Post #574639 by Chip and Andy on Fri, Feb 4, 2011 7:05 AM

Apparently I missed the winning answer and being at work I'm not going to go back to find it at the moment...... so I'll just add this to the conversation:

Love.

Or lack thereof from todays current "Management."

The Tiki Bar as we know it was an attempt for some to cash in on the success of others. Trader Vic copied Donn Beach, Bill Sapp and the Thorton Brothers copied Trader Vic, et cetera and so on.

Ultimately it isn't any different than Bennigan's copying Friday's copying Applebee's.

But, what is missing in most of today's 'Management' is Love.

I'll use the Mai Kai as the example since it is right down the street. The Thorton Brothers wanted to build a bar, loved the Tiki Palace's of the day, saw those same establishments were making lots of money, and made their own Tiki Bar in what was then the very outskirts of Fort Lauderdale.

But, it wasn't just a cookie cutter placement of some tikis and bamboo. They actually put some love into the place. One or both of the brothers would regularly travel into Oceania to get more and/or better things to add to their bar. They didn't 'hire' people, they brought them into the 'Family' of the Mai Kai.

It is the love of the place, the theme, the idea, the family, the overall concept that kept it going, and specifically to the Mai Kai, keeps it going to this day.

Modern Managers with their staff of MBA's and excel spreadsheets and marketing analysis look at places with an analytical mind, how many people can we fit, what is the rate of churn, how can we get them to stay long enough to have several drinks but not so long as to take up space from the next round of paying customers.

Its not right or wrong, its just a different way of analyzing a business.

Some of those MBA types really enjoy a good tiki bar, some wouldn't know a Tiki if it jumped off the wall and bit them in the ass. The rest of them learned in school how to 'maximize profit' and use all those profit maximization techniques to their benefit even if it is to the detriment of interesting or colorful places like Tiki Bars.

Which brings my long and winding dialog back around to the only way to keep 'our beloved tiki bars' open and functioning is to spend as much time and money as we can afford at those tiki bars. Become cheerleaders for your local tiki bars and get people to go to them, show them how cool they are so they in turn bring others, and so on. Profitable places don't get torn down or remodeled.