Post #66337 by boutiki on Wed, Dec 24, 2003 1:43 PM

I can save everyone their time reading a long review with this two word summary: "It sucks!" At the risk of again being criticized for offering an opinion about a neo tiki bar I have not actually patronized, I will explain.

I became aware of the Bamboo Room this summer while working on the Exotica event. The club developers approached me and asked Amy and I to help with their new enterprise. I was hopeful and enthusiastic at first. I thought maybe someone would actualy try and do a propper old school Tiki bar. I could not have been more wrong.

We were invited out to see the space and to help make suggestions for decor, etc. When we got there and were shown around we were informed that they were not interested in making a real tiki bar, rather, a bar that made you think "tiki." We must have had dumbfounded expressions on our faces because we were then told that it would be more like their '70's themed bar down the road: "Boogie Nights." They actually wanted the kind of place that "by the end of the night girls would be dancing on the tables and on top of the bar, like that bar Coyote Ugly."

Needless to say, we fled and have not returned. ANYONE who considers themselves a Tiki enthusiast should be warned NEVER to darken their door. I would visit the Rock-A-Tiki 100 times (and even pay their ridiculous drink prices; at least they got the decor right) before I would ever give a dime to the Bamboo Room. It's insulting to see someone attempt to cash in on Tiki by treating it as no more than the trend du' jour.

It's a real shame that a bunch of idiot "nightclub developers" who've noticed that Shag is everywhere, and that there is a geniune tiki revival growing, are trying to exploit the situation.

Save your gas (the place is in Schamburg, for crying out loud!)and spend your money at one of the REAL tiki bars in Chicago.