Post #283249 by Kilty McTiki on Mon, Feb 5, 2007 9:46 AM

My Tiki experiences began when I was younger, too. Not from my parents, but my grandparents (I'm almost 40 if that helps place me for you). I was never actually cogniscent of a Tiki culture growing up, but the grand-folks definitely were. They traveled a lot, and always brought back cool stuff from the places they visited. Now, occasionally they'd bring back stuff for us, but it was always the stuff they just happened to bring back by accident that I liked. Things like swizzle sticks, and coconuts carved to look like monkeys, and neat cocktail glasses, and the like. And many of these things were tiki-related in some way.

Add to that their "porch" room in the back of the house. It was a summer room, one that was closed off during the winter but heavily used during the summer (they lived in Cleveland). The walls were almost solidly louvered windows and the furniture was all bamboo with tropical patterns on it. The carpet out there had tropical patterns, too, as I remember. And they were most certainly in the cocktail world - grandpa was a whiz with a shaker and a few bottles in front of him. This was what I grew up with when we visited by grandparents (which was pretty often).

I've also always loved shows about mysterious places, far-off lands, etc. I was a big National Geographic geek (still am). Places like Stonehenge, Egypt, etc. grabbed my attention easily. One place that I always liked to read about and see documentaries about was Easter Island. The Moai there fascinated me.

So to see places that combined the world of cocktails with those far-off places drew me in easily. Through the preponderance of Celtic festivals and the like (a Scottish one in my hometown and an Irish one in Columbus where I moved later), I was first pulled in to the Irish Pub scene, and still enjoy going to places that recall that green and pleasant land. But more recently, I've started to wander back into my own past and pulled out the cocktail culture that my grandparents enjoyed.

Upon moving to Columbus about ten years ago, I spent a lot of time getting to know the city with my grandparents (who had moved from Cleveland to Columbus 15-20 years before me). One day, in early 2000, they introduced me to this place called the Kahiki. I loved it from the moment we pulled up to it - gawked at the exterior for a while until they pulled me inside and I gawked the interior for a while, too. We were there for brunch, so I wasn't able to partake of any cocktails that day due to the puritanical Ohio drinking on Sunday laws. But the decor reawoke that love of island-type looks that I still have today.

You probably know the history of the Kahiki, but suffice to say its loss sort of ended my tiki affection for the time being, though it would rear its head occasionally during trips to Disney World, the West Coast, and the occasional odd flea market/what have you where a tiki item might be found.

I'm not sure what re-reawoke this recently, but I found myself looking around on the internet for information on the Kahiki and whether they were ever going to rebuild it, and I discovered this site as well as information on the Tropical Bistro in town (run by former staff of the Kahiki and showing off many of the decor pieces). Well, I made my way to the Bistro with my family over the weekend and fell back in love with this stuff as an adult. So now my copy of Sven Kirsten's book is on the way to me, I've been perusing my cocktails books for tropical recipes, and I've pretty much jumped back into this with both feet for a while. We'll see where it takes me, but suffice to say I'm very pleased to see this forum with its appreciation of all things mysterious and fun. I look forward to chatting with you folks!