Post #503338 by Gigantalope on Sun, Jan 10, 2010 12:51 AM

I think the place opened in 2004 or so. The two guys who opened it originally spent a lot of money on the place. Several years back a bloke named Tim took over the business and ran it until New Years, last week. Smoke Tiki was never a typical Tiki bar and of late, it seemed to drift further and further the direction of a loud Nightclub.

Tho not my favorite Tiki spot, I was always happy it existed, and really loved the decore, especially in the back yard area.

In recent times the Crooks who run San Jose have decided that they want to build a revenue generating Parking Garage where the bar is (Just like the Joni Mitchell song) so guests at the bar have been getting hassled by the cops, The city has cited Smoke Tiki for bogus code violations and making it hard to do business.

What seemed to happen was the 2nd owner walked away, the previous owners are stuck with the property. The carrot for the City would be to buy the Commercial land from a distressed sale with no active business open thanks in large part to them.

The old owners needed to get as much as they can out of what's in the building and there is more money in the industrial refrigerators and stoves than in the tiki stuff.

From the perspective of a Tikiphile, it seems shallow that some business owners would not realize how much we value the stuff that transforms a bar into a Tiki Bar.

I am sad the place is gone, but kinda happy a few of us were able to get some of the stuff.

[ Edited by: Gigantalope 2010-01-10 22:09 ]