RA
Joined: Mar 05, 2006
Posts: 66
|
RA
On 2007-09-15 09:27, GatorRob wrote:
As much as I love the idea of a resurrection of tiki palaces, I suspect the only ones that would be financially viable as a new business would be those operated in the same vein as Rainforest Cafe. In a way, Rainforest Cafe is the modern day equivalent of the tiki palace. Read this description:
The restaurant is decorated to show some features of a rain forest, including plant growth, mist, waterfalls, robotic animals and bug life. Large marine aquariums are common in most restaurants. Automated water sprinklers, set to specific patterns and coinciding lights are also featured. A simulated thunderstorm occurs every 30 minutes. It is not only simulated rain; in addition, lights flash to look like lightning while thunder is played through high-powered subwoofers, and all the robotic animals panic. The restaurant is partitioned into several rooms by means of rain curtains which fall into basins running along the tops of partition walls and booths. The flow rate of these rain curtains intensifies during the simulated thunderstorms.
Replace the robotic animals and bug life with tikis and thatched huts and you've got a tiki palace. Of course, the biggest difference is Rainforest Cafe is targeted to families with small children. Their success is proof that themed dining is far from extinct, but it has evolved from a place where Mr and Mrs Jones go to unwind in a tropical rum-soaked fantasy world to a place where young familes go to have fun.
And look where Rainforest Cafes are located: Disney theme parks, Mall of America, Vegas, etc. All tourist-driven places with larger than life, over the top themeing already. So Rainforest fits right in. I seriously doubt Rainforest could exist in the middle of a city like the tiki palaces of old did.
I fantasize about opening a tiki palace too. But I know that unless I'm Bill Gates, it ain't gonna happen. Mai-Kai excepted, large themed restaurants that cost tens of millions of dollars to open aren't owned by individuals. They're owned and operated by large corporations. Rainforest is run by a publicly traded corporation with 28,000 employees and annual revenue of over a billion dollars. That just takes the fun out of it for me...
You mentioned Forbidden Island. Of course, they're a completely different animal. I'm glad they're owned and operated by people like Martin Cate who "get it" from our perspective, but I suspect their success is due not to their tiki theme, but because they are a well run neighborhood bar. A tiki themed Cheers "where everybody knows your name". (Forgive the analogy Martin. I wouldn't think of ordering a beer at FI. Do you even serve beer?) And they serve top quality drinks and have received a lot of positive press because of that.
With all that said though, I do hope you open your dream tiki palace someday. I'll be first in line when the doors open. :)
Rob,
I believe F.I. is a good example of why a small, well-run Tiki bar could have the makings for a sucessful larger restaurant. After all, both Hinky Dinks and Don the Beachcomber both began as small taverns. F.I., as I mentioned before, is garnering lots of praise in the East Bay, and from what I'm told by friends and family outside of Tiki, it is quite popular. For many reasons I'm sure, but firstly, and I'm not speaking for Martin here, i feel consumers aren't used to that level of quality. There was a study done by the Bartenders Association of America in Las Vegas (or something like that, I don't have the article) and the biggest problem they found was inconsistency. There's only about five drinks you can order in a bar that aren't open to interpretation (Martini, Manhattan, Gin Tonic, Old Fashioned, etc) and we as tropical mixologists know more than anybody, Tropical drinks suffer at the hands of bad interpretation more than anything. A Mai Tai in vegas will be different in every hotel/casino bar, guaranteed. And on top of that, they will be made poorly. A good example of this is when I went to Hawaii and had a drink at the "birthplace of the blue hawaiian," the Hilton Hawaiian Village. It was a blue slurpee in a plastic cup made with grain nuetral spirits. Even the Hilton management has given up on taking the time to make the very thing they invented
I have never been to a Rainforest Cafe, but I have walked past one, noted the clientele and facade, and immediately knew it was not going to have good food or drinks. Not to sound like a snob, and I know none of us are high on the Rainforest Cafe, but it has nothing to offer but a place to keep the kids distracted enough while the parents suck down a few over sweetened hurricane glasses full of blue garbage. I do not want Tiki to be re-invented to reflect that image.
What maybe I failed at conveying in my original rant was my interest in the public's, or consumers, desire for themed places that aren't just found in the ghettos of family "destination" areas. Walt Disney gets a lot of credit for "theming," for better or worse (see Disneyization of Society by Alan Bryman), but Don Beach might have been first. I can't say this definitively, but I feel Disney got the "theming" model from Tiki. You can see a heavy Tiki influence in the infant years of Disneyland. More so, both Tiki in its heyday and Walt Disney upheld a strict commitment to excellence, something missing from todays Rainforest Cafes and Saddle Ranches. I am no restaurantuer, but diners respond to quality. And they like to be pleasantly distracted too. That's why the Tonga room survives, as mediocre as the fare might be, its a unique experience exclusive to that location.
Astronaut
[ Edited by: Registered Astronaut 2007-09-16 20:00 ]
|
