Post #416001 by tikiyaki on 10/29/2008

On 2008-10-28 16:33, Tom Slick wrote:

Adam Tschorn from L.A. Times wrote:
Tiki's new presence at the high end reflects the same co-opting of subculture that turned the swing-dance underground at Los Feliz's Derby into a worldwide craze for $22 martinis and transformed Kustom Kar culture into a launch pad for $50 Von Dutch trucker caps.

I said it earlier in the other post, but I'll restate my question....What does the new Luau review in the L.A. Times have to do with $15,000 Shag Originals and $5,000 Witco bars?
The author is seemingly adding fuel to a unwanted fire of trendyness.

Are they trying to justify the Beverly Hills location? Could it be the potential "Paris Hilton-esque" clientel they are trying to lure into the tiki scene? Or could it be justification for the inflated food prices on the Luau's menu?
Let me also point out, I do not make any criticism towards any of the builders/artists involved in the installation of the Neo-Luau, as I figure they only did what the owner wished by his own concepts and visions for the place. I do however, criticize the article which was written. Now, everyone not already into Witco is going to go in search mode to find witco bars to buy under 5k and automatically and artificially inflate the real market value????

I don't think anyone's trying to win anyone over on the Tiki scene...Us few thousand Tiki Geeks on TC are an island unto ourselves. Total tiki lifestyle junkies.
I think they're trying to predict Tiki as the next "big thing" for the celebutards and trend following hipsters. Honestly, I hope that doesn't happen, cos that's what usually ruins cool stuff like this. Hopefully, it will quietly work itself back into the vernacular that is the LA restaurant and bar scene and it lights a fire but doesn't make a big BANG. A slow build would be nice.

Either way, some press is a good thing, so when trader Vics Downtown opens, people will go and the place will survive. After All, we want more cool tiki places to go, don't we ?

As for the Witco stuff.....It will no doubt go the way of Heywood Wakefield, Danish Modern and Eames/Herman Miller and get pricey...anything that old that had a very big heyday always resurfaces as collectible and the big money folks will no doubt start collecting some of this stuff.

Sorry for the bad news, but Witco's resurgence is here....AND...Not for nothin' but an entire beautifully packaged Hardcover book dedicated to Witco sure doesn't help keep it a "best kept secret"...Thanx Sven ! :)

[ Edited by: tikiyaki 2008-10-28 19:21 ]