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Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #19 The Kanaloa Lounge Calgary Alberta, CA

Posted by Ray on in Home Tiki Bars

The Kanaloa Lounge

Fun fact: Calgary is known as Cowtown! Even though Calgary is in the heart of Alberta, Canada, it has a cowboy/country feel to it. They even have a rodeo called the Calgary Stampede. You wouldn’t expect to see denim, daisy dukes, and cowboy hats in a metropolitan Canadian city. You kniow what else you wouldn’t expect to see? An awesome home Tiki bar! It’s called the Kanaloa Lounge and the man behind it is Aubrey Hallis. Here is his story…

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Tiki Bar Review #27 Forbidden Island Alameda, CA

Posted by Ray on in Tiki Bars

Forbidden Island

Every painting starts with one brush stroke. Each stroke that follows can make the painting better or worse.

The same thing is true with building a Tiki bar. The possibilities are only limited to your imagination, or to how much you care about building something special. I don’t want to say there’s a right or wrong way to build a Tiki bar, but as they say, “The proof is the pudding.” There are definite reasons why certain Tiki bars have lines outside the door and why others close a couple months after opening. Forbidden Island in Alameda, CA is not the later! Forbidden Island is one of the oldest of the new Tiki bars, opening its doors a decade ago in 2006.

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Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #18 The Desert Oasis Room Corona, CA

Posted by Ray on in Home Tiki Bars

The Desert Oasis Room photo by Mike Remmel

Adrian Eustaquio has been living the Tiki lifestyle for a long time—since the ’90s, to be exact. If anyone knows what Tiki is supposed to be, it’s Adrian. When it came time build his own bar, Adrian had a vision of what a proper Tiki bar should be and his place is truly outstanding. The Desert Oasis Room is so outstanding that it has been photographed for Hana Hou, which is Hawaiian Airlines own magazine! In fact, all the pictures used for this post are from professional photographers Kamala Kingsley and Mike Remmel. Here is Adrian’s story…

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Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #16 The Alta Tiki Lounge Daly City, CA

Posted by Ray on in Home Tiki Bars 4 Comments

Buz Deadwax owner of The Alta Tiki Lounge

“Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,1
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same…”

If your familiar with the TV show Weeds, you’ve heard this song sung by Malvina Reynolds. The neighborhood Malvina was singing about was actually Daly City and she describes it perfectly. All the homes are literally square boxes that are different pastel colors and built on the side of a hill. Hidden in one of these “square boxes made of ticky tacky” lies the Alta Tiki Lounge.

Buz Deadwax is the proud owner of The Alta Tiki Lounge and here is his story…

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Tiki Bar Review #14 Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar Anaheim, CA

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Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar
Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar

One of my favorite things to ask people is, “What got you into Tiki?” For some people, their first step was going to a Tiki bar for the first time. Another thing people tell me is a trip to Hawaii or someplace tropical got them interested in living the Tiki lifestyle. There is one last reason that is quite common, especially out on the West Coast, and that is Disneyland!

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