Post #760946 by JenTiki on Wed, Mar 16, 2016 1:52 PM

On 2016-03-16 12:18, tikiskip wrote:
Don't we see tiki Star wars tiki bars ect on TC all the time.

So I'm not into a tiki bar with a Star wars or sports twist.

Me neither. I'm not a fan of dueling concepts when one of those concepts is Tiki. I think that's one of the (many) reasons Tiki Hideaway in Charlotte failed. It started with a "Mad Men meets Tiki" concept, which I think could have worked if either was done well, but I think they only served to dilute each other making it rather vague slightly mid-century, slightly tiki, mostly modernist with a passing nod to the other two themes.

One of the things I LOVE about Martin Cate's bars is the commitment to a fully realized immersive environment with every detail painstakingly true to the primary theme of the concept. Smuggler's Cove and Whitechapel both have that true feeling of entering a whole different place with a clear concept of what it's supposed to be. I wish more bar owners could just pick a theme and take it to the nth degree like that!