I Need Help in Houston!

Can anyone direct me to even a so-so Tiki lounge or restaurant in the Houston-Galveston area?
With all of our coast line, palm trees and yachts, you would think there would be at least one decent Tiki lounge!

The Tiki Road Trip shows;
Hawaiian Breeze
5825 Richmond
Houston Tx
(713) 782-6162
Sez, it opened in 2002 Tropical drinks in Tiki mugs and the food is truly in the Hawaiian style. It has a Tipsy Factor of 2 out of 5. Better than nothing.
Of course you just missed Trader Vic's closing...by 22 years.

Found on the web~

Galveston:
Garza's Kon Tiki
315 Treemont (23rd)
409-763-6264
I've heard it's a Trans-Gender bar.

Name: Balinese Room
Type: restaurant
Street: 2107 Seawall (21st St. at the beach)
City: Galveston
State:TX
Phone: (409) 762-9696
Status: operational

Description from Formikahini:
The Balinese Room, located at the end of a looong pier over Galveston waters, has had many periods in its history.

1.) It was a grand casino/restaurant/bar/supper club from 1941-1957. You can read its story on their website (and see scads of photos in the History section), but suffice it to say that when you have the likes of Sinatra, Bob Hope, Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, George Burns & Gracie Allen, Duke Ellington, Tony Bennett, Jayne Mansfield, Gene Autry, Howard Hughes, and Diamond Jim West frequenting the stage and/or casino floors, you're talking a BIG DEAL. One of the many origin-of-the-Margarita stories holds that Balinese head bartender Santos Cruz invented it for Peggy Lee in 1948. Stories abound of Galveston County Sheriff Frank Biaggne's being on the take and telling the casino when the Texas Rangers were planning a raid. By the time the Rangers got to the end of the long breezeway, the tables were dumped off the balconies or (more likely) folded and hidden away.

Asked why his men never raided the place, Biagge told the legislative reform committee (before being booted out of office), that he never raided the Balinese casino because the place was a private club, he wasn't a member and he couldn't get in.

My favorite story is of the band's launching into "The Eyes of Texas" when the cops moved in, thus impeding their entrance substantially; we Texans will always stand to sing the national song of Texas, natch The story goes that the new sheriff did not play ball, and thus a final raid closed The Balinese Room until:

2.) It was re-opened as a supper club from 1965-1985.

3. ) After almost two decades of neglect, Houston lawyer Scott Arnold recently bought the Balinese and re-furbished it to its former glory. Its stage is a thing of bamboo beauty and the room is filled with tall copper and neon palm trees. Tikis are minimal but present; I counted 3 on my last visit. Tropical murals adorn the walls. I have only been there by day and have not had the opportunity to sample the bar's work. At the seawall (the street entrance), there is a store selling typical beach/tropical wares, plus there's a nice display of photos from the club's illustrious history. Local cover bands are the featured entertainment now. Not exactly Sinatra, but if it will keep the place open, I'm not going to complain. Openly.

One more cool point:
Just as they did with the best little whorehouse in Texas ("La Grange"), local boys ZZ Top wrote a song about this spot: "Balinese" (1973)

Note: there was a thread on here long ago about the Balinese, But "Search" seems unable to pull it up.

http://www.balineseroom.net
[email protected]

HOUSTON:

Tiki Tiki / Bamboo Lounge is the only thing that comes to mind... but it closed a few years ago. If Formikahini sees this she could give more input.

On 2008-08-20 06:43, bananabobs wrote:
The Tiki Road Trip shows;
Hawaiian Breeze
5825 Richmond
Houston Tx
(713) 782-6162
Sez, it opened in 2002 Tropical drinks in Tiki mugs and the food is truly in the Hawaiian style. It has a Tipsy Factor of 2 out of 5. Better than nothing.
Of course you just missed Trader Vic's closing...by 22 years.

I looked it up...
5825 Richmond / Houston Tx is now...Mary'z Lebanese Cuisine !!

http://www.maryzcuisine.com/

The Balinese Room is cool but really not a swanky Tiki lounge!
But yes I had forgotten it was reopened.

[ Edited by: GulfCoastGasser 2008-08-20 19:22 ]

Unfortunately, Houston has been tiki neglected bigtime. The closest thing we have to tiki are margarita ville styled cabana bars and wooden parrots. There's really nothing here that I know of that is remotely tiki...I'm sorry. If anyone knows of anything, please post!

[ Edited by: Deckhand_Davy 2008-08-20 22:02 ]

delete:bad form

[ Edited by: bananabobs 2008-08-20 22:18 ]

Just saw your plea, amigo.

Yeah, Hawaiian Breeze closed within a year of opening. Was more "island" than tiki, but it was something.
Tiki Tiki also came and went quickly. :roll:

My home bar is the best tiki spot in Texas besides the Dallas Trader Vic's, i believe I can safely say, so y'all need to get to the Texas Tiki Gatherings so we can meet so i can have you over!!

And BananaBobs, you need a new Tiki Road Trip, 2nd edition! Badly! :wink:
You're lacking all the updates, especially the Texas ones I worked really hard to include for tikibars! (But I wasn't the only one, by any means; many tikiphiles pooled their knowledge to make Edition 2 much better than the wonderful Edition 1. Tikibar's sources are Legion!)

Well.... its not going to be a tiki-bar, but they are going to have some really kick-ass drinks:

http://drinkdogma.com/we-are-opening-a-bar-in-houston/#more-346

I'll let the locals share more about it when it opens.

Formika, what about the new bar you mentioned that has tiki drinks on Thurs nights?

I forget the name of it.