiki God Mother that saw my love for vintage and gothic fashion, Christian’s passion for bartending, and said the famous words, “Have you guys ever heard of Tiki Oasis?” That was the start of our journey into the crazy beautiful world of tiki! We immediately planned to attend Tiki Oasis the next month, but we didn’t have tickets. We were stunned when a random member of the tiki family donated 2 free weekend wristbands to us after they heard it was our first Tiki Oasis. We have been in love with the art, drinks, fashion, history, and ohana of the tiki community ever since. As of this summer, it will be officially 3 years in the tiki lifestyle with 3 SD Tiki Oasis’s, 1 AZ Tiki Oasis’s, and 1 Circa Caliente under our belts. This year Christian will be entering the SD Tiki Oasis Bartending Battle and Paige will be walking in multiple community fashion meetups throughout the convention so stay tuned for all our tiki happenings!
Can you give a little history of how it all came together?
Our first home tiki bar was a humble balcony bar in our 1-bedroom apartment. We started collecting décor, antiques, and bottles having it all fit as best as we could. We had started collecting a base of pre-tiki Polynesian art, statues, trinkets, etc. The next year we were able to rent the beautiful house we live in now and although the bedrooms were filled by our roommates the backyard shed caught our eye. The landlord told us they used the shed previously as a nice home office, but we were free to us the shed for whatever we liked. Since Christian is a private bartender, it did become a ‘home office’ for mixology you could say. We fully moved in our bar top, barstools, and tiki collection into the shed and increased our rate of collecting since we now had a bigger space to create the tiki bar of our dreams. San Diego is a hub of all thing’s tiki, vintage, and bar culture so we send everyday in thrift stores, antique malls, and Facebook Marketplace bringing whatever we find and putting it into our bar. With our bar having a solid tiki foundation we wanted to add our personal touch to make it truly our home tiki bar. Paige has been goth since teenage years and Christian has been a horror fan since childhood the next natural progression was a spooky tiki goth bar. We started bringing in Paige’s Universal Monster figurines and dressing them in aloha doll shirts, Christian started collecting tiki horror cocktail art from Carrie Hudson and Devon Devereaux, and so on and so forth until it become a full tiki goth horror bar. That is how the Luna Lagoon was born!
Any story behind the name of your bar?
Our bar name is officially The Luna Lagoon! It came about from our horror Universal Monster roots and Paige’s love for the Creature from The Black Lagoon. We have a creature themed kitchen and are on the hunt for all the creature figures we can grab! The Creature from the Black Lagoon is such a perfect crossover of horror and tiki culture so we had to pay oIt was natural to put our surname on it and our name is inherently super dark and edgy as we are the Lunas. Luna is the Spanish word for ‘moon’ and with such a cool last name we had to incorporate it into the bar somehow. We put Luna and Lagoon together and the name rolled right off the tongue perfectly and it stuck ever since!
How far have you driven to buy something tiki that you saw online?
Living in San Diego, it makes LA seem so close even though it is a 3-hour drive on a good day. When we saw an opportunity to join a tiki mug shelf workshop with Tiki Gonzo, we bought our ticket and planned a road trip with the SD Tiki Ladies! We took part in a shelf building workshop taught by Tiki Gonzo himself and his family. We go to see his amazing home bar and get our hands dirty building the shelf, adding our choice of fabric, and burning the wood paneling. It was an amazing experience and if you are ever in the LA area and want to take home a piece of Tiki Gonzo art please reach out to him for a private shelf class it is so worth it!
What is your favorite Tiki drink? What do you think makes the perfect cocktail? What is your favorite Tiki bar?
Christian– My favorite tiki cocktail is the Zombie. It is a strong and surprising tasteful drink with all the flavor notes balancing well all together. With tiki cocktails, we must always pay tribute to Donn the Beachcomber for being the first tiki mixologist and creating the roadmap for all the incredible cocktails we love today. The Zombie is a perfect example of the fundamental traits of a tiki cocktail that we look for when we walk into a tiki bar. It makes a perfect cocktail because it takes all these vibrant distinct ingredients and balances them so there is no one note overpowering the entire drink. The sour and sweet taste of the coveted white grapefruit let the rum shine and rum should never take a back seat in a perfect drink. For a perfect cocktail, there needs to be a story, feeling, or memory you are trying to translate to the guest drinking your cocktail. The best drinks you have transport you to a tropical vacation, remind you of a childhood summer treat, or follow a cohesive narrative from the bartender. In my opinion, what makes a perfect cocktail has all the parts mingling together perfectly with a unique throughline that the bartender can serve to you. My favorite tiki bar is Tiki-Ti located in West Hollywood of Los Angeles California. Ever since the first time walking through those doors, I have felt teleported to a different time and place. It feels like the perfect escape into a tiki time capsule of all the original décor built by Ray and his son Mike. You can feel all the history and the amazing celebrations and toasts that have taken place over the years. Ray Buhen has created some of the best tiki cocktails and each drink on the menu is worth a try that you cannot get anywhere else.
Paige- I do not drink alcohol so when I entered the tiki community, I had no developed palette to appreciate the beautiful art of rum. The best tiki drink I have ever had was a mocktail made by Adam the head bartender of Golden Tiki in Las Vegas! We took a tiki pilgrimage road trip with some friends to visit all the major tiki bars in the Vegas area. Yet somehow, every night we would always find our way back to Golden Tiki. One night Adam was serving us amazing cocktails and offered us snack-iri shots for the group. I always give my free shots and drinks to Christian because he enjoys them so much more than I ever could and when I passed my shot glass to Christian Adam noticed. He asked if I wanted a mocktail since I do not drink and I felt so happy that he went out of his way to make me feel included and took the time to make sure I had a tasty drink just like everyone else. On the spot, he mixed up some orange juice, turmeric, ginger, and lemon and made this super strong, sweet, and flavorful off the menu cocktail that has never been beat. I will always remember the tiki love and kindness we received at Golden Tiki and I can’t wait to go back to try it again!
Outside of great drinks, what do you think are essential elements in creating the perfect Tiki environment?
Creating the perfect tiki environment is a mixture of aloha spirit, decor, and ambiance. When curating a tiki environment, you need to have ohana worthy hospitality that welcomes all people and makes everyone have a blast. We love to host all our tiki friends and family and serving them whenever the Luna Lagoon doors are open. Wherever our tiki family and friends are the tiki vibes are always perfect! For every event, we have a theme that we plan the evening around for all our guest to feel invested by dressing the part, having themed drinks, and a fun idea for everyone to join in on the fun together! The décor needs to be a representation of your style and aesthetic so that it can truly be an extension of yourself. If you are passionate about what your bar is all about then you and everyone that visits will love it! The ambiance can be set with matching music, snacks, or hidden features that make your space special. I don’t believe there is ever a set rule of what makes a perfect tiki environment, but as long as you welcome all people, surround yourself with your tiki family, and make a space that is true to you it sounds a perfect place to be to me!
What does the future hold for you and your home tiki bar?
The Luna Lagoon is housing Christians’ cocktail workshops, test kitchens, and menu creating sessions. If you are in the San Diego area and want a private tiki cocktail workshop at the Luna Lagoon or need a bartender for your next private tiki event please reach out on our socials for all the fun events and services we offer from Christians private bartending business Spirited Luna Mixology (@spirited_luna_mixology) and Paige’s Tiki socials (@pearly_paige).
Our future for the bar décor is to add a water feature and open the back area for an outdoor speakeasy once the weather cools down. We are hoping to make it a creature of the black lagoon themed area with more spooky sight and sounds! We will be planning to host a Tiki Goth Club San Diego home tiki bar crawl in October, and we cannot wait to host the Tiki Goth Club for some spirits and spooks!
Anything else you would like to add?
We are so grateful to be so welcomed in the tiki and goth communities and to have so many wonderful friends that have become like family! Everyone is welcome to contact us and follow along our tiki journey on our socials so please join the spooky family.
Love this!! Tiki education and enrtertainment!