Post #354086 by Mike the Headhunter on Thu, Jan 10, 2008 12:03 PM

My official review.
Last night I went to Asheville and had hopes for a nice little tikiesque joint with a nice atmosphere and good drinks. I was greatly relieved to find the place to be a nice neo-tiki bar with a good amount of decor, friendly wait staff, and an accommodating bartender. First thing I noticed about the place was it had no, exterior signage my friend and I walked right by it and didn't even see it. The interior was nicely lite not too dark but definitely not all neon'e(?). Heavy maritime/pirate theme with a nice splash of Polynesian pop ruled the decor. The painted tikis that sit at the entrances of the booths are brightly painted in the Florida beach style. I asked about them and "E-V(I didn't ask for formal information so if i get the name wrong sorry)" who is one of the owner's wife. She said they came from coco beach, and were signed by Artist Mai tiki(wayne coombs? don't know). The bar wall had an excellent set up with all mugs being from tiki farm. It has a huge white, lit moai, which was more comforting as the night went on. I found there was no Heavy metal karaoke or band set-up so it will not likely ever happen(Evey really hates when there are jackoffs ruining a good bar experience, my quote... her comment was way more polite). The tv was set to just show what was playing on the satelight radio and caused no distractions.
The Drinks; Adequate, but pricey(10 spot for a nice mai tai). Beer selection was fine, Mountain area is very much about microbrew and local wine. I asked for a hurricane but they were not able to make due to not having a supply of passion fruit juice/syrup. I was not impressed with the painkiller but the rest of my party enjoyed it(i still can't enjoy malibu rum, cruzan). I asked for a suffering bastard and found they had no recipe so i went to the back and made a call to my house got the grog log recipe and they made me one for 6 bucks. I finished myself off with 2 more and called it an evening well spent.
The food was excellent, we had to order a pitcher of tot and they were good(All nay sayer go to hell)! The hot raspberry chicken wings were awesome the tiki torcher hot sauce was a bit uncalled for when asking for just hot sauce, but it has an outstanding flavor and it will light you up. My friend was loving it. I plan to return just to sample one of the grouper sandwiches.
In closing... I will definitely be returning when money presents itself again, when i just need to relax in ashevile or have time while in Asheville. Definitely on my December bar crawl agenda. two thumbs up, neo tiki, 2out4 tipsy factor in my eyes. A-OK!