Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #72 Area151 – Indianapolis IN

Question: If you were really into UFOs and Sci-Fi and you also happened to love tiki, what would you name your home tiki bar?

Answer: Area151!

No one knows for sure what exactly is going on inside Area 51. Could there be top secret vehicles, weapons or planes? Is the government hiding aliens from us? Maybe there’s nothing at Area 51, but I can safely tell you that there’s a whole lot of tiki going on at Area151!

Area151 started as Dan and Donetta Huffman’s backyard deck but with a little help from their in-laws the deck quickly became a whole lot more! Area151 is a very tall A-frame tiki bar that looks like something right out of a movie set. There are a bunch of signs pointing to various far away tiki destinations, but once you step foot inside Area151 and take a seat at the bar, you won’t want to go anywhere!

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Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #71 Hogo Village – San Francisco CA

I’ve always wondered what a home tiki bar would look like from the 70’s. I’m thinking someone’s home tiki bar would be in the basement, the bar itself would have already been built into the home, maybe there would be a tiki or two, some thatch would be hung up and a whole lot of rum would be behind the bar! Well gang, I think I just described RumTiki’s home bar Hogo Village located in San Francisco …

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Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #70 Krakens’ Cove – Helsingborg Sweden

I was in a Tiki Zoom meet-up the other day and this guy named Mattias joined the group. He’s chilling out in his tiki bar, which looks pretty awesome. I say hello and ask Mattias where he’s from, and he says Sweden. I asked him how the tiki scene is over there and he said that it’s pretty non-existent. There might not be much tiki going on in Sweden but that didn’t stop Mattias from creating his own home tiki bar. It all started with a 60’s rattan bar that he inherited from a relative …

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Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #69 Rodgers Reef 2.0 – Barnegat NJ

James Rodgers lives along the Jersey Shore where there are tons of “tiki bars”, well not really. If you start getting into tiki, you realize there’s a difference between a true tiki bar and a beach bar. Both types of bars share many of the same elements like bamboo, thatch and even tikis! It all comes down to the vibe, tiki bars are supposed to be dark and mysterious, not bright and sunny. Since there aren’t any real tiki bars on the Jersey Shore, James built his own …

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Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #68 The Atomik Tiki Lounge – San Lorenzo CA

About a decade ago, Jenny and Chad Martens had it really good. They lived in Alameda CA, a block away from Forbidden Island, and Baby Doe and Otto Von Stroheim were their neighbors. Then Jenny and Chad got some bad news, that Baby Doe and Otto were moving away. But the good news is that they gave Jenny and Chad some of the lauhala and bamboo poles from their tiki bar! Jenny and Chad used their newly acquired materials to build their very own tiki bar called The Atomik Tiki Lounge.

Jenny and Chad have since moved out of Alameda and now live in San Lorenzo. They tore down and rebuilt The Atomik Tiki Lounge in their new home and it’s bigger and better than ever! Here is their story …

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Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #67 The Royal Ohana Room – Cleveland OH

 

Craig Donofrio grew up in So-Cal and enjoyed Disneyland, going to Hawaii, and backyard luaus as a kid, so it’s safe to say tiki has been in Craig’s blood for a long time. When Craig and his wife Paula moved to Cleveland, they decided to build their own tiki bar in their basement. They called it The Royal Ohana Room and here is their story …

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Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #66 The Liki Tiki Honu Hale – Mission Viejo CA

 

Having a waterfall in your tiki room is cool.

Having water falling into your tiki room from a clogged drain upstairs, not so cool.

But for Christian and Ge’Nelle, it makes for a good story of how they came up with the name of their tiki bar, The Liki Tiki Honu Hale. Here is their story …

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Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #64 Trader Ric’s – Indianapolis IN

Indianapolis doesn’t have a Trader Vic’s, but it does have a Trader Ric’s!

The basement in the MCM home of Matt McElfresh and Ric Mills used to be their EBay warehouse, until they acquired “the mural”. This beautiful mural originally hung in the men’s bar at the historic Claypool Hotel and it was the inspiration for Matt and Ric to build their home tiki bar. Matt named the bar after Ric, calling it Trader Ric’s, and the rest is history! Here is Matt and Ric’s story …

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Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #63 Fred and Ginger’s Exotic Cocktail Bar and Lounge – San Jose CA

A lot can happen in a year …

Terra and Alex Fritch went from discovering what tiki is, to becoming members of the Rumbustion Society at Smuggler’s Cove, to building their own tiki bar on the patio behind their home. The name of their bar is Fred and Ginger’s Exotic Cocktail Bar and Lounge. Who are Fred and Ginger? Continue reading to find out!

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