Tiki bar blank canvas

Hi all,

First can I say how much I've enjoyed discovering all these forums have to offer over the last few months. I'm a relatively new convert to the ways of tiki having inadvertently stumbled across it after moving close to a tiki bar in London. It's safe to say my enthusiasm for all things tiki is growing at pace, not least through the wealth of information and sense of community presented here.

This is my first post so apologies if it isn't perhaps where it should be, but hopefully it is! So to cut to the chase - in parallel with a growing interest in tiki, myself and a friend have for some time been toying with opening a bar. With tiki far too under represented in the UK, we're exploring the idea of making it tiki themed. We have some premises which we are looking to take a lease on which are currently empty, a blank canvas.

We have had plenty of ideas already as to how we might "tikify" them, but we would love to hear the ideas of some tiki pros and seasoned enthusiasts as to what they would do with the place if they could be let loose on it. There are some photos below (hopefully!) of how it looks now. Please ignore the fact there seem to be ten million different rooms - it's a very complicated layout!

As I said, it's pretty much a blank canvas, with the fairly big caveat that we couldn't do anything TOO severe with it because it's a Listed building (basically protected due to its age and significance, for the non-Brits!).

Anyway I look forward to hearing what some real experts would do, and maybe one day it'll actually come to fruition and you can come and have a Mai Tai on us!

Room 1: (note the bar will be removed as we would be knocking this room through to a kitchen behind of similar size)

Room 2: (best to assume the fireplace and paneling would be staying here, albeit maybe painted)

Room 3: (just a small one)

Room 4:

Thank you in advance, Graham

Wow, so much potential. I like Room 4 a lot with its curved ceiling. My first thought was: Lava Tube

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lava_tube

I know! We've looked at so many places and this place has so much character by comparison to most. The potential is actually daunting, hence my post! I'll definitely check out the lava tubes, looks intriguing, thanks!

On 2010-03-04 13:49, djmoody wrote:
With tiki far too under represented in the UK

While I love the low curved ceiling rooms (can anyone say Cavern Club?), are you serious? The Cheeky Tiki gang has built more eye popping, creative-but-with-a-nod-to-classic tiki bars than have opened in the US lately!

They're here in Tiki Central. Just search them out and you'll see what I mean.

GatorRob - yes I must admit, my comment did somewhat ignore the welcome revival that they have had a pretty large hand in. But without wanting to give away the location, I should maybe rephrase as "...in the UK (other than in London)", because with very few exceptions, once you get beyond the M25 there's not much Tiki to be had :(.

Nice Space!

Fly Bamboo Ben over there :-)

Some great looking rooms mate. The curved ceiling rooms look awesome, but how noisey is it? Like when you've got 20-30 people in there and some mood music it looks like it would be awefully echoey! Room 2 looks great, but I'd be checking how they feel abourt drilling holes into the walls and ceiling - they're probably not going to like the panelling messed with, which is a major restriction. On the other hand, looks like you can fit more people into it, which equates to more customers and thus a better cash flow for the business. Keep us posted!

hewey - it's a good space isn't it?! The arched rooms actually have really good acoustics. Must be something to do with the reverberation pattern set up by the arches - referring to the earlier post maybe that's why the Cavern Club did/does so well!

As you say, the biggest problem we face is the stuff we can't change (not that we would want to ruin such a great building anyway, but it does make tikifying it a bit trickier). So for example we would have to basically leave the panelling and the fireplace, with any work to them limited to painting. Hence the original reason for the post - I'm interested to hear views on how to give the place a Tiki character while still including the features which are already great about it. The best examples of Tiki bars I've seen tend to have a much more radical approach than we could probably take in this space.

Room 4 for sure then, looks to be one of the biggest, and plenty of style with that curved roof.

I think the ceiling really evokes the feeling of being undergound, like in a secret pirate treasure chamber or something. With a bit of colour enhancement you could give a great antique feel like this:

The theme could be a pirate's tiki bar, made in the remnants of an old abandoned fort or something. In terms of decor use a lot of timber and nautical items that look like they have been shalvaged from a shipwreck, mixed in with 'local' materials from the island such as bamboo and some ferns. Selective uplighting with some candle style lighting would look great too.

A good way of breaking up the room a little without being too overpowering could be some wooden beams. Of course in a tiki bar they'd have to have some tapa cloth style markings.

I'm not sure if this would be kosher with your building restrictions, but room #4 could be dressed up to be a "shipwreck". Old timbers could line the walls and ceiling to make it look like you're in the hold of a flipped over ship... the shape of the ceiling is just too perfect not to! That'd make a great "story" to tell about your place. Albeit, Forbidden Island here in CA does use a similar narrative, but that's a million miles away.

Trad'r Bill

[ Edited by: trad'r bill 2010-03-27 07:39 ]

How about instead of a flipped over long boat, it the inside of a whale. The tiki bar got shallowed up by the whale and your mixing cocktails from within Moby.

I like room 4 the best too...that ceiling is kewl!!! Lot's of good space to set up a nice bar.

Any news Whats happening!
Trader Bob...