Post #798424 by tikiskip on Sun, Nov 3, 2019 7:03 AM

Thank you Jim.

"But many are lacking authentic lighting."

It is all shifting a bit.

Some of the shifts are good and some in my mind not so good.
But the old school style is not seen as much in some new bars.

The ones that are so so in my mind are the ones that have no natural items used to make the light, think all plastic.
Now by themselves they look good but to use them in a space at times you need to match that plastic with more plastic.

For me it does not matter what you use to make your bar look good but there is a tipping point where you can see the place has a new plastic feel and look.
We like the old Kahiki, Mai kai style of tiki.

I don't think monkeys are tiki but I do have a monkey in my tiki bar, so a bit here and there can work.
But heck a disco ball and brightly colored Japanese lanterns in a bar with really great tiki mugs is not a good tiki bar look,(Really there is one here like that)

The thing is most of you can't make the new plastic and even the resin mix type lights so you have to buy them from somebody.
Heck back in the day everybody did crafty stuff and used natural materials to make them, macramé, bead jewelry, cutting bottles to make stuff ect.

All of the stuff Eli Hedley was made from natural found items not plastic.

One guy I sold MANY lights to I felt sorry for and gave him great prices only to find he had bought ONE plastic light from California that would cost as much as FIVE of the lights I sold him.

I am a sucker, but I do try to keep them lower priced.
Plus with shipping heck the post office makes more than I do on these.

But styles change over time I just don't know how far from that old school tiki it will go.

Your bar Jim is great old school tiki and is one of the top builds on Tikicentral.

Ki'o wai Lounge (bar construction page 3)
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=43640&forum=20&331