Post #166000 by mrsmiley on Wed, Jun 15, 2005 3:06 PM

On 2005-06-15 12:11, joefla70 wrote:

On 2005-06-13 20:59, filslash wrote:
aloha,

I was in Miami, and the area in Feb. So on the way through the Keys, me and my sweetheart were looking for a nice place to get a drink before heading back to Miami...

We got off the main drag, and out of the corner of my eye I see a sign that says "Tiki Bar."

So we stop, and I was never more dissapointed. It was a bar at the marina, with a few coconut parrots, and the titles of several Jimmy Buffett songs on signs through out the place... UGH. We left pretty fast. Beware, and just go see Kern at the Mai-Kai.

This is a very common occurrence in Florida. Proprietors of bars, restaurants and hotels will often call any outdoor bar that is under a palm thatched roof a "tiki bar" -- even in the absence of anything that is tiki. The thatched hut structures are, in fact, really "Chickee bars." A Chickee is the Seminole Indian word for "house." http://www.seminoletribe.com/culture/chickee.shtml Chickee huts are very prolific in the South Florida area (the Seminole Tribe will even construct one for you.) You see them at beaches and in people's back yards used for shade and shelter. But for some reason, some people think that if you serve an alcholic beverage underneath one, it is somehow tranformed into a "tiki bar."

I have to correct your post. In Florida a "tiki" bar is any outdoor bar. I have been to ones with metal (not-thatched) roofs. In Florida, the word "tiki" is mis-used the most!! Their are approx. 11,231 self proclaimed "tiki" bars in Florida--less than one-tenth of one percent have a tiki on the property! URGH!