Post #661388 by bigbrotiki on Thu, Dec 13, 2012 5:51 AM

This is one of the bars built and outfitted by the British team of Cheeky Tiki ( http://cheekytikiuk.blogspot.com ) The British Tiki revival that was ushered in by the big success of London's Mahiki, their crown jewel, shows no sign of abating. When I met Jamie at the Trader Vic's in Munich recently, he told me that have outfitted 20 Tiki Bars in the last 4 years - some now in foreign locations like India. They provide the whole package, not only the decor, but also the bar menu and the mugs, very much like a Trader Vic's.

Strangely, they have left "Tiki" and "American mid-century" pretty much out of the terminology, to not overtax the average college kid with too much history, and so 98 % of the clientele of these clubs believe they are experiencing a whole new concept - not a bad approach for a new business, it appears. Their merry imbibers have no idea why there are pufferfish lamps on the ceiling, why the drinks are aflame and who Beachbum Berry is or the BOT - just that this all vaguely has to do with Hawaii.

The irony is that here in the U.S., we could count ourselves lucky if we had bars opening on this level of craftsmanship and thought-through concept, but too often new attempts here end up half-baked and Tiki-lite. The current British Tiki bar revival mirrors very much the original rise of the Tiki bar in mid-century America: With the financial success of the Mahiki and other Cheeky Tiki- built bars in London, the rest of the Britannia's bar proprietors wanted a piece of the pie and jumped on the band wagon, very much like the rest of America did when they saw Trader Vic and Don The Beachcomber succeed with their outfits. It's an economically, not culturally driven fad, just like the original was.