Post #257753 by christiki295 on Thu, Sep 28, 2006 9:30 PM

I drove by today. The sign is outside, and empty frames inside, appear to be all that is left of the Voodoo Room.

The Voodoo Room had all the trappings of a Great tiki bar, excellent drinks, tiki mugs, styling decor. The cuisine was incredible.

However, I do wonder if it had a sufficiently strong following against its operations cost, although I have also wondered that about the Lucky Tiki and the Tonga Hut.

Their location, on Robertson & Santa Monica, with parking should have been a huge asset. Some say that particular location is cursed, and maybe they are right, several restaurants have come and gone at that location.

It was in the heart of boys town, and next to two gay bars, yet it had no gay clientle.
I suggested they have young, cute guys in tapa cloth sarongs out front, but that was not implemented.

A straight bar can excel in Boys Town. Barney's Beanery has been around forever, even though it was openly hostile to gays, having a "NO FAGS" sign.

Moreover, West Hollywood is not all gay. There was a straight bar down the street on Robertson. The LATimes recently published an article about how West Hollywood was becoming less gay and more straight. Such has already occurred in Silverlake, where one gay bar is now straight and another gay bar has closed.

While the young straight crowd appeared on Saturdays, it also was never very full like Purple Orchid can be on the weekends.

The Voodoo Room will be missed, particularly as they did not provide proper notice for a closing party.

However, maybe, with additional financing, it can rise, like a Pheonix, in Lahinia, Maui, by offering tourists a Hawaiian experience to go along with the Jimmy Buffet inspired Hamburger in Paradise.

Hopefully, Lucky Tiki and the Tonga Hut can hang in there.

With the potential demise of Trader Vics, LA & OC will have lost over half of its tiki bars within a year or two.

[ Edited by: christiki295 2006-09-28 21:39 ]