Post #506173 by TikiHardBop on Fri, Jan 22, 2010 11:50 AM

Just my opinion, but I think the locals tiki-philes in the area should jump on this opportunity to establish a "beach head" tiki destination in the area. Sounds like they have at least a couple of decently made cocktails on the menu. Use that as a starting point. Getting people to see the difference between a well-made cocktail and the slushy margarita is the first step.

Perhaps they could meet with management and work with them to schedule tiki related events there. We have a local place on the beach that hosts ukulele and hula dancing lessons once a month. How about a battle of the mai tais kind of event? Do they plan on having live music? That opens all kinds of doors. How about a regularly scheduled meeting of tiki-philes with a presentation or two thrown in?

The trick is to get management to equate tiki with money. I was big into the swing dancing scene a while back and it was easy to get a club to host a swing night -- once. They had tons of dancers, but they didn't spend any money at the place. Once you've got them equating tiki with money, then you can start making subtle suggestions on how to make the place more authentic.