Post #81478 by Rattiki on Thu, Mar 18, 2004 9:32 AM

The classic tiki bar is NOT for the younger set who get bored with quiet music. Do you go out to "hook up" or to hang out with friends and enjoy their company? (I ask figuratively Lucky, not bashing you.) The typical true tiki bar customer is not low 20's but mid thirties and up to mid 60's. Although, there are plenty of even younger people who will feel at home in a true tiki bar.

You can "sell out" and cater to the young people, but then their mood will change, and they won't be there and you will be out. Make it a class act and you will have a strong group of regulars who will be there forever and companies will entertain their guests there and so on.

I feel the tide changing. Slowly. We gotta get away from a world where a pre-teen fan is all important. It's their parents that have the money. Why not target them!?

Ok I agree with some of this, catering to the real money that is in the older pockets etc. BUT I am sorry Exotica SUCKS! I bought some and it reaks the big, boring stink. Some Hawaiian music is OK, and I accept it for what it is since it is from a true culture, but Exotica was always a faux musical form, sort of like musac for tropical bars. Now I know some of you guys will say well then you not REALLY a "tiki" bar fan blah blah blah, but I challenge this. Why? Well lets look at the Tiki bar and where it all REALLY came from......

The 20's prohibition started speakeasies and nightclubs, quite often big rowdy illegal clubs that you knocked on a door and said something like "Joe sent me" and they would let you in. The latter were sometime much, much nicer and this is where the glamourous age of nightclubs began.

In the 30's with the repeal of prohibition and the Great Depression, nightclubs started serving cheap eats and a floorshow. No one had much money and for dinner and a show (with a couple of free drinks included) all for one reasonable price it was an affordable night out. Much of the food was "Chinese", this is in quotes since it was faux Chinese food. Chop Suey (which was cheap to make) is one dish that is recognized as an American invention (along with Rumake', Crab Rangoon, General Chou's Chicken, etc., etc.) and were all probably conjured up in 30's nightclubs. This of course later became the mainstay of the fatty, syrupy “Polynesian” Tiki Bar cuisine.

As the nightclub industry moved into the war era folks started getting more money in their pockets, so the quality of the food and the floorshow became more important. Of course the food might have been “Chinese’, but the music in these clubs/bars had always been JAZZ! In the 20's it was Ragtime and Dixie, in the mid 30's big band started taking off, by the time the 40's started to really swing and ESPECIALLY right at the end and after the war, the Latin music craze was ALL the rage! Watch the film ‘Bugsy’ and see who opened the Flamingo in 1949, Xavier Cugat (with Jimmy Durante), no less! Was the Flamingo Casino/Hotel Tiki? Hell NO! But like so many nightclubs at the time it was headed towards tropo. MANY nightclubs of the mid to late forties became tropical in style as the returning G.I.s were longing for Bali Hai. Not that it ever existed! -an alcohol hazed memory of a transfer through Pearl and razing hell in the P.I. girlie bars (that they would NEVER tell their occidental sweethearts about) was probably what they were reminiscing about in the back of their minds. Of course this was before they were buried in the soul numbing suburban 'dream'.

In those heady postwar days Cuban big band jazz ruled, and rule it should. Exciting, loud, raucous, brassy, and a bit naughty, this is where Desi Arnaz, Prez Prado, Celia Cruz and many others made their name. But as is common, things started to get mellower and more boring as the 20 something nightclub crowd began to age, have kids, pay mortgages etc. Jazz also changed, as the ‘Cool’ Jazz sound became popular. With the war generation now in their late 30's early 40's (the year being the late 50's, early 60's) and living in the blurbs, the ‘nightclubs’ that followed these urban exit-ers became less nightclub and more bar and restaurant. There was little or no emphasis on a wild, brassy, bawdy, 'Jazz -n- liquor' music floor show for these new establishments, and more emphasis on soothing decor and ambiance for the cocktail hour or a comparatively quiet night out with the Misses and friends. This was when the defining of tropo as Polynesian or South Seas seems to have jelled, and with this was the beginning of the Tiki Bar as it is remembered here. Unfortunately with it came the smooth jazz/mood music to sip a quiet Mai Tai to. This Exotica IMHO was a sad, faded, white washed, gobbly goop, poor excuse for music compared to the rip roaring jazz of the former big city nightclub era. Even though one must REMEMBER that the mighty Mai Tai was invented the same year the Fabulous Flamingo was opened and Xaveir Cugat ruled the pop music world! So keep the exotica for the middle age minded foggies, I’ll take smokin Salsa, Samba, Rhumba and Mambo with my tropo atmosphere any day!

Now I know some are going to say, Poly-Poly-Poly, I hate Carib, foo-ee on Cuban music (or modern, shite pop music), I want pure Tiki and all that jazz. Well just like show business, it is the bar and restaurant BUSINESS. Having lived in Vegas for almost 5 years (and worked and managed in the bar and restaurant biz for 20+ years) I know how tough it is out there with SO many major ‘nightclubs’ (these are really loathsome discos) to compete with. They have to make a LOT of money to pay the insane rents the Ven. is charging them. Also, as much as I think Brad’s the Beachcombers place is awesome, I know he will have to reckon with the reality of a successful business plan in the long run. I only hope that he doesn’t have to compromise his dream too much in the end.

[ Edited by: Rattiki on 2004-03-19 06:00 ]

[ Edited by: Rattiki on 2004-03-19 06:02 ]