Post #618984 by telescopes on Wed, Dec 28, 2011 1:23 PM

Ha! What an understatement. However, I wish you all the luck in the world in trying to get this done. I am a life-long resident of Saint Louis - except for the last ten years, and I spent 25 of those years searching for the perfect polynesian drink. The closest I came was a place called the Golden Palace on Lindbergh Blvd in the Hazelwood area in the late 80's and early 90's. At last, they are no more. I searched and searched for tiki mugs - I found a few in the West Port area.

Saint Louisians are extremely conservative. My best advice would be to open up an Asian-like establishment ala Don the Beachcomber in the 1930's. A bar with 'exotic" nibbles might work. Also, you may have to focus more on an Island-theme knowing full well that this area is extremely 'jimmy buffeted".

An alternative would be a "rum bar" such as Smuggler's Cove or high end such as Cana in LA.

A full scale Forbidden Island approach might make this crowd in St. Louis think it was a "sissy or girl" bar. Sorry TC, the mid west sees "holidays" such as "Cinco De Mayo as reasons to drink beer and perhaps margaritas. Mexican is about as exotic as they get - that is if you don't include Roxies and the bars of East St. Louis.

What I am suggesting is you have to come under the radar until you get established in a place like this. St. Louis is Brick and Mortar. It is BBq- not smoked, but splattered with sauce. It is pork steaks, thin crust pizza smothered in Provel Cheese - yah, google that one, and Bud Beer. It's baseball, and hockey. It's riverboat casinos and dirty filthy downtown establishments in Laclede's Landing. It's a place where racism is worn on your sleeve and people don't say the "n" word - they just say it.

It's the Hill and Italian rules. It's Milos where people use to drink the WALL until the insurance companies put an end to that. It's where puking your guts out and throwing up outside the door of your car is considered the hallmark of a good time.

It's where the first thing people want to know is what high school you graduated from - "Pattonville" for the record. It's a land of Big Box Churches and mean little bars that co-exist and everyone demonstrates their love for one another by pushing the boundaries of "white flight" to places like St. Charles and Jefferson Counties. Hell, they even move as far as Troy and Desoto.

It's rough streets and one of the Nation's most dangerous cities - only the natives will remind you that no one really lives in St. Louis proper anyway.

I love my home town area. But you have a real challenge. Tiki stands for nothing that I've written about above and while St. Louis needs a good place to escape to in order to avoid everything I just wrote about, let me remind you that for most of the townies, escapism is found in front of a big screen TV watching football and yelling at the screen.

Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to hop into my car, go to Carl's Drive-In or perhaps Steak and Shake, down a few White Castles, and eat a pizza at Imo's After that, I'll head on over to Forest Park and slide down Art Hill.

Have I left anything out?