Post #772911 by Prikli Pear on Mon, Feb 13, 2017 10:43 AM

Howdy folks! I haven't been able to contribute much to the boards up until now, but I hope my visit to the new tiki bar in Dallas, Pilikia, is of interest. First, a little context. Up until 6 months or so ago, I had no idea tiki culture remained an active scene, as opposed to one that died out in the '70s. So I'm pretty much a newcomer top to bottom, beyond all those Gilligan's Island episodes I watched growing up. This past weekend took me to Fort Worth as a participant in ConDFW, a literature-focused science fiction convention. I had no programming obligations Friday night, and seeing as how I'd never visited an actual, for-true tiki bar before, I thought I'd make the jaunt over to Dallas and check out Pilikia, which only just opened at the end of January.

Name: Pilikia
Type: bar
Street: 3113 Ross Avenue
City: Dallas
State: TX
Zip:
country: USA
Phone: (214) 263-2915
Status: Operational
Website: http://www.facebook.com/Pilikiadallas or http://www.pilikiadallas.com/

First advice about driving in Dallas--don't do it. What mapped out as a 30 minute trip turned into an hour ordeal once all the road construction, detours and missed exits are accounted for. Pilikia itself is near the downtown just off the spaghetti snarl of highways, just a few miles from both West End and SMU campus. The neighborhood seemed quiet, a mix of old businesses, small warehouses and big, new apartment complexes going up, your typical gentrification process in action. The parking lot seemed smallish, and it's valet only (tip based, with no additional fee) which threw me a bit. There doesn't seem to be any convenient street parking nearby, so to my eye the lot is likely to fill up long before the bar itself does. The pergola-covered patio area with the bright Pilikia sign on top presents well from the street, but the entrance itself, with a thatch awning, flanking tikis and a big moai off to the side, seems a little tacked on.