Knotty Pono, not Knotty Pine!
The name of Jessie and Shawn’s home tiki bar is called the Knotty Pono which is named after their home which is literally made from Knotty Pine. They had an extra room in the back of their home that was begging for a remodel, so they went to work on turning it into a tiki bar. First they found an old bamboo bar then they started to resurface the floor with cork tile, and proceeded to fill the space with more and more tiki artifacts. Here is the story of The Knotty Pine, I mean The Knotty Pono!
What is the tiki scene like where you live?
Jessie: There are no shortages of Tiki things to do, Tiki people to meet, Tiki cocktails to drink, or Tiki finds to purchase, here in Endless Summer southern California! Social media plus the explosion of new bars and regular meetup events, created this current network of both Tiki Central veterans and the constant influx of newbies who keep fueling the Tiki ecosystem.
What brought you into the tiki lifestyle and how long has it been part of your life?
Jessie: Organically, from the convergence of all things relevant: His lifetime of surfing as native San Diegan; my vintage collecting + islander roots. Just like anybody else, we both watched old reruns as kids, and both liked picking around thrift stores, digging for vinyl, making stuff, and drinking drinks—all before we ever knew about tiki standards and events. Growing up in the 713, after school I would walk to nearby record stores and this local gem private art museum called The Menil, where there was a great permanent exhibition of Surrealism, that also included a collection of Asian and PNG artifacts.
Fast-forward to a decade-and-a-half ago, when a high school friend brought us to the home of his crush: An OG Tiki revivalism elder named Alice (“Miss Formica Dinette”/“Formikahin”). She gave us a show-and-tell of her packed decades-old collection, home bar decorating mantras like No White Walls, and her tiki mug budget rule set to 26 dollars (which apparently, didn’t age well at all!
Can you give a little history of how it all came together?
Jessie: When we first started living together, there was a spare room that was especially bachelor pad-like, much in need of a makeover. We had our eye on Shawn’s late grandmother’s rattan bar, but since his mom didn’t want to part with it, we eventually found one of our own. Finally, a couple of years later, we started building the space around this old bamboo bar…
Starting with gluing down cork flooring tile-by-tile. We naively thought tikifying this room would be a quick and inexpensive alternative way to remodel—However! That contagious rabbit hole fever of Tiki swag-collecting precedent set by Alice, along with attending weekenders like VLV, Tiki Oasis, and Mod Palm Springs (now called Circa/Caliente) quickly proved us wrong Fortunately Shawn is quite handy, so our transformation and construction were proudly entirely all our own DIY labor.
Any story behind the name of your bar?
Jessie: ‘Knotty’ refers to much of our 1950’s fixer-upper that’s all physically made of knotty pine. ‘Pono’ is Hawaiian for “righteousness”; as with our shared environmental professions’ Dharma principle of striving to live in balance within ourselves and our all-encompassing world: I.e., one of the best Shakespearean quotes, “To thine own self be true”: Keepin’ it real at The Knotty Pono.
On that note, our backyard, with a nautical-themed backdrop on Shawn’s surfboard shaping shack, extends out to where our dogs go to do their thing, and therefore, our unofficial name stepping outside of The Knotty Pono, is “The Poop Deck”. It has double meaning at our place, and is also an homage to an infamous beloved old dive bar along the seawall in my home beach town of Galveston, Texas.
How far have you driven to buy something tiki that you saw online?
Jessie: Not too far; guess we’ve never been that desperate in chasing down an item, as we prefer stumbling upon something Tiki in person. So probably just to the San Fernando Valley (Los Angeles), for the little rattan bar from Craigslist that started it all. Shawn’s field work has been on the eastern portion of Los Angeles County, so he had regular easy access to the whole kit ‘n caboodle that was Oceanic Arts (R.I.P.), where he obtained all the materials for all our thatching, as well as jumpstarting his tiki mug collecting.
What is your favorite Tiki drink? What is your favorite Tiki bar?
Jessie: We’ve drifted away from creating/consuming the very elaborate tiki drinks. I enjoy something herbaceous, anything with mezcal, a funky Negroni, and simple sippers like a daiquiri or a Corn ‘n Oil.
Shawn: I geek out to the rums/brands much more; I would get drink passports all stamped, while Jessie always stuck to ordering the same ones she liked. “Mucho Limón” is my half-joking unofficial Tiki name, for the very limey drinks I end up making.
As for favorite tiki bar, there can’t be just one! They tend to be the ones that have been standing for a long time, like Tiki-Ti (LA) and The Kon-Tiki (Tucson). We really lament the loss of Don’s (Sunset Beach): Dancing at Reggae Sundays after surfing, and winding down after long work days at the Dagger Bar. Bamboo Club (Long Beach) has been the closest to that vibe, where there’s a diverse neighborhood crowd with always something fun going on, like live bands, record hops, and monthly markets. Locally, we go to Bali Hai a few times a year for the poke and the view: The City Beat parties there were the best! We also made more recent fond memories sitting at that rotating tiki bar on the pier up in Santa Cruz (Makai), also with gorgeous ocean views.
Outside of great drinks, what do you think are essential elements in creating the perfect Tiki environment?
Jessie: I don’t believe there should ever be the same answer for every household/establishment—Each home bar ought to be a deeply personal and unique pet project. Humble budgets, casual habitual thrifting, and my vintage collecting runoff are the very foundations of our home bar character, reflecting the years we’ve been together. Since we’ve never even been to Hawaii and the South Pacific (yet?), we have an expanded geographic representation from our travels to other places. Our Tiki environment was formed by objects from our individual yet congruent backgrounds, like Chinese motifs, the Gulf Coast, and the surf beach palapa bars in Central America and Bali…Subsequently living down here in one of the last remaining working class beach communities in Southern California. So perhaps we’re more about recognizing the IMperfect tiki environment: Because subconsciously, there’s always that remnant of simpler times deserving of credit: From leafing through the very few photos I have of my grandparents and other early (Pre-Tiki) wartime imagery, to undeniably selling coconut bras and straw skirts to frat boys’ themed keggers in my college years. (😂)
Just the other day, my friend said our tiki bar “looks straight outta a fuckin’ punk rock video”. Hearing that made me laugh and take a trip down memory lane: I don’t recall going into any proper tiki bars in my youth, but two of my favorite bars where I turned 21 probably influenced me on what a good home bar environment should be like: Club DeVille (R.I.P.), with its midcentury car-style neon signage, dim lighting, and rugged natural limestone cliff backdrop where bands played; and the Mexi-Tiki-ish kitsch Casino El Camino with a R&R jukebox and tasty burgers (still there, on 6th Street in Austin).
What does the future hold for you and your home tiki bar?
Jessie: Our home bar is technically a build-out sun room with a tin roof, so we’ll be facing more challenges in maintaining structural stability. There was one winter when the poor Knotty Pono took on an accidental wounded ‘Shipwrecked’ theme from the effects of the heavy rain! But that gave way to installing a tiki pillar, and adding a thick bamboo beam, which we’d need more of in order to hang any cool weighty lamps. On our years-long mental to-do list is converting all our hand-scribbled recipes into a printed legible menu; figuring out more wall space to hang languishing stuff (we’ve already boarded up 3 out of 4 windows) and growing bigger bushels of mint plants outside The Poop Deck. Being from a big city, this bedroom community can really feel like living on a deserted island, so it’d also be nice to have friends over more often.
Anything else you would like to add?
Jessie: Need something quality and fun to wear? I’d like to share my vintage clothing hoard with you. Ever since Tiki Trader ended here, I’ve been slinging more regularly on my Instagram, @jjshoard.vtg ; on the Tikitastic Facebook group; and on Etsy (JJsHoard.etsy.com). I love seeing both friends and strangers, and strangers-turned- friends looking so fab in the good aloha wear, which are only getting harder to find. Tiki fashion singlehandedly got us out of wearing black & neutrals all the time!
We haven’t had any major travel excursions in forever. But contrary to the ‘escapism‘ buzzword, having our home tiki bar provides us and our dogs with a sense of refuge, presence, and contentment…The solace of feeling very much at home is a privilege right now in our world that’s gotten tougher to live in.
