Post #90331 by tikibars on Sat, May 8, 2004 5:06 PM

I always thought that Foundation was the best (only?) punk bar in Milwaukee; I have had many fun nights there. Reminds me a lot of Delilah's in Chicago.

In TRT, I mentioned the remodeling effort, but wasn't able to justify including as much full information as I would have liked since it still isn't strictly a Tiki bar - although it sounds like it is becoming more Tiki by the moment. Thanks for posting the further info here!

I was just in Milwaukee yesterday for a job, and I really wanted to stop by Foundation... but I finished work at 3 AM and still had to drive back to Chicago.

It is interesting the a punk bar has slowly gone Tiki, and I think that this is largely due to a 'six degrees of Tiki influence' at work.

To wit:

Tikiphiles have overlapping interest with lounge culture, which overlaps with swing, which overlaps with rockabilly, which overlaps with punk.

The Lounge culture had embraced the Tiki by the mid 1990s (when the Lounge revival included a lot of Exotica and general cocktail culture), and by 2000 or so, Tiki was staple for neo-rockabilly types. Now it has finally trickled down to the Punks who will pass it along to...?

Rude boys?

Wait, that's Carribean!

Which connects to...

Parrotheads?

Oh, no, say it aint so!

:)