Post #3752 by bigbrotiki on Mon, Jul 15, 2002 11:01 AM

You're right Chris. I again have to warn the youngens not to get spoiled by the seemingly paradisical picture painted in the Book of Tiki. When I started on the trail of Tiki there were NO Tiki mugs used in ANY remaining Polynesian palaces. Places like Bahooka and the Royal Hawaiian have weathered the Tiki-less times of the 80s and 90s, been stripped of any Tiki wares by greedy customers, seen the suppliers dissappear. They are not (at least not yet) gonna get all new Tiki Farm utensils for a bunch of kids that think the Book of Tiki is a restaurant guide. (Trader Vic and the Bali Hai are leading the way with their re-issues by Tiki Farm, but those are hopefull signs only.)

Be appreciative of the few untouched places that have survived, forgive the bad mixology and marvel at the firmament of lamps and aquariums at Bahooka's, for example.

Again also, that is not to say that one should not MENTION to the staff that it would be NICE for the cocktails to be served in an appropriate vessel, and it would be NICE if the cocktail would not taste like spiked Cool Aid...

The mana of Bahooka's is tainted by a completely different story:

When graduating from Pasadena Art Center together with his friend Bosko, young Tiki enthusiast and Bahooka fan Mark Ryden made a fine rendering for them and proposed it to them as a logo. As not unusual in many of the hardened Tiki-holocaust survivors, the reaction was a gruff "not interested".

So young Mark was more than a little surprised to find his artwork reproduced on the Bahooka T-shirts some time later...

Just another tale in the endless tradition of Tiki imagery "transmission".