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Tiki Central / Locating Tiki / New Tiki (formerly - Tiki Lau), Westford, MA (restaurant)

Post #175662 by tikigreg on Fri, Jul 29, 2005 5:21 PM

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T

Name:New Tiki
Type:restaurant
Street:Littleton Road
City:Westford
State:MA
Zip:01886
country:USA
Phone:978-692-2355
Status:defunct

Description:
It pays to turn your friends onto tiki! Kathleen and I spent a long weekend in Hampton Beach, NH to see our favorite comedian Brian Regan, and to enjoy the sand & surf. A friend and old neighbor of ours had recently moved to Massachusetts, and he lives and works on the way. We decided to visit him on our return from the beach.

We met up with our friend Tim at his workplace, and from there we went for coffee. He mentions to me on the ride that he wants to show me the tiki restaurant he told me about. I didn't recall him telling me this, so I said I must have had a few mai tais when he told me.

The place was closed as we pulled in, as it was only 10 a.m. at the time. So we went to get coffee, and came back at 11:30 when they opened for lunch.

For those of you breaking out your Tiki Roadtrip tomes at this point, it's listed under "sites permanently closed." Rest assured, it is very open. Naturally, I was excited to come across an undiscovered and up to this point declared dead tiki establishment.

So here are the pics. This is the sign that is visible from the road:

And this is the side of the building:

And here's the grand moai above the entrance:

He looks like he has a bad case of eczema on his forehead. Also looks like his eyes light up, but it was too early to tell.

As you enter, a carved palmwood tiki greets you on the left, and a very anemic fish pond with sad turtles on the right. Here's the tiki:

I didn't bother taking a picture of the fish pond.

Needless to say, we were the only ones in the place at 11:30 in the morning, other than the staff. We were seated by what I assume was the manager/owner, who we never saw again. Our waitress was nice enough, although she seemed to be distracted by other concerns, like, "Did I leave the stove on at home?"

Kathleen ordered a Pina Colada, I ordered a Suffering Bastard, and our friend Timmy had water (he don't drink). We asked the waitress if the drinks came in tiki mugs as pictured in the menu, but she replied that all those mugs had been stolen years ago.

The waitress returned with our drinks, which were actually fairly good. She also brought us the prefunctory appetizers, but with a bit of a twist. In the next pic, you can see the tea, duck sauce, and hot mustard, yet the fried noodles must have been on backorder, since we received:

Yes, that's french bread. I could only assume they were trying for the French Polynesian connection there.

Luckily, our meals were a bit better, standard, yet good, chinese cuisine. There are only six items on the menu listed as Polynesian, and even those are a bit of a stretch.

So overall, not a tiki mecca, but a nice surprise if you're not expecting it, or worth it if you're in the area and want a quick tiki fix.

As we were leaving the place, our friend peeked through the glass of the door next to the entrance tiki, and said "So that's where the locals gather!" I peeked in to see a bar, and a few tiki masks on the wall. It was quite dark, and there was a rather huge patron perched on one of the bar stools, so I didn't bother to venture in. I'll leave that for the next brave tikiphile that wants to explore and document this off-the-beaten-path establishment.

[ Edited by: tikigreg 2007-03-15 04:35 ]

[ Edited by: tikigreg 2012-02-24 11:46 ]