Tiki Central's Tiki Crawl 7 is Nov. 8th-11th! UPDATE: Mug release at FI, Webcast announcement

Haole'Akamai, TikiChris and TofuJoe....

About to be stuck in traffic on the 880. Whooo.

See you all in the South Bay.

Thirsty.

Look out Monkeys on the loose in the South Bay tonight!!!

I miss you all.

Suzanne

..

[ Edited by: suzanne 2007-11-08 20:43 ]

On 2007-11-07 20:32, Haole'akamai wrote:
Me, but I have to know: Who put together THAT restaurant guide?!

On 2007-11-08 12:30, martiki wrote:
T: A menu of donuts, burgers and ice cream? Who else could it be but our own Mai Tai.

No mocking the late night restaurant suggestion guide, please.

One of the things we tried to offer this year were dining options built into the crawl. Last year, people complained that they couldn't get anything to eat, because they were tied to the bus. This year, we wanted people to have food available, especially a dinner type meal, during each day of the crawl. On Thursday people can eat at Smoke Tiki, and possibly Trader Vic's if we get there early enough, plus Martini Monkey will put out some food for us. On Friday, people can grab some happy hour pupus at The Tonga Room, plus they can have dinner at Trader Vic's SF as well. On Saturday, there is a full menu to choose from for lunch at Trader Vic's Emeryville, then pupus at Forbidden Island, then food from Cafe Rustica, including their specially priced pizza slices for us crawlers. Doubtfull that there will be anything to eat at the Kona Club, but you never know.

But what do you do after the crawl, when you have closed up a place like the Kona Club? Doubtful you are going to find anything open nearby, especially if you are not familiar with the area. I didn't offer choices like Kamakura, or the Sushi House, or Quinn's Lighthouse, or Spiesekammer, because they are all going to be closed by then, and who's gonna have time to hit those places during the crawl? There's really not a lot of late night choices, especially if you don't want to go to sketchy areas like the Fruitvale district, to hang out at Guadalajara with transvestite prostitutes. Oh hey, many of us local TC'ers have gone there more than once, but we know where we're going and what we're getting into. But I would definitely not send an out of towner there, alone by themselves, especially when one of our own local TC ohana had their car stolen from pretty much the same neighborhood recently.

I'd like to re-iterate that places like Fenton's Ice Creamery and Merritt Bakery were chosen not only because of their late hour dining and proximaty to the Kona Club, but because they are kind of local area institutions that have been around for a long time, and the TC Ohana would probably enjoy checking them out. Fenton's has been around since 1921, and granted, it was rebuilt after a big fire, but it is still a pretty cool place. I could have suggested Denny's, or Jack In The Box, but what fun is that?

The other places, like Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe, Lois The Pie Queen, Jim's Coffee Shop, and Ole's Waffle Shop, were suggestions for Sunday brunch before hitting Forbidden Island, plus they are in either Emeryville or Alameda, close to where a lot of the TC Ohana will be staying, and convenient to either Trader Vic's or Forbidden Island. I don't remember anyone complaining about going to Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe last year before we went to Forbidden Island. And all have vegetarian options, and some have vegan options as well. All of those suggestions are great places - anyone that has eaten at any of those places will agree - and I stand behind the decision in listing them. Any other suggestions, feel free to post 'em.

I'd also like to point out that Martin and I both went over this list, and he and I both agreed on Fenton's, and neither one of us could come up with another late night dining option in the Piedmont area of Oakland. So I'm gonna file this in the No Good Deed Goes Unpunished file, and leave it at that. Mai Tai out!!!

"It's Mai Tai. It's out of this world." - Victor Jules Bergeron Jr.

[ Edited by: Mai Tai 2007-11-09 02:59 ]

..... I like Fenton's.

How about some photos from Thursday?

Suzanne

[ Edited by: suzanne 2007-11-09 09:07 ]

I like Guadalajara.

It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world.

El-Oh-El-Aye,
midnite

PS There's a restaurant guide?

I don't know where this restaurant guide is, but let's cut Mai Tai and Martiki some slack for coming up with any late night dining options in this vast desert of late night eats and public transportation. It sounds like they have some fine recommendations, but I would like to add one warning: do not go to the chicken and waffle place near Jack London Square in Oakland late at night! After two experiences of wait times of over an hour for my food (and you're lucky if you get what you ordered), I gave up on that option a while ago.

I don't know if they mentioned it in the guide, but if you desire a nice restaurant on Saturday night with outstanding Mediterranean food (small plates great for sharing) and good drinks that is open late, A Cote is located a stone's throw from the Conga Lounge and is open until midnight. It is usually crowded on Saturday night around dinnertime but I have gotten in around 10:00PM-11:00PM with little or no wait. They also take reservations on their web site through Open Table. I just checked and it appears there are tables available around 10:00 still.

http://acoterestaurant.com/index.shtml

In the Piedmont area (near the Kona Club) there is a similar excellent small plates restaurant with great cocktails called Cesar, that is also open until midnight.

http://www.barcesar.com/piedmont/

[ Edited by: thejab 2007-11-09 11:11 ]

Good times! Really cool to see my Bay Area posse and meet a few new fezes...er faces. So yeah, I survived another tiki event without burnin' my hands or bending a fender :wink: Although I brought a few devices to record the festivities, I struggled with full memory cards, dead batteries and them just plain dying on me. Most of the video I shot was toast but a few pics survived the evening. Here are a few of my faves and you can also watch yet another slide show and read more over at Barefoot Bloggin'.

A shot of you folks watchin' us on the live stream

Tiki Mugs

Men of wealth and fame.. sort of.

Bamzeno & Vic Nolte discuss the perils of celebrity dating

Tiki Cleen checks Unga's paw for fire damage while Da Hat hides his concern.

See y'all again tonight. I will be the one with the broke down cameras.

Lost-Isle
Coconut Wired Podcast
Barefoot bloggin'

Watched you take that photo live last night/early this morning Randy. I had some freelance work on the plate and needed a break from the grind.
The Mai Tais looked good. :drink:

What we really want to know is what was in the Kinkos Box? It seemed to be the center of attention last night.

On 2007-11-09 11:50, Lake Surfer wrote:
Watched you take that photo live last night/early this morning Randy. I had some freelance work on the plate and needed a break from the grind.
The Mai Tais looked good. :drink:

What we really want to know is what was in the Kinkos Box? It seemed to be the center of attention last night.

Hey Lake whatever was in the Kinko's box of mystery was almost sacrafised to the god of bartenders after Unga spilled a flaming drink over aforementioned box and his hand. Speaking of fiery things, Tikitastic had some interesting video of a Burning Ohana Hut taken last Wednesday at Forbidden Island. I think we need to nudge him to post it on youtube. What ya say Tikitastic would ya please!

Yeah, Tikitastic, you need to post that video on Youtube.

Oh hey, some SoCal peeps are starting to straggle into town! Things are startin' to pop around here, daddio. I'm goin to shovel off a space for some house guests, then it's off to meet the van at Forbidden Island!!! By the way, good times last night. And great pics, Randy - so glad you were able to make it out to the crawl. See you guys in a few!

i'll be in and out of the crawl... not sure how i'm getting around without a DUI

but i did drive up and have a tuck load of goodies available in the east bay, just ask what i brought... maybe some Mai Tai/fogcutter/navygrog/zombie trading could be had.....

see ya soon.

Hey anybody from the South Bay want to carpool? I would like to get back into Santa Cruz at a decent hour tonight. (before 4:00 am) PM if interested.

Chongolio

Wow!
What an incredible night Thursday was, Friday morning not so much. I was rudely awakened by a call.
It was my liver informing me that after years of posturing and sabre rattling we would no longer be "working" together. I'll skip the details but let's just say the "conversation" went lowbrow in a hurry. It spiraled downward into name calling("you should've called yourself Tai TWO On"). And just like that he was gone. But not before convincing the part of my brain that prevents headaches to join him.

Sad? Sure, a little, but the fog has lifted and tonight's already lookin' good.
Nothing but blue skies ahead.

Well, I've got to go practice my speech slurring, tonight's gonna be a big one.

Oh, and I forgot to thank Party Schottenheimer for being our designated driver. That's no easy feat around such amazing cocktails.
So once again, Thanks Party.

here are some pictures from last night at the martini monkey

the three drinks i had,

cucumber limey,

pineapple basil martini (my favorite of the night!),

pomtini,

and atleast he enjoys what he does,

yah!
panda

On 2007-11-09 11:34, Chongolio wrote:

A shot of you folks watchin' us on the live stream

Back atcha!

I love the web cam! It makes me realize how much I am missing... I really have to go next year (I say that every year, I know... but I'm heading to NYC next week and I'm scraping my pennies...)

Here's some of my fave highlights from Thursday...

Trick photography!

Cheers to Beers!

Hanford is a safe driver...

What's in the box?

Name tags!

Fire! Bad!

I just bought tons o fixin's for Bloody Marys on Sunday at FI- we'll have custom garnishes!

Plus the usual array of toys for booze-addled minds.

-martin

We're up, going to grab some grub, then headin' over to the crawl! Wooooooooooooo!!!

Ack! We might have our first casualty. I woke up this morning, not so much hung over as caught-a-cold. The usual suspects: coughing, sore throat, achy joints.

Will someone save me a mug?

Oh No! Then who's gonna make my voodoo priestess?

Hey all I got a stream going and a bunch of friends are playin music Check it out at when the Crawl cam is between venues:
Click Me

link fixed,Thanks Teakey

Lost-Isle
Coconut Wired Podcast
Barefoot bloggin'

[ Edited by: chongolio 2007-11-11 10:07 ]

Click Me

Thanks Teakey I was hit and run yesterday and did not catch my crummy coding

[ Edited by: Chongolio 2007-11-11 10:08 ]

A HUGE thank you to TikiTastic Mark. What an absolute standup guy...after offering up his van, and the driver dropped out...he drove our drunken selves all over the place. Essentially, giving up some of his fun for our benefit and honoring a commitment. THANK YOU MARK!

Oh, and the family reunion of the cousins was great. It's so great to have Ohana on TC!

P.S. Thanks to Hanford, Martin, and Mai Tai for coordinating such a great event. Cheers to play dough today! See ya all soon!

On 2007-11-10 11:55, Mai Tai wrote:
We're up, going to grab some grub, then headin' over to the crawl! Wooooooooooooo!!!

A HUGE thank you to TikiTastic Mark

I'll second that emotion. Mark is now number one tiki dude in my book. With his patient herding of many random tiki cats from here to there he richly deserves much respect and accolades. Thank you Tikitastic!

midnite

PS Come on, man. I had a rough night and I hate fuckin' Journey, man!

More fun times, jocularity and tiki hi-jinx. It was really awesome to see all y'all again both in the flesh and your digital doppleganger on the stream. I have not seen shout that lively in a long time. You know the drill... Go to my blog to see the slide show of all my pics. Here are a few teasers for ye:

Martiki Bergeron

This one is so classic I had to post it twice

Are you lookin' at me?

Various Apes

Ladies of refinement, grace and tiki

Lost-Isle
Coconut Wired Podcast
Barefoot bloggin'

looks like you all had a great time as usual,shame we couldnt make it but at least we have got a trader vics over here in england and we will be sinking plenty of mai tais this coming saturday!!

Sitting here at LAX wishing I was still at Forbidden Island. You Bay area TCers are the nicest, kindest bunch of folks I've ever met. Thank you all for the mega dose of aloha spirit ... I'm really blown away.

Mahalo for making this trip so much fun!
Chris

Hey Chongolio,
Sorry I missed ya on Friday night. I made it out to FI last night and had a great time. Hope to see everyone again next year.
Big mahaloz to Hanford, Martin and the rest of the cats who made another great Tiki Crawl possible!
Aloha,
:tiki:

Wow! What a Great Weekend!

Thank You Hanford, Martiki, Mai Tai and everyone involved.

Special Big Thanks to TikiTastic Mark for going Above and Beyond the call of duty. You are the King and KingTastic is what I will call you until I fall asleep.

Thanks also to Conga “Magic Moves” Mike for showing us how it’s done.

What can I say, the crawl was awesome!!!

Big Mahalo's to Martiki, Mai Tai , Hanford...

Martin thanks for playing cabbie to Tai and I. Talk about your full service bar!

I met a lot of wonderful folks from all over I can't wait to see you all again.

Chongolio & Chris thanks for coming in from so far away.

Oh and Tia Won on I don't think there will be the usual home bar get together this week my livers on strike!

[ Edited by: Dr. Von Zombie 2007-11-12 11:16 ]

Redundant may be my middle name but I have to thank everyone as well. Tiki Chris was right, the nicest people worked incredibly hard to ensure a good time for all.

Forbidden Island and Martiki had some huge shoes to fill after the legendary tales of kindness, skills, and knowledge we'd heard. I have to say we we NOT disappointed. His SuperHero status is WELL DESERVED.

I can't wait until we get back up there.

Thanks to you all.

If anyone has the link that teaches idiots how to post pictures readily handy, I'll embarrass myself further.

P.S. Dr.Von Zombie- livers are overrated. So...Thursday?

Pictures!!! There were tons taken. Start postin... :)

Anything for you CoCo LoCo









A special Frankoma style War God called Mai Tai (Yellow and Brown)was made for the occasion. Gecko produced it in Hawaii Forbidden Island is carved on the bottom. I have some left for sale $95 plus actual cost for shipping to you. Contact me through TC personal messages if you would like to have one. First come first serve until they are gone.

I also have some of the Hawaiian Honu Green War Gods for sale as well.

I also displayed my newest mug design Tiki Crate with the Forbidden Island tiki inside, that shows in the photo. Gecko and I will produce these in the future.

Mike and Martin threw a wonderful party at Forbidden Island our favorite tiki bar. Thank you! It was good to see friends, Wendy

Sigh. Another year, another SF Tiki Crawl. Many memories, many good times indeed.

First off, let me extend a specific thank you to HL for his stewardship of the Crawl. His live webcast of the Crawl put the events into a new arena of fun. Some serious kudos for Hanford to pull that off, even if I have no idea how it all worked. Muchos gracias as well to Martiki for his expertise as host and Crawl planner; Martiki is an old hand at Crawl logistics and his input is always appreciated. I don't know what Mai Tai told Trader Vic's but those folks came through at Frisco and Emeryville. Way to go, partner.

I wish I could have had more time visiting with all the Crawlers. Some made it here from far away, and a few even farther than that, to attend the events. Time goes by so quickly, there never seems to be enough hours, or Journey songs, to enjoy.

This year I take away many fond memories of the Crawl weekend, and a few candid snappies to memorialize the festivities. I'll never forget little Baby F.I., who made it through the storm and was saved by one of the three wise men. He is the Miracle of the Tiki Crawl and will forever act as a beacon of hope and salvation for future Crawl pilgrims. Tiny Baby F.I. showed us what is pure and righteous in the world, that deep down everyone is good and when given the right time and place we all can do wonderful things. Yes, our individual feats of charity and compassion shall contribute to a wider well of goodwill that betters us all.

Then again, there's this:

QUICKSAND!

midnite

PS In 2002 Hanford said that from then on he'd say zazz instead of cool. Arrghhh! I knew that, I knew that!

Thursday was the highest highlight for me. "Linda" (lurker on TC) at Martini Monkey, who I never met before was very eager to write my name "Jungle" on the name tag, so I let her. She said she was very good at writing. Well I can't read cursive and neither can anyone else. "Jungle" just looked too damn fancy for me so I discreetly pulled the tag off and wrote it on another tag all the while she's screaming that I've insulted her and we're getting a divorce now. Then she tells me I write like a second grader (that's it, we're definitely getting a divorce now) all the while I'm trying to peel the sticker off the tag. I spent half an hour trying to peel the sticker. Then she tries for 5 minutes, then Drunken Hat looks at it and says it's already been peeled off and there is no sticker. SHIT! "Linda" lost it at this point and was laughing hysterically. I decided it would be better to be Vic Nolte "Famous Movie Star".

Michelle the Shooter and buxom blonde (no TC name) was dressed to kill. Absolutely stunning. YES! Anybody get a shot of her?

I was an eyewitness to the near burning of Palo Alto TV's along with Hanford's secret Kinko's box, courtesy of Unga Bunga. Believe me folks when I say it was much more dramatic in real time than on webcast, I mean it. It was like Beavis and Butthead all over again, FIRE FIRE HEH heh Heh HEH yeah

Thanks to Hat for driving us home. I slept in the back seat as he drove and woke up with a deep ridge across the side of my face from the seat. And thanks for letting me crash at The Dark Marq room. Yeah, I got home at 6:30 in the morning. As I'm sipping my coffee and reading the paper in my usual position (like I never left) the wife gets up and says, "When did you get home?" "Just now" I reply to which I begin to duck for cover. frying pans were flying.

That is all.

[ Edited by: Jungle Trader 2007-11-13 18:31 ]

Fabulous pictures of everyone and the crazy antics. I had fun watching online (no dui with that kind of action). :)

JT aka Vick Nolte,

Ahhhh, now I know why we didn't see you the rest of the crawl...hope all the pots and pans are righted and no more dents in your head. We missed ya :D

On 2007-11-13 16:02, Jungle Trader wrote:
Thursday was the highest highlight for me. "Linda" (lurker on TC) at Martini Monkey, who I never met before was very eager to write my name "Jungle" on the name tag, so I let her. She said she was very good at writing. Well I can't read cursive and neither can anyone else. "Jungle" just looked too damn fancy for me so I discreetly pulled the tag off and wrote it on another tag all the while she's screaming that I've insulted her and we're getting a divorce now. Then she tells me I write like a second grader (that's it, we're definitely getting a divorce now) all the while I'm trying to peel the sticker off the tag. I spent half an hour trying to peel the sticker. Then she tries for 5 minutes, then Drunken Hat looks at it and says it's already been peeled off and there is no sticker. SHIT! "Linda" lost it at this point and was laughing hysterically. I decided it would be better to be Vic Nolte "Famous Movie Star".

Michelle the Shooter and buxom blonde (no TC name) was dressed to kill. Absolutely stunning. YES! Anybody get a shot of her?

I was an eyewitness to the near burning of Palo Alto TV's along with Hanford's secret Kinko's box, courtesy of Unga Bunga. Believe me folks when I say it was much more dramatic in real time than on webcast, I mean it. It was like Beavis and Butthead all over again, FIRE FIRE HEH heh Heh HEH yeah

Thanks to Hat for driving us home. I slept in the back seat as he drove and woke up with a deep ridge across the side of my face from the seat. And thanks for letting me crash at The Dark Marq room. Yeah, I got home at 6:30 in the morning. As I'm sipping my coffee and reading the paper in my usual position (like I never left) the wife gets up and says, "When did you get home?" "Just now" I reply to which I begin to duck for cover. frying pans were flying.

That is all.

[ Edited by: Jungle Trader 2007-11-13 18:31 ]

Um yeah, thanks Jay for working so hard and all you other guys behind the scenes for the entire crawl. You know who you are.

The Palo Alto Trader Vic's tiki's are jaw-dropping museum quality pieces and they are huge. First time for me. Get out and support them both. Hurry.

ALOHA!

I only took my camera on Saturday, but I've finally thrown together a snapfish album of the pics that I did take. It can be found here. And for those of you who do not have a snapfish account, here is the Flickr version of the same batch of photos. Here are just a few of my favorites to whet your appetites:

[ Edited by: jentiki 2007-11-14 12:57 ]

Each worth a thousand words:

Dr. Von Zombie and Tai Won On, it was a great meeting both of you! Great pics!

Four days of crawling have finally come to an end! Thanks goes out to everyone who joined in and helped celebrate both classic Tiki venues and the modern bars that are keeping the Tiki Torch lit. It's always great to get Tiki Centralites together, and introduce new people into our scene as well.

If you enjoyed the locations you visited, run over to Yelp and post something positive about them! The Crawl is about supporting our local Tiki Bars, and this is a good way to make sure these locations get the proper respect they deserve, so that these bars are enjoyed 365-a-year, and not just on the week of the Crawl.

I'd personally like to thank Martin Cate and Bill Graff for helping me pull this together; Tikitastic for providing an unofficial bus this year; Michael and Mano at the Conga Lounge; The crew at Forbidden Island; Nick at the Bamboo Hut; Jay Crabb and the owners of Martini Monkey; Dan Doherty at Smoke Tiki; Yavuz at Trader Vic's San Francisco; Anke at Trader Vic's Emeryville; The staff at Trader Vic's Palo Alto; Doug at Kona Club; Phil at Justin.TV; And the dedicated employees of all the host locations, and of course everyone at Tiki Central who make this event worth throwing each year! Mahalo! (see the official thank you with links to all our locations on the official site)

~Hanford

[ Edited by: hanford_lemoore 2007-11-14 19:27 ]

Mahalo yet again to everyone who came up, over, and down to Tiki Crawl VII this year! Thanks for continuing to show the love to Bay Area Tiki, especially from all of us at Forbidden Island. And of course, thanks to Hanford & Bill! It was a great weekend: Let's do it again next year!

Too many good pictures to count, so here's my favorites:

Judo chop!

This may be why the webcam was blurry.

4 out of 5 dentists agree that navy grog sugar sticks
are NOT good for your teeth, midnite.

Tradtional Menehune earwax removal technique.

That's how we roll, bitches.

(Ms. Midnite fears disaster)

heheh.

Great pictures everyone.

Here are a few of my favorites.

Looking forward to next year.

Oops! I forgot to post pictures of these Crawlers -

They were nice and not too chatty.