Opening a new Tiki bar restaurant? What do you look for in a Tiki bar? - General Tiki

A AceExplorer Grand Member (8 years) Deep in the Jacksonville Flori-duh jungle. Joined: Apr 03, 2008 Posts: 2564	A AceExplorer Posted posted on Tue, Jan 22, 2019 6:20 AM Good questions, good thread. My two cents: Good drinks help a lot. Good food helps a lot. Laid-back people chilling and relaxing and having a good time is essential. Atmosphere and vibe are very important, and to me, this means having kitschy / idealized / stylized island decor to create a feeling of escapism, and I think Bamboo Ben nails it. Anyone who follows his lead and executes his designs and gets his vision will be the proud owner of a good tiki space. I always exclude the colorful Clown Tiki stuff though - it's just garish, distracting, and too in-your-face - it screams cluelessness about tiki despite truly being a subset of the tiki landscape. I'm afraid someday someone will work to catalog and document this stuff because of how prevalent it has become, thanks to Party City, Jimmy Buffett, and others. So tiki has unfortunately "devolved" in many places into Clown Tiki. Those modern perceptions are really unfortunate. But it's out there, and it helps us better identify the more vintage styles of Polynesian Pop which are nostalgic and exaggerated depictions of mid-century tropical places. The real deal always makes me go "wow!" when I encounter it. I'm lucky to have a tiki bar near me which is attached to a legacy Chinese restaurant. The owner gets it. They hit all the high notes for me -- good drinks, good decor, good food, good people, good music, all without douchiness. I meet good people there, and I love that place... Look up Pagoda Chinese Restaurant if you're in town. Really down-home and lovingly created by a family member who really cares about tiki and about presenting a tiki environment. Good stuff.

Good questions, good thread. My two cents:

Good drinks help a lot. Good food helps a lot. Laid-back people chilling and relaxing and having a good time is essential.
Atmosphere and vibe are very important, and to me, this means having kitschy / idealized / stylized island decor to create a feeling of escapism, and I think Bamboo Ben nails it. Anyone who follows his lead and executes his designs and gets his vision will be the proud owner of a good tiki space.

I always exclude the colorful Clown Tiki stuff though - it's just garish, distracting, and too in-your-face - it screams cluelessness about tiki despite truly being a subset of the tiki landscape. I'm afraid someday someone will work to catalog and document this stuff because of how prevalent it has become, thanks to Party City, Jimmy Buffett, and others. So tiki has unfortunately "devolved" in many places into Clown Tiki. Those modern perceptions are really unfortunate. But it's out there, and it helps us better identify the more vintage styles of Polynesian Pop which are nostalgic and exaggerated depictions of mid-century tropical places. The real deal always makes me go "wow!" when I encounter it.

I'm lucky to have a tiki bar near me which is attached to a legacy Chinese restaurant. The owner gets it. They hit all the high notes for me -- good drinks, good decor, good food, good people, good music, all without douchiness. I meet good people there, and I love that place... Look up Pagoda Chinese Restaurant if you're in town. Really down-home and lovingly created by a family member who really cares about tiki and about presenting a tiki environment. Good stuff.

Post #792607 by AceExplorer on Tue, Jan 22, 2019 6:20 AM