Tiki in Chicago? Will be there for Christmas. Help!

Hello friends,
I will be in Chicago this Christmas and I was wondering if there is any places I HAVE to visit. I do have the Tiki Road Trip book and I see at least 2 places I will visit. Any recomendations would be appreatiated. Thanks! :)

Your friend,
Louis

Louis,
There are a few cool vintage Tiki bars and restaurants still in Chicagoland. There used to be more, but unfortunately we lost a few in the past 8 to 10 years. These are the three I'd recommend you definitely visit in (my subjective) order of ranking:

1. Hala Kahiki in River Grove. A treasure trove of untouched Tiki magic and home to an amazing collection of Witco.
2. Trader Vic's downtown in the Palmer House. The classic, which despite changes through the decades, still enchants.
3. Chef Shangri-La in North Riverside. A great little family owned and operated Tiki temple, cheapest and strongest Mai-Tais in town.

There are traces of old Tiki places scattered throughout town if you like to explore, and there are some T.C. members with pretty impressive home bars as well.

You might want to give a shout closer to the time of your visit and some locals might join you on your Chicago Tiki tour.

-Duke

I would concur with Duke's top three list.

Be aware that since Tiki Road Trip was published, Rock-A-Tiki on Division St. has closed. Also, some of the several Tongs locations have de-Tikified. They weren't a big deal anyway, however.

If you'll be in town on Wednesday, December 15, Stop by Trader Vic's for the montly Tabu Tiki Nights, featuring King Kukulele (from Los Angeles) and a bunch of other festivities (see Tiki Events postings).

i concur with the chicago tiki experts, none of the 3 mentioned are to be missed!!!! ......not to mention the chef and hala kahiki are in close proximity to one another......

OK, it's time to resurect this post. I will be flying to Chicago this Sunday and I will be there a whole week for Christmas. I will be with family so I won't have my own car. I have already made arrangements with them to go have dinner at Trader Vicks. I will probably be touring around Chicago. If I had only one more choice for a Tiki location, where would I go? Is there any other authentic and big place? And where do I shop? I'm planning on shopping a lot. :) When I go to L.A. (monthly) I always do my music/movie shopping at Amoeba. I have yet to find a music store as big and good as Amoeba. Where do you find rare and plentyful music in Chicago? Thanks so much in advance. I will be monitoring this post for the remainder of the week before I go to IL.
Thanks! Your friend,
Louis

Just a couple weeks ago, I was in Chicago for business, here's my thread about it, complete with a crazy amount of pics:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=11936&forum=4&8

If you could only choose one tiki place to visit, I would go with Hala Kahiki, even though the drinks there are exceedingly mediocre. If you have an opportunity to get there, DO.

Atom

If you are going to Trader Vic's with your family, then the other must-see is Hala Kahiki.

Unfortunately, it is in the north-west suburbs, and in a sort of remote location.

If you want to head out there, and are vehicle-less, drop me a private message. As long as you are downtown or in the northern burbs (anywwhere but south side), I will be happy to pick you up and head out on the Chef Shangri-La/Hala Kahiki run with you.

My best suggestion for music shopping in Chicago would be the stores along North Clark Street... I think between North and Belmont... a good number of resale and record shops... residents can chime in with better suggestions...

I blew a ton of time in Amoeba on Haight Street in S.F. and have been to the Berkley one too... I long for one of those here...

Two of the three record shops in the Clark/Belmont area have closed in the past few months.

If you head south on Clark from Belmont, it's about 1/2 mile to Diversey. Just south of Diversey on Clark there are 3 or 4 good record stores - one of which does exclusively vinyl - left. That said, there used to be like 7 of them over there. Record stores are closing FAST.

Welcome to the internet.

Evil Clown records on Halsted (in the 3300 or 3400 block) is good too, and both Reckless Records locations are tops, one on Broadway (1/2 block south of Belmont), and one on Milwaukee Ave. in Wicker Park.

Evil Clown, the Broadway Reckless, and the Clark/Diversey shops are all within less than a 1.5 mile radius of each other.

Using the corner of Clark and Belmont as your axis, Clark and Diversey is 1/2 mile walk south on Clark, Broadway is less than 1/2 mile east on Broadway, and Evil Clown is two blocks north and two blocks east.

[ Edited by: tikibars on 2005-03-14 09:27 ]

My wife and I are going to be up in Chicago for a few nights over New Years (the 29th through the 2nd). If possible, I have a quick question concerning Hala Kahiki and its location. I think that the Rosemont station is the closet (still a couple miles away) L station. Is it possible to get a cab from that station and the take it to the bar? Any other suggestions would be helpful. We will be going to Hala Kahiki and Trader Vics. It will be interesting to compare the Atlanta location to Chicago's.

The rest of our time will be spent in the museums, primarily the Field and The Art Institute. The Art Institue right now is home to the largest display of southeastern native american art and religious material. It is supposed to be amazing and I cannot wait to see it.

I have been searching around for New Years Eve events and have yet to turn up anything that enticing. If any locals have some suggestions, please pass them along. So, thanks for the help in advance and happy holidays to everyone and thier families.

[ Edited by: tikisobayli on 2004-12-23 22:19 ]

The Rosemont stop is indeed the closest L stop to Hala Kahiki. The cab ride from there is about 4 to 5 miles. The train runs all night, and is safe to ride late at night.

The Field Museum an Art Institute are also both WELL worth your time.

The Art Institute is walking distance from Trader Vic's.

But bundle up - it was 4 degrees out today.

Yes, west coasters, that's a single digit: 4.

... and that's not counting the windchill.

I am back from Chicago where I had a great time! Thanks for the tips. I would HIGHLY recomend Hala Kahiki to anyone visiting Chicago. JT, what happened to you? I never heard back from you. I would have liked to have had a Zombie out in Chicago with you. I had a nice visit to the Plaboy offices in Chicago too. Maybe next time!
Thanks again!
Your friend,
Louis

Hwy Louis

I never got a message from you!

Glad you had fun anyway.

Hey, can you actually visit the Playboy offices?

Hell, I did some writing for them last year, and I didn't even realize they greeted visitors... do they give away free Miss Januaries or anything?

I sent you a message thru Tiki Central. No wonder I never heard from you. I don't think the Playboy offices are open to the public. I have been trying to get them to do more Tiki stuff. I do remember you wrote for the website. Maybe we can continue this conversation outside of a public forum. Do you ever check your Personal Messages when you are signed in to Tiki Central? Maybe that is why you didn't get my message or maybe somehow it didn't come through. Weird. Chicago is beautiful (and cold). I would like to take the architecture tour sometime. I usually only get there for Christmas. Never in the summer. I do travel a lot locally (California). Talk to you soon,
Louis

Tikisobayli and I also just returned from Chicago. It was a fabulous and friendly city! Hala Kahiki had fabulous decor and the waitresses were really nice. It was well worth the trip out to see it! Spent the other two nights of our trip, including NYE at Trader Vic's. The staff was very nice and it was very cozy. We also stopped to take pictures of the Pago-Pago sign which was really cool! The weather was great for us and it was a wonderful trip! Chicago has great museums, we really enjoyed them! Can't wait to go back! Happy New Year!!

waikiki