Post #231343 by Humuhumu on Wed, May 10, 2006 11:07 AM

A tiki bar needs tikis. If what you're looking at is a bamboo hut with thatch on top, it's not a tiki bar, it's a bamboo bar. Once you put some tikis in it (and hopefully some tiki-friendly items like float lamps, pufferfish lamps, tapa cloth, etc.), only then is it a tiki bar.

There is much more confusion about this in Florida than in other parts of the nation/world. This is probably due to the many chikee-inspired huts, grown out of traditional Seminole housing that uses thatch. They look like they would be right at home inside of a tiki bar, and the words "chikee" and "tiki" sound similar enough to those who don't know what the words mean, that in Florida, it has become common to call them "tiki" huts. But they're not, and to perpetuate that misunderstanding would do a disservice to Seminole history, Polynesian Pop history, and most of all your readers. It has made it very, very hard to find a real tiki bar in Florida!