Post #161662 by Kukoae on Thu, May 26, 2005 2:45 AM

I just made a quick trip up to Mission Hills to try this bar out (Wednesday evening).

It's a veritable spacious palace compared to Tiki-Ti, and is packed full of very nice tikis and room treatments we should all give resounding applause to the owners for consulting what must have been "real Tikiphile" craftsmen.

The fireplace wasn't lit (but it looks real), but the entire lighting level and overall feel of the place was very nice. I tried the "meihana" drink, which was a bit sweet and under-rummed to my taste. The very friendly barmatron (Diane(?) - it was a bit loud [from the jukebox]) had another much more potent and stealthy drink she gave me a sample of that was called "Come-on-and-lay-me" or something like that.

It tasted unusual, something like a Tropical riff on a Long Island Ice Tea. I'd probably try it properly, but I can't quaff such tacnuke drinks and still expect to drive home.

I only had one drink as I didn't have long to stay, so I'll refrain from commenting on the quality of the drinks.

They sell their own tiki mugs for $10.

People were very friendly, and in fact, I had more bar denizens talk to me than did at the Tiki-Ti, where aside from Mike (Sr), I had non-trivial dialogue with only one person.

The barmatron was very gregarious and while a self-confessed "I don't like these tiki drinks", she did wax poetically about how "cool" the sorts of people the bar attracted. She was rather amazed when I told her there was a website of hardcore Tiki-lovers who collected information about places like this.

The jukebox was playing some awful Guns-and-something-or-other rock/heavy-metal stuff, so I promptly reconfigured the mood with some Les Baxter [Strange Village and Stone God]. Wow, I was amazed they had Moods of Exotica in the machine --- that stupid album is over $90 on elame, er, ebay.

I don't know what the naysayer(s?) are on about, but this is a very very noteworthy specimen of "newly fashioned" Tiki bar.

It doesn't have the dense built-up history, artifacts and feel of the -Ti, of course, but it's not even a year old. It would be like saying Stanford is a weak university because it's not 800 years old like Cambridge.

And it doesn't have the -Ti's smoke, a definite advantage for me.

At this point, comparing in the bartending department is a no contest. Mike's a master, even if his Mai Tais are served in highball glasses w/o fresh mint.

I intend to give The Lucky Tiki a more proper sampling... it'd be nice to find some other TCers with whom to compare notes (in person), as I'm still calibrating my tastebuds to these drinks. For almost my entire life, I've never really experienced any "bars" and cocktail drinks - just wines, and straight-up/with a water back single malt scotches.

I'm "getting it" with respect to how these drinks are meant to taste, but in the wild, it's a pretty elusive thing.

I honestly can't imagine how you could expect any better in the decor/tiki department - I sense the Powah of the Tiki Force behind its design. It had alot of real bamboo, lots of little dark nooks, pufferfish, floaty balls, and tikis all over.

=Kukoae=