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

E EnchantedTikiGoth Member Calgary, Canada Joined: Dec 31, 2003 Posts: 355	E EnchantedTikiGoth Posted posted on Sat, Jan 26, 2019 10:54 AM Now a word from the resident ignoramus... I'm not fully up to snuff on what makes a good cocktail vs. an okay cocktail, and good service is always better than bad service. What really makes a Tiki bar for me is atmosphere, and more than that, some kind of compelling hook. A Tiki bar with a well-crafted, well-executed escapist atmosphere is good. I want to go to these bars because they're beautiful, intriguing spaces that feel out of the ordinary. Personally, I prefer lush, jungly aesthetics with lots of (fake) tropical flowers and water. That is a good baseline. What separates out the great from the good is that they have a hook, a thing, a catch, a gimmick... Something going on that catapults them into being truly extraordinary. Last summer, my wife and I were in Vancouver and went to the Shameful Tiki Room twice. Our favourite of the two nights had their Wednesday hula show. It's a beautiful bar, and the show was the added hook to really make it something out there. My favourite "real" Tiki bar so far is the Sip n' Dip, which probably falls short of many people's ideal in terms of drinks, service, and even decor. But it has live mermaids! My favourite "fake" Tiki bars are Disney's... My favourite Tiki attraction anywhere of all time is the Enchanted Tiki Room (does it count as a bar if I'm drinking a Dole Float?). It's built completely around the concept of providing a charming, enchanting, extraordinary show. That translates over to Trader Sam's, where the hook is all the Disney references. If, in some hypothetical future Disneyland, they were able to combine Trader Sam's and the Enchanted Tiki Room into a single entity, that would be perfect. Maybe that's influencing my approach: I want a Tiki bar that is a fully immersive themed experience. I don't have a rule as to what counts for a proper hook... The examples I gave so far were a hula show, live mermaids, animatronic singing birds and flowers, and Disney-themed tchotchkes and special effects. The hook could be performance-based, technological, or architectural, or thematic, or whatever. I've joked to friends that if I started a Tiki bar, I'd want it to be King Kong-themed and put this ride in it somehow.

Now a word from the resident ignoramus...

I'm not fully up to snuff on what makes a good cocktail vs. an okay cocktail, and good service is always better than bad service. What really makes a Tiki bar for me is atmosphere, and more than that, some kind of compelling hook.

A Tiki bar with a well-crafted, well-executed escapist atmosphere is good. I want to go to these bars because they're beautiful, intriguing spaces that feel out of the ordinary. Personally, I prefer lush, jungly aesthetics with lots of (fake) tropical flowers and water. That is a good baseline. What separates out the great from the good is that they have a hook, a thing, a catch, a gimmick... Something going on that catapults them into being truly extraordinary.

Last summer, my wife and I were in Vancouver and went to the Shameful Tiki Room twice. Our favourite of the two nights had their Wednesday hula show. It's a beautiful bar, and the show was the added hook to really make it something out there. My favourite "real" Tiki bar so far is the Sip n' Dip, which probably falls short of many people's ideal in terms of drinks, service, and even decor. But it has live mermaids! My favourite "fake" Tiki bars are Disney's... My favourite Tiki attraction anywhere of all time is the Enchanted Tiki Room (does it count as a bar if I'm drinking a Dole Float?). It's built completely around the concept of providing a charming, enchanting, extraordinary show. That translates over to Trader Sam's, where the hook is all the Disney references. If, in some hypothetical future Disneyland, they were able to combine Trader Sam's and the Enchanted Tiki Room into a single entity, that would be perfect. Maybe that's influencing my approach: I want a Tiki bar that is a fully immersive themed experience.

I don't have a rule as to what counts for a proper hook... The examples I gave so far were a hula show, live mermaids, animatronic singing birds and flowers, and Disney-themed tchotchkes and special effects. The hook could be performance-based, technological, or architectural, or thematic, or whatever. I've joked to friends that if I started a Tiki bar, I'd want it to be King Kong-themed and put this ride in it somehow.

Post #792699 by EnchantedTikiGoth on Sat, Jan 26, 2019 10:54 AM