S.O.S Tiki Bar, Decatur, GA (bar)

Name:S.O.S Tiki Bar
Type:bar
Street:340 Church St
City:Decatur
State:GA
Zip:30030
country:USA
Phone:
Status:operational

Description:
Details coming after the opening Fri.

http://atlanta.eater.com/2015/11/5/9675630/the-sos-tiki-bar-decatur-paper-plane

Nice! It's always good when a new tiki bar opens.

Tiki is being indelibly inserted into today's generation's experiences. This bodes well for tiki remaining around for a very long time. Great news!

I visited the establishment last night with my wife and four friends. We tried about three quarters of the drink menu. The menu as you see above is a mix of of traditional Tiki drinks, original concoctions and traditional rum drinks. The Mai Tai was a tad too sweet for me, but other folks in our group enjoyed them. The Zombie, Sloe Death, Rough and Rowdy and Saturn were good. The Queens Park Swizzle was the winner of the night for me. They had a very nice selection of spirits and it appeared that Denizen was one of their go to rums for their cocktails.

The food was okay. The Coconut shrimp was sort of bland, some folks really liked the dipping sauce. The ribs were fine. I heard the wings were tasty, but some were under cooked. The guacamole and sliders were well received.

During the course of our stay one of the staff members told us that the decor, lighting and glassware would be improved over the next three months and one of the walls will be opened up to provide an indoor-outdoor element to the bar. As far as Tikis in the decor, they had a couple in a window and quite a few mixed in behind the bar. I hope to see them add some nautical elements and some masks, they certainly have the wall-ceiling space for it.

My harshest criticism actually is with the music being played and the attire of the staff. We occasionally heard Exotica, but otherwise it was a poor mix of rock, pop, and other randomness. I am hoping they have this element figured out by the next time we visit. The ladies were wearing appropriate attire for a Tiki establishment, but the men were wearing plaid and polos. This absolutely did not work. I know they are sharing staff with the establishment next door so for right now I get it, but that element needs some work.

So overall they have a lot of work to do,but I see the potential for this to be a decent Tiki bar if/when the changes are made.

Rum Journey, thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts on this new place. Did you snap any pics to share with us? :wink: How were the garnishes on the drinks and what was the mug situation? Did the drinks come in the vessels depicted on the menu?

Sounds like they are at least doing okay with the mixology. Completely sympathize on the music perspective. It takes a mega-well-done tiki bar in all other respects to overcome a lack of exotica music and still be a killer tiki bar.

Cheers!
:drink:

On 2015-11-06 09:05, Rum Journey wrote:

And is that Planter's Punch mug served in a hat-less Bum head? :wink:

On 2015-11-09 12:48, finky099 wrote:
Rum Journey, thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts on this new place. Did you snap any pics to share with us? :wink: How were the garnishes on the drinks and what was the mug situation? Did the drinks come in the vessels depicted on the menu?

Sounds like they are at least doing okay with the mixology. Completely sympathize on the music perspective. It takes a mega-well-done tiki bar in all other respects to overcome a lack of exotica music and still be a killer tiki bar.

Cheers!
:drink:

Here are a few drink pictures.

Tropic Thunder

Saturn (the only Tiki mug we saw there)

[ Edited by: Rum Journey 2015-11-10 06:11 ]

Rough and Rowdy

Queen's Park Swizzle

[ Edited by: Rum Journey 2015-11-10 06:22 ]

[ Edited by: Rum Journey 2015-11-10 06:23 ]

Here are some shots of the bar and dining area.

On 2015-11-09 12:56, finky099 wrote:

On 2015-11-06 09:05, Rum Journey wrote:

And is that Planter's Punch mug served in a hat-less Bum head? :wink:

It looked like the punch was served in a medium sized mug, same type seen in the pictures. They mentioned getting proper Tiki mugs in to replace what they had was high on the To-do list.

Thanks for posting pics, Rum Journey. Interesting about the mug situation. I know it sometimes takes new places time to get mugs, particularly custom ones, but surprised they were using some pretty plain earthenware for the most part. Looks like garnishes were decent at least.

Cheers!
:drink:

On 2015-11-10 12:58, finky099 wrote:
Thanks for posting pics, Rum Journey. Interesting about the mug situation. I know it sometimes takes new places time to get mugs, particularly custom ones, but surprised they were using some pretty plain earthenware for the most part. Looks like garnishes were decent at least.

Cheers!
:drink:

The young lady who discussed the plans with our party definitely wanted the mugs and glassware replaced as soon as possible. If I understood correctly the few mugs they had, were left overs from the previous establishment. I will keep the board updated as they evolve.

A week later.. staff is all in aloha wear. The happy hour punch is being served in glass tiki heads (nothing special, but comfortable and kinda neat). Rough and rowdy tastes kinda Mai Kai, which is nice. Place was full by 6:10. Mor l8r

Visited S.O.S last night, sad to report I wasn't impressed.

It looks like the old Paper Plane with a new coat of paint and some Hawaiian themed décor.

We had a Zombie, Mai Tai, Planter's Punch, and Queen's Park Swizzle. The Zombie was OK. Mai Tai was missing something, it wasn't sweet enough and the Orgeat didn't ring through. Planter's Punch, not sure if it was the bitters or some liquor but something over powered the drink. The swizzle was OK.

Staff was in Hawaiian shirts.

Had the coconut shrimp. They were OK, nothing to complain about.

Music was not what it should have been.

All-in-all it felt like a couple hipsters said let's make a Tiki bar without ever visiting one.

And this bar is SO close to a MAJOR metropolitan area (Atlanta) where they have a Trader Vic's for inspiration, and a reasonably creative element among the population, and some other decent bars. You'd think they would do better.

And from the reports here, they are missing the mark both cocktail-wise and décor-wise. A sad missed opportunity. Maybe the owners have limited funds.

How "sports bar-ish" is the place? Full of televisions? Was the crowd good?

Wouldn't it be great if our "Tiki Central Ministry of Tiki" could reach out to these places, gauge their level of interest and commitment to tiki, and offer our help and advice. If nothing else comes from our offers, at least we could clean up their mixology and help it head more in the direction of world-class offerings.

On 2015-11-22 10:16, mmaurice wrote:
Visited S.O.S last night, sad to report I wasn't impressed.

It looks like the old Paper Plane with a new coat of paint and some Hawaiian themed décor.

We had a Zombie, Mai Tai, Planter's Punch, and Queen's Park Swizzle. The Zombie was OK. Mai Tai was missing something, it wasn't sweet enough and the Orgeat didn't ring through. Planter's Punch, not sure if it was the bitters or some liquor but something over powered the drink. The swizzle was OK.

Staff was in Hawaiian shirts.

Had the coconut shrimp. They were OK, nothing to complain about.

Music was not what it should have been.

All-in-all it felt like a couple hipsters said let's make a Tiki bar without ever visiting one.

This sounds like the same problems the ill-fated Tiki Hideaway in Charlotte had. It lasted less than a year. Let's hope this one gets better and lasts longer.

On 2015-11-22 11:12, AceExplorer wrote:
And this bar is SO close to a MAJOR metropolitan area (Atlanta) where they have a Trader Vic's for inspiration, and a reasonably creative element among the population, and some other decent bars. You'd think they would do better.

And from the reports here, they are missing the mark both cocktail-wise and décor-wise. A sad missed opportunity. Maybe the owners have limited funds.

How "sports bar-ish" is the place? Full of televisions? Was the crowd good?

Wouldn't it be great if our "Tiki Central Ministry of Tiki" could reach out to these places, gauge their level of interest and commitment to tiki, and offer our help and advice. If nothing else comes from our offers, at least we could clean up their mixology and help it head more in the direction of world-class offerings.

No, this place is not sports bar'ish at all. No TV's. It is hipster central. If you have tat's and piercing you get the job here.

The area that it is in has a ton of bars and restaurants, a walking district.

Atlanta is ripe for a true Tiki bar and this one is currently missing the mark. It just needs some guidance.

Thanks for the info. I gotta respect the hipsters for generally appreciating tiki, they have learned that tiki is both fun and good. They do spend money in these places and thereby help keep them open for everyone. And they will likely come back to the things they did in their youth later in life. "The cycle of tiki."

Yeah, I was looking forward to going and like most people have said, it's a bit disappointing. It was a nice little hole in the wall bar before. But sorry, putting a few lamps and scattering a few tiki mugs on the shelves behind the bar, does not make for a tiki bar. The menu is sort of what I would call Craft-Tiki, craft cocktail versions of traditional drinks. The music was OFF. Plus the place is LOUD hard to even have a conversation. If they could only work on the decor a bit more, get the music right it would be a big improvement. The decor still comes across as a bit retro-modern, so I don't think they'd ever do the whole grass cloth and glass fishing ball thing. But a few nice pieces of Witco and artwork would go a long way.

I went yesterday really like the space, although it is pretty small. The staff was wearing tiki attire & seemed into the concept; mostly heard Martin Denny, Les Baxter, Arthur Lyman, & surf-music, with maybe one out of ten songs being the out-of-place pop tune. In general, I like the atmosphere/ambiance & am glad it exists. My main complaint is that it doesn't seem like you get much drink for $10 with the glasses fairly small in size and filled up with ice. That said, they're good & I'll definitely be back.

[ Edited by: ramo 2015-12-01 12:44 ]

Went back Friday night for another go. Place had a pretty good crowd. Mostly young bucks and their dates.

Zombie was HEAVY on the Pernod or whatever they use. Couldn't taste any of the other flavors. Sat at the bar and the drink was made from a premade bottle. Asked what that was, he said it was the Zombie, they mix a bunch of the menu drinks up ahead of time and just pour and serve. Asked if the Don's mix had fresh squeezed grapefruit or bottled. He told me there was no grapefruit juice in the Zombie. I laughed and showed him the menu, he didn't know.

The menu was a bit different from the one originally posted here. I don't remember all the changes but do remember the Saturn was no longer on it.

Had a couple more drinks and they were ok. Nothing spectacular.

Did have the Queen Park Swizzle. They normally use Hamilton 86 as the rum but noticed a bottle of El Dorado 12 sitting behind the bar so I asked the guy to make it with that.

Overall, again, not that impressed.

I was there in late 2016 and early 2017, and I was very happy with both the drinks and the overall vibe of the place. Either the place has improved, or I am easy to please.

The first night I was there, it was slow, and I got into a conversation with the bartender. He mixed me a couple of requested drinks that were not on the menu, and he didn't even need to look at the recipes.

[ Edited by: StolenIdols 2018-06-23 07:03 ]