Post #23499 by Luckydesigns on Wed, Feb 19, 2003 2:25 AM

Hey folks. I just got back from a trip up north and since I wouldn't be there for the SF crawl, I decided to have my own crawl. My girlfriend was kind enough to drive me all over the city after a day at the shops on Height and supervise my drinking. We put in the Mondo Exotica CD and set out on our adventure. This was last Sunday.

We started off at the Tonga at 6:00pm where I was greeted by a very curtious staff and served well at the bar. I've been to the Tonga three times before and every time but this time they were complete jerks. Just like their reputation holds. I was surprised by the service, though we didn't really ask for much or stay to debate the cover charge for that horrible band. I believe I had a Zombie and a Scorpion to drink there. If you haven't seen the Tonga yet, you must. Its decor is everything a tiki bar should be.

After the Tonga we moved on to Hawaii West. Just like the SF Bar Tour page says, it was divey but I didn't come across any surley locals. As a matter of fact everyone there was pretty nice. They were even playing Elvis and Sinatra on the juke box. Pretty cool. The bartender, while super nice and pretty hot, couldn't make a drink to save her life. I know that we can get into the debate about how to make a mai tai but I am just not into pineapple and grenadine in my mai tais. She also made some other frothy drink for me that wasn't that good. Did I mention that she was hot? Also, check out the tikis on top of the overhang over the bar. They aren't lit well and are kind of hard to see but are cool none-the-less.

After Hawaii West, we headed out to an Italian place for some pizza in North Beach.

Back to the tour; my favorite place that we visited was the Bamboo Hut. The place has really cool decor and an amiable staff. After we looked at the drink menu, my girfriend suggested that I get a volcano bowl, which usually serves four. Mind you she wasn't drinking at all, (I think she was trying to take advantage of me) so I would have to drink the bowl my self. Since I had never had a volcano bowl drink out of a real volcano bowl with the 151 lit on fire, I figured that now was as good a time as any to try it out. About two thirds into the bowl I thought that I should either throw in the towl or end up ruining some homeless guy's sleeping spot outside. I also told the bartender about the Tiki Room bar tour coming through. He was very interested in the site and excited about hosting a leg of the tour. Very cool decor in the Bamboo Hut.

The last place that we went to was Trader Sam's. I was excited about the place from the sign and the decore on the outside but felt let down once we made it inside. The juke box was playing some Guns N' Roses and other radio rock and the place was packed. The night that we went out on was the Sunday night of President's Day weekend so the college kids were out in great force. I didn't think that Sam's really seemed like a tiki bar to me. I don't remember seeing any tikis. Plenty of bamboo though. Also they were serving bowl drinks in plastic salad bowls and making mai tais again with pineapple and grenadine. By this time I was definately due for a beer instead of anything with rum in it so I had that and we left. I could picture having a great time there with a group of friends though. It was just to crowded for me this time.

Overall I had a great time on my tour and I would like to thank Otto for putting the SF Tiki Bar Tour page together. For those of you going to the SF tiki bar tour have a great time. I wish I could go another round.