Eastern shore tikis

Marian and I are going to be in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware for the 4th of July. Any tiki places we should check out on the Eastern Shore, South Jersey or Virginia Beach. I seem to remember someone posting info. about a place or places near Ocean City, Maryland.
Mahalo.

Ocean City MD has no tiki bars unless you consider a thatched roof bar that serves Miller Lite, plays top 40 and is crowded with drunken frat boy types a tiki bar. They have quite a few bars that claim to be tiki but I have yet to find anything remotely tiki in any of them! There are a couple miniature golf courses with good tikis - one is filled with carved palm log tikis that look rather Mai Tiki-ish - the other has a few fiberglass Moai and a volcano that hisses out steam. If you want to go to a place in O.C. that sticks with their motif pretty religiously try Seacrets. It is a Jamaican themed place that has frozen rum drinks from Slurpee machines, lots of reggae music, some real good food (Jerk chicken Jamaican pizzas are real nice!!), and really well done Jamaican architecture and decor! Happy tiki hunting!

Johntiki
:drink:

[ Edited by: johntiki on 2002-06-20 16:59 ]

[ Edited by: johntiki on 2002-06-20 17:00 ]

There's this place downtown OC called DUffy's love shack, it trys hard. Seacrets is a tourist trap. Drinks at Duffy's are big but costly.

It's hard to consider Seacrets a tourist trap considering 80-85% of all people in O.C. this time of year are tourists - even if they live there during the summer.

Guess I am a little jaded since I lived there for a couple of years (yr round-not bragging-was finacially a good idea in the 80's). I just had a bad experience with the help there a few years ago. (no i didn't do anything). We'd gone on a company fishing trip to DE and hit Seacrets after we got back to OC around 3pm. My boss had a friend in a tank top who had been there before us. Around 7 My boss and this guy when out to get more$$ and the staff refused to let them in, saying tank tops where not allowed. Clearly this wasn't the case as there were guys all over the place wearing them. When we finally found out what was going on we still had a hard time getting the $ from our boss to pay the tab. I emailed them about the incedent and they said it was their unspoken policy not to have tank tops allowed at a certain time. They do sell them though. I'd just as soon pass the place by. I am not a big fan of the wife-beater shirt, but I don't need a place that's eager to take my money tell me how i should dress. Remember, keep your shirt tucked in, no tank tops (for men) and don't ever put your cap on backwards. I just like hanging in the little bars around there, where the place isn't so nice looking and the drinks are a little cheaper. Got a friend that plays swing aroung the town.

[ Edited by: Turbogod on 2002-06-22 08:44 ]

[ Edited by: Turbogod on 2002-06-22 08:48 ]

Sounds like the Eastern Shore is one of those places that might be able to support a modest tiki cafe. I am familar with the Rehoboth area as this is where my in-laws live. The whole town is overrun with tourists during the summer, but goes into hibernation in the winter. Maybe this is why it is hard to find a bar with real character there. Aside from what has been posted, I thought I remember reading about some tiki bar on the bay side... I'll have to consult the tiki bar review pages and see if anything turns up. Thanks for your input.

We were in Ocean City during Memorial Day

Duffy's is gone and has been for about a year (I think their venture in the islands still survives). We kept peeking in the windows to see if any tikis were left, or what they were "evolving" into. Those are indeed Wayne Coomb's Mai Tikis at Maui golf some of his masks and other works are there as well. (in addition, one of the surf shops; K-coast I think, has a few more Mai Tiki inside). The Old Pro miniature Golf at 26th (I think) is the one with the fiberglass tikis, it is an odd combination of tiki style and Asian-dragon motif. For the truly desperate, perhaps a peak in the lobby of the Safari Hotel, which includes some masks (mostly African) and maybe one tiki.

It is easier to find more "island oriented" bars, for which I recommend some of the Bayside places, Mackey's, mellow beach, even the vastly crowded Seacrets.

Fager's is on the bay-side, but has little to do with islands or tiki. Nevertheless, it is a personal favorite; their guarantee of “no charge for bad sunsets” is worth looking into. But I’m biased; I got engaged there. If you sneak into the fine dining area, you can get a peak at John Fager’s fine Haitian art collection, which has a distinctively island/exotic look.

Thanks for the info on Duffy's as that sounded like the best place to visit. Sorry to hear it is gone. From what I can tell, it sounds like the closest tiki joints are farther north in Jersey.

Here are a few notes from our trip last week to Delaware and the beaches of the Eastern shore... a new Chinese restaurant called Peking Garden is on Rehoboth Ave. serving many of our favorite exotic cocktails in Orchids of Hawaii mugs. Because I shamelessly begged, they sold me a rum barrel for $6.... Several curio shops are stocking tiki mugs with the name of the beach printed on them (Ocean City, Rehoboth Beach, etc.) These look like those new Mai-Kai mugs seen on e-bay... As reported earlier, there is a Fen-tiki mini-golf in Fenwick Island and a Maui Golf in Ocean City with tiki's on the course... One curio shop in Rehoboth Beach had a huge resin tiki in the window (listing for $250) and had various tiki and Hawaiiana items for sale, including Sven's book.... I found a first-editon (1947) of Trader Vic's Guide to Food & Drink in the attic of my in-laws 1880's farm house. (I'm not kidding.) This gave me an opening to suggest we add the Trader's Scorpion punch to our Independence Day festivities. As the day wore on, the reactions of the various celebrants to this potion was fairly hilarious. In fact, by the time we had drained the punch bowl the art on the old Vics menus had obtained new meaning for me :wink:

I have a business card from a restaurant called "The Samoan" which says it is in Ocean City, MD. The business card looks like it's from the early '70s. That's all I know... maybe it no longer exists. I went to Ocean City, MD as a kid and it was fun.

Yeah,
I am pretty sure that's been gone for years.

There is Mangos in Bethany, i used to love seacrets but it is very crowded in summer, palm trees are everywhere, they have a beach on the bayside, you can float out there on inner tubes and waitresses will wade out with your drinks. It used to be more secuded now they have expanded and opened it up with a big dance floor. maybe if you go early for lunch it not be too bad. The inside restaurant area is interesting too mon, but it is defintely caribbean. jerk chicken If anyone finds a place with more tiki here on the shore please, please let me know. thanks :)