Post #792636 by Prikli Pear on Wed, Jan 23, 2019 12:17 PM

On 2019-01-22 16:06, tikiskip wrote:
“Latitude 29 borders on tiki lite for me”

Wow! I would not give that place that grade but then I have not been there.
The pics make it look great, but then I always tell people to get Bosco's or Tiki Diablo tiki for their joints so I may be Bias.

I say this because Bosco's or Tiki Diablo look good and they will hold some value if you do go out some day.
At some point in time you will sell or close the place.
[ Edited by: tikiskip 2019-01-22 19:10 ]

That does come off as a little harsh, doesn't it? The Bosko and Tiki Diablo work is legit. The place is clean and orderly. It has none of the layered clutter effect many associate with the top tiki bars. There aren't any Indonesian tikis in there. The table we were seated at had two Tiki Room Drummers above us. The Beachbum didn't try to go cheap with Lat 29, and I apologize to him and anyone else if I implied that.

But the decor is somewhat spare in comparison to other locations. It's also bright, as one wall is full of windows looking out onto a courtyard. The logistics and lease probably dictate all of this. As I said above, the vast majority of their clientele are not going to be tiki folk. Lots of clutter, it'd be far easier for things to walk off. Plus, any bar is only as good as its lease--once the current terms expire, they may well lose the space. The French Quarter has a lot of turnover in the businesses there, and it's not always because of bad management. Keeping the TIPSY factor modest makes it easier to pack up and relocate if/when that day comes. I don't know that's the thinking behind the current design, but it makes sense from what we saw. While there we witnessed several large parties wander in and take over the bar, and they were clueless about tiki--so much so that our waitress apologized to us because they were taking up all her time, needing her to explain the cocktails to them, etc. In the end, I'm not sure those groups could tell the difference between a Ponchatrain Pearl Diver and a hand grenade from Bourbon Street (beyond the fact that Lat 29 smells a whole lot better).

For us, the immersive experience was lacking, but the quality of the drinks and food, and friendliness of the staff (they did speak fluent tiki) were positives. There are several glass cabinets with historical tiki artifacts--mugs, ash trays, bottles, etc.--that were cool, and the bas relief map behind the bar is great. There are a lot of individual touches that are legit. I just don't feel that everything, taken as a whole, reaches critical mass if that makes any sense. I certainly wouldn't ever discourage anyone from going, but there are quite a few tiki bars I rather revisit before getting back to Lat 29 (for the record, we ended up staying at Lat 29 far longer than planned, so we didn't have time afterward to check out Tiki Tolteca, thus I have no comparison of New Orleans' two tiki establishments to offer. I guess that means Lat 29 is doing something right...)