I’d like to be, under the sea, in an Octopus’s Grotto in Salem! Ringo Starr, eat your heart out!
Ted and Kelly Woodruff’s home tiki bar is not named after Ringo’s famous Beatle tune, it’s named after Kelly’s love for octopi! When Ted and Kelly lived in Medford Oregon, they house wasn’t big enough to have a true full-sized tiki bar, so they settled for a tikified patio. Then one day Kelly got a promotion at her job, great! But that meant a move up to Salem. Kelly took the promotion, Kelly and Ted relocated to Salem and moved into a bigger home and finally their dream of building a true tiki bar came true!
What is the tiki scene like where you live?
Ted- Non-existent. There is one local bar that has a bamboo fence surrounding a patio that has Tiki in its name but it’s just a sports bar that offers a couple “tropical cocktails”. We have met a couple of locals that are known in the tiki scene as artists or have transformed their home into a MCM tiki paradise to show their collections.
What brought you into the tiki lifestyle and how long has it been part of your life?
Ted- Ever since my parents would bring me back a Hawaiian shirt souvenir from Hilo Hattie’s while in my 20’s, I loved the lifestyle. I had been listening to Martin Denny since high school on my stereo system. I would encourage my coworkers to wear Hawaiian shirts on Fridays to celebrate it as a casual day.
A couple of friends from Arizona would meet us in Disneyland on occasion. One visit nearly fifteen years ago, they introduced us to Trader Sam’s. We fell in love with the place! The atmosphere, decor and special effects, and of course their drinks were an experience to behold. We just couldn’t figure out how to replicate those drinks at home. Over time more and more cocktail books would be published which we purchased that helped create a true exotically balanced cocktail.
Can you give a little history of how it all came together?
Ted- Fast forward to a week in February 2020. We had lived in Medford and had been married for about 12 years. We decided to pay off our house on a Saturday, I got laid off from work with a severance on Tuesday, and my wife was offered a promotion on Thursday but the promotion would require a relocation to Salem. The tiki gods aligned the stars and we decided to make the move. Our house in Medford really didn’t have room for an inside tiki bar, and all we had was a tikified patio area. Now we had an opportunity to pick a house in Salem that had a space preferably with no windows to make a true tiki bar. After touring several homes and scoring them on an Excel spreadsheet, we chose one that had a tandem 3 car garage with one stall between the kitchen and double stall portion for parking. It had a low roof already installed for storage above which made it a cozy alcove.
Any story behind the name of your bar?
Ted- My wife Kelly has always had an affection for Octopi. Every time we went to an aquarium she would spend most of her time admiring them thru glass or the one in Seaside that can escape from an open enclosure. Their intelligence, flexibility, and overall shape makes them quite unique. So, when we started to build the bar we searched for octopi decorations for it. I guess “The Inside Passage” had the same idea during the same time frame. The only name that stuck with us was “The Octopus’s Grotto”. I think it is easier to name a dog, than a tiki bar!
What is your favorite Tiki drink? What do you think makes the perfect cocktail?
Ted- My favorite Tiki drink is the Zombie. My wife likes a Daiquiri if the rum is good and we both do enjoy a 1944 Mai Tai.
The perfect cocktail is balanced with sour, sweet, spices, and you can still taste the spirit. A little complexity and layers of flavor make a cocktail extra special. If all you can taste is one overpowering note or it comes off as flat with not much flavor, then it is far from perfect in our eyes, or mouth.
What is your favorite Tiki bar? Not including your own!
Ted- My favorite Tiki bar would have to be Hale Pale and Kelly’s is Inside Passage. There are many famous bars that we have yet to visit and hope to but as of now it has to be those. The atmosphere, special effects, food and drinks are always spot on.
Outside of great drinks, what do you think are essential elements in creating the perfect Tiki environment?
Ted- Escapism is where it is at for us. If we had a bad day and want to relax in a laid-back type of environment, it would be a tropical spot. Sandy beaches, palm trees, warm ocean water and exotic sounds. We don’t live in a location like that, but can open a door and enter it from home. The perfect Tiki environment includes having a great drink and not having to drive home.
What does the future hold for you and your home tiki bar?
Ted- We plan on living in this house for another nine years until we are both retired. We will most likely move somewhere closer to family and do it over again. Find a house with a location to build another tiki bar bigger and better, of course.
Anything else you would like to add?
We built our bar with the desire to have a place to store and show our tiki mug collection. Many are one of a kind from the great artists on the west coast and Hawaii. We recently had the opportunity to purchase some larger carved wood tiki statues, some Octopi themed and hand carved by masters of their craft. But there is still that desire to merge tiki and kitschy, as the majority of our tiki culture agree that both make it even more fun. Thank you Ray for giving us the opportunity to share our story!