Sometimes the Tiki can’t be contained to just one room. For some people Tiki is truly a lifestyle; the lines between Tiki escapism and real life are forever blurred. Wendy and Dan Cevola’s entire home is Tiki themed. They may have the biggest Tiki collection in the world and there’s even a jungle room! Let’s take a peek into Wendy and Dan’s home or should I say Tiki home…
Continue reading “Home Sweet Tiki Home #1 Wendy And Dan’s Tiki Home Elk Grove, CA”
“Your just desserts.”
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying.
I’ll never forget seeing this clip on Anthony Bourdain’s The Layover.
It’s where Anthony checks out the Tonga Room in San Francisco. I’d been waiting for my day to come every since and I finally made it!
Continue reading “Tiki Bar Review #29 Tonga Room and Hurricane Bar, San Francisco, CA”
Frankie’s Tiki Oasis—not to be confused with Frankie’s Tiki Room in Las Vegas—is dedicated to one of the most famous monsters of all time: FRANKENSTEIN!
Continue reading “Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #22 Frankie’s Tiki Oasis Marina del Rey, CA”
“I figured it out!”
That’s a text that Tacoma Cabana’s Jason Alexander sent me. He’d been tinkering with some non-alcoholic drink recipes and got down the finishing touches. The challenge was to have the drink be not too sweet and have a bite. Jason teased me with a picture of five of his creations…
I was excited to try these drinks out, so I put together a Straight Edge Tiki Event and invited some friends down to Tacoma Cabana.
Continue reading “Straight Edge Tiki #3 Tacoma Cabana 3/11/2017”
Jim “Hurricane” Hayward enjoys one of the Mai-Kai’s “lost cocktails” in the Molokai Bar during a book release party for Tim “Swanky” Glazner’s Mai-Kai: History and Mystery of The Iconic Tiki Restaurant in September. (Photo by Susan Hayward)
Continue reading “Tiki Blogging #1 The Atomic Grog – Jim “Hurricane” Hayward”
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…
Continue reading “Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #21 The Streamlined Tiki Medford, OR”
It’s all about the beach, right?
A Tiki bar is about creating the illusion that you are sipping a Mai Tai on some Polynesian beach in the South Pacific. This was what I thought I was going for when I started going to Tiki bars, but over time, I’ve started to question that.
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…
Continue reading “Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #20 The Porthole Portland, OR”
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.
