Danny (Tiki Diablo) Praise!!

What seems like yesterday, we decided we needed a bar for the “Luana Lounge”. It’s kind of hard to have a home bar when you don’t have a bar so I called Danny (a.k.a. Tiki Diablo) and we talked about a few ideas. I tried to draw a picture of my vision but what came out was a very primitive sketch of a tiki style Manhattan bar. I really hoped he could see my vision hidden under this terrible drawing. We didn’t have enough space to do a walk behind bar so we improvised and came up with an cool bar that could seat a few people and also the bartender of the moment would have enough space to whip up some crazy concoctions.

We hired Danny because after 5 or 10 minutes on the phone after receiving my drawing he was like yeah I can do this and starting telling me about all these ideas he had. I said let’s do it. We needed it by Aug 7th for the Luau. He agreed and we sent over some money to get this started. He called a few times in the beginning asking questions like how big the entire area is, how big is your bar fridge etc. He called me Thursday and said he had finished the carvings and gave me teasers, asked me what color I wanted the lights etc. I was getting excited and called vwtikigirl at work to discuss all the details. Well I’ll skip ahead just a little. Aug 7th came and the Luau was only a few hours away. Danny called let me know he was in route and that the bar was done and would be installed later.

Danny showed up and WOW!!!! I could see only bits as the blanket was being removed and he was untying the ropes. He started to hand misc pieces to the guys waiting to help move it in. finally the last blanket was removed and I saw it! It was so exciting I had to go get another drink. After an hour he had it completely installed in the space. I have to tell you Danny was very professional and the craftsmanship is unbelievable. Now that I have you all wondering what he built TA DA! I give to you the official bar of the “Luana Lounge”

The bar is 9ft 10in long

This thing would make MacGyver jealous!

It has lights and outlets for a blender, a removable bar cart for booze, enough counter space for anything, and the entire bar is hinged so you can store the stools inside, (ha-ha I said stools) a carved back splash, carved panels, and black bamboo. I keep finding more things as I look at it. We still have to do the wall treatments in the bar area but it will be coming soon!

More detailed pictures are found here.

http://www.tikibug.com/bar/

I want to thank these guys for helping us get the bar in place:
Tiki Diablo, Polynesian Pop, King Kukulele ,Cousin Dave, Swampfire, Adam, Tim and well if you helped thanks it’s kind of blurry to me!

[ Edited by: SeekingTiki on 2004-08-09 14:02 ]

On 2004-08-09 12:04, SeekingTiki wrote:
I want to thank these guys for helping us get the bar in place:
Tiki Diablo, Polynesian Pop, King Kukulele ,Cousin Dave, Swampfire, Adam, Tim and well if you helped thanks it’s kind of blurry to me!

Tiki Diablo & co. are deserving of all accolodes for keeping the tiki torch burning bright.

Thank you for sharing such a nice story.

What a great Story. TC installs bar built by TC'r. You kept us in suspense and Tiki Diablo delivered. Congrats on your new bar and a story to tell many times sitting there on the stools.... Stools?

he said stools :)

THat is next and some shelving and some matting.... stay tuned more to come

Be sure you check out the additional photos in the link above. I love the backsplash detail.

Danny is a genius. Really. He has an impressive commitment to quality craftsmanship, and his creative brain is always going a mile a minute with amazing new design ideas. Whenever I think I'm starting to really appreciate how talented Danny is, I see something like this that hints that we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg (volcano?), and that there are even greater things to come from him. You're awfully lucky to have that bar.

Nice attention to detail. Awesome bar.

Looks even better in person! Danny did a great job on it. I can only dream of having a bar that nice.

On 2004-08-11 11:55, Swamp Fire wrote:
Looks even better in person! Danny did a great job on it. I can only dream of having a bar that nice.

Don't you mean afford one that nice?

On 2004-08-11 12:04, KOOMBYEYAH! wrote:

Don't you mean afford one that nice?

Koombyeyeah/TikiToa/or whatever your alias happens to be today -

We don't understand the purpose of your statement. We don't know who you're trying to dig at Tiki Diablo or us.

If it's TikiDiablo, we can't begin to understand why. We commissioned him to build us a bar, and he created something that was not only a million times better than we could have dreamed of, but also incredibly fairly priced. We've seen you praise his work in other discussions, so this can't be it.

So that leaves us ... if you're stating that we only have a beautiful bar because we paid for it you are 100% correct. We have never claimed to be creatively talented in any way. Our contribution to the tiki culture has been and will be, supporting the amazing artists that help keep tiki alive.

This thread was created to praise Danny for his fantastic bar and make sure that the rest of TC could see his work. We would recommend him to anyone.

SeekingTiki and vwtikigirl

That a great looking bar. I was a little jealous when I found out that I no longer had the biggest Tiki Diablo bar out there, I gotta admit that to you, but man that a gorgeous bar so I guess I'll get over it.

On 2004-08-15 19:19, SeekingTiki wrote:

On 2004-08-11 12:04, KOOMBYEYAH! wrote:

Don't you mean afford one that nice?

Koombyeyeah/TikiToa/or whatever your alias happens to be today -

We don't understand the purpose of your statement. We don't know who you're trying to dig at Tiki Diablo or us.

If it's TikiDiablo, we can't begin to understand why. We commissioned him to build us a bar, and he created something that was not only a million times better than we could have dreamed of, but also incredibly fairly priced. We've seen you praise his work in other discussions, so this can't be it.

So that leaves us ... if you're stating that we only have a beautiful bar because we paid for it you are 100% correct. We have never claimed to be creatively talented in any way. Our contribution to the tiki culture has been and will be, supporting the amazing artists that help keep tiki alive.

This thread was created to praise Danny for his fantastic bar and make sure that the rest of TC could see his work. We would recommend him to anyone.

SeekingTiki and vwtikigirl

Ok I am REALLY CONFUSED? The comment was not meant as an (a slight ribbing maybe, kind of like the comments you made to me about me doing the Pa'ina)insult to anyone ESPECIALLY THE ARTIST because I hope to be in the same financial situation as seekingtiki and vw and be able to someday have someone like Danny do a equaly nice piece.

---

May the aloha spirit be with you in all that you do.

Toa

[ Edited by: Tiki-Toa on 2004-08-16 11:46 ]

Amazing bar. simply beautiful. I think anything created by danny would be a great addition to a house...but that bar definately takes the cake. Enjoy it.

I think I would end up sitting and staring at it for hours.