Post #732296 by SoCal Savage on Fri, Nov 28, 2014 11:14 AM

Was this list about places that serve the best Tiki cocktails or was it about the best Tiki bars? I've had great Tiki cocktails in places all over the country from Descarga in LA to Top of the Monk in Ashville NC. Izakaya a hipster Whiskey bar in Eugene Oregon makes a respectful (if small) painkiller.

From my humble perspective, if you are only judging a bar on it's mixology than it doesn't have to be Tiki bar to get a good Tiki drink.

Someone brought up the Bahooka earlier on this thread. The first Tiki bar I ever went to was Tiki Ti and as everyone knows the place is steeped in history and the drinks are outstanding - having said that it wasn't until I went to the Bahooka that I really got enamored with Tiki as a fully immersive experience and got inspired to build a lounge in my own house. My first visit to Bahooka led to finding Oceanic arts, the Tonga Hut, the ITMP and ultimately this forum. Anyone who ever had the pleasure of going to the Bahooka knows the drinks were FAR from craft and the food... I won't even get started, but it was the experience of being in a fully immersive environment, a living diorama that took you into another state of mind. True escapism tied to a very specific artistic/historical aesthetic. I've been lucky enough to go to Smugglers cove and Forbidden Island, but the Tonga room has such history it very much deserves to be on this list regardless of the drink quality. I would never consider the Mai Tai's at Damons "real" Mai Tai's but I still go there because the place feels so good. As much as I enjoy the drinks, it's the history and the adherence to the artistic aesthetic that drew me in to this whole wonderful thing in the first place