Tiki bars in Florida

My girlfriend has been in Florida for the last few days, swam with the Manatees, Epcot Center, etc. She has been seeking out Tiki bars for mugs to bring back for me and it seems there are alot of "Tiki bars" in Florida but none of them have Tiki. She has visited three places around Clearwater and surrounding towns that all call themselves Tiki but do not have any Tiki decor much less Tiki. Can someone tell me what is going on? Is it like Coke or Kleenex there now?

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[ Edited by: ojaitimo 2006-11-06 19:19 ]

OH MAN! do not start this again.

Here is the short answer.....

Our native indians use palm thachting in the same way as the pacific islanders to build huts and houses and general decor. The Indian word is Chickee, but if you hear a Native Indian pronounce it you hear Tiki.

Many Tiki Bars here in our Great State of Hanging Chads are actually Chickee Bars. And don't get any of us started on the guy who lost his salt shaker and what that did to the bars down here......

[ Edited by: chip and andy 2006-11-06 05:28 ]

Oh, I don't know....THE MAI KAI, MAYBE????? POLYNESIAN VILLAGE????

Thanks Chip & Andy for clearing it up. Sorry to bring up an old topic but I am new here and it sounded bizarre. Guess we have Parrot Heads to curse for this. Thank Tiki for the Mai Kai at least.

If she was at Epcot then she was very close to tiki at the Disney Polynesian Resort. The hotel grounds and Ohana restaurant are loaded with tiki. Many, I believe, originally came from Oceanic Arts. Unfortunately, no decent mugs from there.

Alas, "tiki bars" are to found everywhere in Florida, yet tiki is very scarce here. Obviously the Mai Kai is the huge exception.

And this gets to the whole notion that if it has a thatch room, it's a tiki bar. As Sven says: "If it has Tiki on it, it should have tiki in it." Unfortunately, this has not entered into the police code yet. It might be well to amend that when the law comes up and put something like, "and it must have orgeat and curacao on the premises at all times." That way they could at least be able to make a Mai Tai if you talked them through it slowly...

“Mystery is another name for our ignorance; if we were omniscient, all would be perfectly plain.” – Tryon Edwards

On 2006-11-06 10:26, Swanky wrote:
It might be well to amend that when the law comes up and put something like, "and it must have orgeat and curacao on the premises at all times." That way they could at least be able to make a Mai Tai if you talked them through it slowly...

If Florida voters can be persuaded to amend the state constitution in order to ban cages for pregnant pigs then certainly we can drum up support for a law to enforce that all tiki bars must actually contain tiki. We'll leave the part about orgeat and curacao for the fine print. It'd just confuse voters.

Ohana @ Disney and the Mai Kai are tops in Florida IMO!!!

Thortiki

I was just in Flordia. In Fort Myers area their is a bar called the Sandy Hook and had many many cool tiki all around and inside. I wish I had my camera. They had cool ones to greet you and three tikis in the water looking out the window. Plus I went down to the key and many of tiki around. One place on the main street of Key West, had many tiki and the place was wide open in the air. I say if a bar is in a paradise location, the more windows the better. Even had outside birds walking around inside. Great Times.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b6cf23b3127cce8e934e4ac16300000016100AZtWLZm2ZsWJg

Girlfriend in Clearwater looking for tiki bar ...

tiki in da hood. I love the dobermans looking to the sunset.

I live in the Tampa/St.Pete area. EVERY bar is a 'chicky' bar around here.

:roll:

There is a great tiki carver in Cocoa Beach, Wayne Coombs. His shop/studio is called Mai Tiki. They have awesome wood carved tikis at pretty fair prices. I know it's not mugs, but it's cool to check out.
http://www.maitiki.com/

[ Edited by: hala_kahiki 2006-11-08 13:43 ]

check out the Waitiki in Wall St Plaza, downtown Orlando. Its Nouveau tiki but has some pretty cool decor. The Monkey Bar upstairs is pretty cool too.

http://www.wallstplaza.net/waitiki/

check out emerils tchoup chop restaurant at the royal pacific resort hotel. they have a cool mug you can buy there. they also have a fun luau there with hula dancers and fire jugglers.

http://www.emerils.com/restaurants/orlando_tchoupchop/

Waitiki and Chop Tchoup are both worthy of a visit. But don't plan on ordering any tropical drinks at Waitiki. The bar is not properly stocked for that and the bartender has no clue how to fix them anyway. Chop Tchoup is very pricey, but has good food and the drinks are so-so. They will do their best to make you happy if you specify exactly what you want. They tell everyone their Mai Tai is the original Trader Vic recipe, but don't believe it. They might have the proper ingredients to make one though if you tell them how to make it (politely of course).

Great suggestion about Tchoup Chop...I've been there before, I got one of the mugs. The food is outstanding.
I'll have to to check out Waitiki, I live really close to that, and never heard of it before! Thank you for that!

[ Edited by: hala_kahiki 2006-11-10 13:13 ]