Oh man, where does the time go? A little over 5 years ago, after the success of Conga Lounge, my brother and I started looking for a location to create the "ultimate" classic Tiki bar. Five years later, our little slice of Paradise is know the world over and has been embraced not only by the Tiki community, but by almost every "fringe genre" group out there - surf, rockabilly, burlesque, burning man etc - plus locals, old and young alike.

We are really excited to be sharing this milestone with you and have a wonderful night planned. Hope you can join us as we toast to the future!
Long Live Tiki! Long Live Forbidden Island!

Here is a sampling of what we have in store for you on Thursday April 21st:

• DJ OTTO VON STROHEIM, an Alameda resident himself, spinning exotica, lounge, now sounds and surf platters

• Live custom velvet painting by tiki artist MP

-catered hors d'ouvres

-Debut of our all-new premium rum menu, featuring 20 new rums, new rum flights and expanded info on our immense rum collection

-Limited Edition Anniversary mug (and accompanying statue), featuring our signature Tiki, Tabu, being shipped to Forbidden Island in a crate,
sculpted and molded by WENDY CEVOLA (aka "danlovestiki")

• Special Anniversary drink, served in limited edition Anniversary bowl, produced by TIKI FARM.
  Here's a pic of Holden and I during a recent visit to the Farm, with the official Anniversary bowl. Can you guess the design?

Looking forward to seeing you all! Alooooha!!

[ Edited by: Molokai Mike 2011-04-01 09:47 ]

[ Edited by: Molokai Mike 2011-04-22 15:43 ]

siiiiigh,
sounds amazing, wish I could be there.
Congrats on 5 years Mike,
and here's to many many more.

Cheers, Okole Maluna,
Jeff(btd)

Happy Anniversary from the SoCal Ohana! Congratulations Mike on 5 years. May the next 5 years be even more successful. :)

Jungle Ginger & Atomic Tiki Punk

Congrats! Love that place. Wish I could be there for the 5th. Best wishes.

Aloha Mike -

I'm having a friend come to the event to purchase a mug/bowl. What are the prices per item, as I'd like to let my friend know what to bring $$ wise.

Thanks!

On 2011-04-01 17:45, ESP182 wrote:
Aloha Mike -

I'm having a friend come to the event to purchase a mug/bowl. What are the prices per item, as I'd like to let my friend know what to bring $$ wise.

Thanks!

Any chance your friend could carry back a few extra sets for your new friend in Burbank...? :D

On 2011-04-01 17:45, ESP182 wrote:
Aloha Mike -

I'm having a friend come to the event to purchase a mug/bowl. What are the prices per item, as I'd like to let my friend know what to bring $$ wise.

Thanks!

The mugs/ statues are $80 each. There are exactly 60 mugs and 55 statues, each with a numbered autographed card.

[ Edited by: Molokai Mike 2011-04-01 21:32 ]

Hi Michael, congratulations on your 5th anniversary. We are thrilled to be a part of the celebration. We will be there on 4/21/11, Thursday.

I have made 60 mugs and 50 statues in these colors for your party. Each has the Forbidden Island anniversary date carved into the bottom. That way it will be easy to know when your party is due each year.

These are large heavy works of art. Each one has been fine tuned with hand carving and completely hand painted with care. Here are some of the steps.

Here we are putting all the boxed art into the larger boxes to bring to Forbidden Island.

It was a great day when I set the last finished mug/statue on the table.

Then it was time to tape 110 boxes together.

We took one to the grocery store so you could see the large size of these.

Many cold days carving detail and cleaning them up.

I did a ton of glaze tests until I found our favorites.

I did all the glazing inside my home to prevent glaze skips from clay dust.

Rubbing glaze into the writing on the bottoms of the mugs.

Pouring glaze into the mugs.

Drying after coming out of the molds.

Pouring slip into the molds.

Molds drying out.

The finished sculpture in clay. Every line in the head had to be carved into the clay after pouring. The molds didn't capture the fine detail.

The molds arrived from Hawaii. After paying Gecko $$$ to make 6 molds we took lessons and now make our own.

Working on projects in my messy art room.

We are so lucky to have Forbidden Island. We wanted to be a part of it's history and that's why we worked so hard make this art. We are so excited.
Thank you Michael Thanos we love your tiki bar.

See you there, Wendy and Dan Cevola