Name:Monkey Island Lounge and Grill
Type:bar/restaurant
Street:10351-82nd Avenue
City:Edmonton
Province:Alberta
Country:Canada
Phone:433-6336
Status:defunct

Description:

Not sure how Tiki this place is going to be. I'm not getting my hopes up, but these masks in the window are at least a little encouraging.

The website listed on the banner (monkeyisland.ca) isn't active yet. I'll see if I can glean any info by calling the phone number.

[ Edited by: Sweet Daddy Tiki 2008-05-23 12:55 ]

[ Edited by: Sweet Daddy Tiki 2009-06-19 15:13 ]

Any word yet ? Did you call them ? huh huh ?

The guy who answered the phone said it would be open in about 3 weeks and the website (monkeyisland.ca) would be up by the end of next week. Sounds like it's going to be a full-on Tiki lounge with tropical drinks (including Mai Tais) and tropical decor & everything.

Looks like you might have to organize a future Exotic Edmonton Tiki Extravaganza! (I'm dying to tour those thrift stores!!!)

Well Pepe, you can come to my birthday party at the end of November if you like. I'll be going to the secret restaurant I'm not telling Slacks Ferret about for dinner and then to Monkey Island (if it doesn't totally suck) for drinks, then back to my swank abode, Bachelor Bastion, for some Velvet Ruby inspired volcano cake. You'd like Edmonton at the end of November -- the tropical breezes blowing, the palm trees swaying...

Thanks for the invite SDT!
I'm not sure if my business will allow me to go then but you never know! (any flight specials Rodeo?)
I may be out your way in February for the Giftshow. Will the palm trees be swaying in the warm breeze then? :wink: 8)

Opens next week. Some pictures of signage:

this place is a bad dance bar ....WHY !? I HAVE NO IDEA!
it showed such promise , the front half is cool I guess but the back half looks like a drywall cube with bad vinyl booths and a record player ?! If the music wasn't so terrible I'd go there anyway but ....it's intolerable.
..................maybe they will sell off the fixtures soon hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[ Edited by: igniters 2008-09-15 12:40 ]

I finally went and got some pictures of this place. My computer is in the shop, but when I get it back I'll post 'em. We can all have a good laugh - or cry, depending on whether or not you're an Edmontonian and this is all you've got...

Here it is, folks; Edmonton's foremost Tiki destination! When it first opened it was a "bar and grill". I think the food was decent and they had something of a drink menu. There were booths in the front and it seemed like an okay place. Now it's strictly a dance club. Beers, coolers, and hi-balls, no food, bad top-40, not worth checking out even for curiousity's sake. The most exotic drink their "bartender" knew how to make was a Monkey's Lunch.


Note the exotic Avril Lavigne video being played on TVs by the dancefloor.

They do appear to have some sort of slushy drinks, probably strawberry daiquiri and pina colada.

[ Edited by: Brandomoai 2008-10-01 07:37 ]

As a Canadian I think I am allowed to say that this place looks like a hole!! The decor is really bad as well as the "Tiki" statues and the failed attempt at some bamboo work.
This is the kind of place that people get the wrong idea about what Tiki is and what we all love. How about some atmosphere??
Thanks for the warning as I will stay right away from this place!

Well, Taboo Dan, as this place is my favourite hangout, I feel personally insulted... :wink:
I wish there was enough of a market here for someone to do it right. Most of us Western Canadians will have to settle for Tropika restaurants for now...

Brandomoai, Hey man...I am glad I see a little wink at me in the previous post as I wouldn't want to offend any Western Canadian Tikiphiles!!

Yeh...Tropika is a decent place. I went to the one out your way in Calgary last year and we had a good experience! Good drinks, great food and a relaxing atmosphere. It was also very cool to see the Trader Vic style drink menu (actually, a real drink menu for that case!) and Tropika using Trader Vic mugs and bowls!! (Still don't know the connection there. Everyone I ask doesn't know a thing.)There are 3 locations out here in BC and I have been to two and both were good.

This monkey bar just doesn't look like that place even tried. That's all. At the beginning of this post it seemed to have a little buzz and maybe a little possibility but it sure lost it after opening. Look at the date of the beginning of this thread (2005) and nothing else until now. Kind of a sign as well.

I did talk to a couple people who have been there and they were not impressed at all as well and I guess we can all tell for ourselves from this thread.

Anyways, Brandomoai, I am the one offended by you......coming out here to BC and practically stealing a Trader Vic stemmed glass from a local thrift store???!!! How dare you?? The nerve of you!!

TabooDan

On 2008-09-30 21:38, TabooDan wrote:
Anyways, Brandomoai, I am the one offended by you......coming out here to BC and practically stealing a Trader Vic stemmed glass from a local thrift store???!!! How dare you?? The nerve of you!!

TabooDan

Hey, I do it to Slacks Ferret all the time... :wink:
At least I'm a collector, not someone who immediately put it up on eBay for $100. It sits proudly on display in my "tiki bar" where it has yet to even be drank out of. But this is getting off-topic! Not that I knew anything about Tiki Pop culture at the time, but it seemed when Monkey Island first opened, they were trying to do something different, at least with the drink menu and the decor. But it looks like they didn't get the public response they wanted and gave up. I can't imagine that place drawing any kind of crowd now, even on Whyte Ave, with their tiny dancefloor and muddled theme (psuedo-Tiki with lots of beer-brand banners). As far as I'm concerned the verdict is in, the case is closed. Monkey Island sucks. We have two Tropikas where you can get the best Mai Tais in town (aside from mine and SDT's, of course!) or a dozen other cocktails straight out of the Trader Vic's Bartenders Guide. I don't know anything about the history of the chain, but I'm glad they're around!

sounds like I'm gonna have ta get loaded at TROPIKAS......whats the decore in these places ?

On 2008-10-01 10:40, TIKIVILLE wrote:
sounds like I'm gonna have ta get loaded at TROPIKAS......whats the decore in these places ?

Vaguely tropical; fake palm trees, some bamboo, a little thatch over the bar (at the Calgary Tr. location, anyway). Not specifically Tiki, as the theme is more southeast Asian. The food is good and the drink menu is fairly impressive! All classic Trader Vics recipes like the Mai Tai, Scorpion, Pino Frio, Suffering Bastard, etc. Most of the drinks are available in single-person, 2-person, or 3-person servings. Definitely worth checking out, unlike Monkey Island.

They dialed back the tropical at the south side location - it used to have a lot more fake palm trees and many tables had those big backed peacock chairs (or whatever they're called) and the wait staff wore bright aloha shirts, but now not so much.

And because it can't be said enough - Monkey Island sucks.

NEWS FLASH !
ATTENTION ALL # TIKI FOLKS IN EDMONTON ! lol
MONKEY ISLAND IS CLOSED AND THIS IS WHATS LEFT OF THE PLACE!

Ya I know how did I aquire such a clean shot !?
well its the pile in the back of my van on the way home!
Yes I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to get it all !
odds and ends I wasn't able to dig outta the dumpster,but my shame left me years ago so thats no setback .....
Yes digging in a frenzy through scraps of tim and fiberglass insulation with my bars hands 1/2 an hour late for work for anything I could carry.
Too bad this place never amounted to anything decent but as they say one mans garbage is another mans gold!
I'll post more photos of the end result in a contest to name my hut coming up !
sorry to the 2 other TIKI fans in town that ya missed the scoop!

Good on ya for being Johnny-on-the-spot. I'm glad someone got some good out of that sorry excuse for a tiki bar.

you got that right !
Thanks for the sentiment .....now to convince somebody with deep pockets to glue and screw together a REAL tiki bar in this town!

Nice haul Tikiville!!! Looks like good stuff. Even though the Bar was S*#T, at least you now have some bamboo with a little history in it. Even though it is came from a bar that should have been burned down!!

It sure seems very touchy around that Edmonton way! All you crazy local collectors.... I mean the three collectors you have in that city and the on edge hunting that you do. I would start wearing protection if I had to compete with all of you. I mean all three of you!!
Oh...nearly forgot, I will throw one more out your way as I have a sister-in-law who now lives out there and she sometimes buys Tiki stuff!;)

TabooDan

well tell her she's gonna need 80% luck and 20% diligence!...
and if she's out shopping and see's treasure?,grab it ...we may be right behind her!lol

Hey Tikiville, nice score! Did you get any of the fake-bamboo wall lights? I was working for the store that sold them those lights when they opened but by the time I decided I needed a couple they were discontinued by the manufacturer. You'd better do something great with all that material and invite me and SDT over to see it or we'll have to track you down and do a little repo work. :wink:

On 2009-06-19 15:28, TabooDan wrote:
Nice haul Tikiville!!! Looks like good stuff. Even though the Bar was S*#T, at least you now have some bamboo with a little history in it. Even though it is came from a bar that should have been burned down!!

It sure seems very touchy around that Edmonton way! All you crazy local collectors.... I mean the three collectors you have in that city and the on edge hunting that you do. I would start wearing protection if I had to compete with all of you. I mean all three of you!!
Oh...nearly forgot, I will throw one more out your way as I have a sister-in-law who now lives out there and she sometimes buys Tiki stuff!;)

TabooDan

TabooDan, your sister-in-law had better watch it...

I'll take a better photo of the complete haul soon ....some of the items were going to auction apparently ( like the fiberlastic hollow TIKI w/ the liquor company name on it)and the monkey Island sign thats currently sitting in the alley against the wall ( hmmmm)
so unfortunatly that may be a couple of things that I wont get .( depending on how ya see it )