Post #639778 by teamtom on Fri, Jun 8, 2012 9:43 AM

My lessons from 10 years of maintaining a "private" tiki bar in the summer:

Once I used fresh bamboo and will never make that mistake again. It split up and fell apart in 1 year. Same with bamboo / grass matting on vertical surfaces, with a wet season, it gets black and rots. Smells bad too.

Thatch is as good as your last hurricane season. I am looking at fake thatch now due to picking up 100 lbs of it out of the yard every spring. I currently have a recycled metal roof and love it for the zero maintenance.

Make the roof big enough so people can still sit at the bar if it's raining, and you can still make drinks without water dripping down your back.

I have to agree with shelving. My third version will have a lot more exposed shelving behind the bartender (me) to show off the rum and mugs.

Ice melts. I go through $30+ of ice on a good night. I need more fridge space at the bar to keep beer, juice, wine cold and that way gearing up and shutting down each time doesn't mean a lot of trips to the basement / garage fridges.

People bring you tiki stuff, all the time, a lot of it.

I hate paying shipping but I also hate driving. It evens out most times.

Just my $.02

Tom

[ Edited by: teamtom 2012-06-08 09:44 ]