Post #504966 by bigbrotiki on Sun, Jan 17, 2010 7:14 AM

You have every right to be happy about having a good Mai Tai source and hang out in your neighborhood, Bohemian. This is the age old clash between believers and fans of the ARTFORM of Tiki, and those who are mainly interested in

Bohemiann wrote:
Compared to some Dives I have visited that are celebrated as tiki bars this one measures up, and indeed exceeds, in several categories.
It comes down to this for me:

Drink Quality
Ambiance
Food Quality
Service
Aloha

Please remember TC is not a restaurant review site, there are MANY other sites for that. This site is primarily about Tiki CULTURE.
The above qualities (leaving out "Ambience" for the moment) ARE indeed all the reasons why any normal person would like a restaurant. Thing is, Tiki Centralites are not "normal". They are a strange breed who (some of them) actually PREFER dive bars, (or old, authentic, aged environs with patina), I again quote from my intro to Tiki Road Trip:

"The criteria for the search of a Tiki establishment are quite different than those for any other restaurant.
Humility in the face of the rarity of the few remaining Tiki temples is a good attitude. Do not expect epicurean sensations, and if you want friendly family service, go to IHOP. This is urban archeology, and if the carpet is stained and the blowfish lamps are mummified from forty years of nicotine, appreciate the place as if it was King Tut’s tomb, it is not supposed to be Starbucks."

Now this just to explain a difference in criteria between some folks who primarily (and they have every right to) want that Drink Quality/Food Quality/Service/Aloha thing, and those of us who primarily appreciate Tiki style as an art form. And, mind you these two things are not mutually exclusive (even though it sometimes feels that way). Off course we all would like nothing better than to have all under one roof.

Many here have fallen in love with Tiki through books and images like mine, which for the first time depicted the uniqueness and creativity of Tiki Style in its heyday. It is THAT quality of inventiveness, complexity, and distinctiveness that made them fall in love with Tiki, and that is missing in today's world in so many ways. Now, calling on YOUR objectivity, is the above place a place you would fervently "fall in love with"?

I am fully aware that we are a minority, and that restaurants have to survive, and that customers can't all be expected to know the "manual" of Tiki (especially if it's out of print) :), but that will not keep us from fighting the good fight for a style that initially got us here in the first place.

There are many who really don't SEE the difference between the above place and classic Tiki style. This site is here to point it out.