Post #805779 by mike and marie on Tue, Sep 27, 2022 6:47 PM

Admiral Locnar's new venture in Cuyahoga Falls just opened two weeks ago (with Vincent & Magdalena of Hi-Tide spinning). It's so completely different from the TU in Hudson (which was a great place itself) that you'd have to squint and hunt to even find anything inside the place that resembles the old. (Hint: our two favorite Witco stools are still here. Yay!) But this is a hundred times better, they've amped the Tiki up to High and made it the number one priority.

A standalone building in the walkable heart of Cuyahoga Falls, from the outside there's little hint of what it contains:

But you walk in, and BOOM: it hits you. Tiki. It's no bigger than the Tiki-Ti, and has the mid-mod feel of the Tonga Hut. It's only been around for two weeks, but it feels like they were slinging Port Lights here back when Bobby Kennedy was running for President. This place is absolutely off the meter in two departments, (1) Atmosphere and (2) Cocktail Quality, and to that we just say Bingo, Bullseye, Finito, Mahalo. It's everything we'd want in a tiki bar. The atmosphere excels so well firstly because they get it, and they get the lighting -- the entire place is lit only by tiki lamps and accent tiki lighting. That's it. There's no other light source. None. And it's just perfect ... not nearly as dark as a cocktail lounge like Fox's in Miami, but close ... on the tiki bar Light Index scale, they are set to "Perfection." And it's loaded with great stuff, like a giant tiki from the Sheraton Kon-Tiki, a lava wall, animated portholes, great old lamps (some undoubtedly from the Kahiki, some from Tikiskip), Witco, nautical detritus like fishnet and huge ropes and giant anchors ... and of course a dedication to all the right music, and lots of vinyl nights. This place is just a big wow.

And the drinks are terrific ... even beyond that ... we haven't had a Jet Pilot this good outside the Molokai Bar at the Mai-Kai, and don't know where you could get one this good ... their various Mai-Tais and all the classics are looking spot on, we're eager to try the rest. There's plenty of original new cocktails here, too, and that's very exciting: Tonga Tim just keeps getting better as a mixologist by the nanosecond. We noticed all the interesting and innovative recipes in his new book, and TU has a lot of new cocktails in that caliber.

[ Edited by mike and marie on 2022-09-27 19:01:57 ]