The largest home Tiki bar allowed by law.

I finally made it to Castway Cove this past weekend. For those who don't know, Castaway Cove is the Tiki bar that our own TikiMaxton created in the wilds of his backyard near the outer edges of Portland, Oregon. Others have written about their visits, but what has never been fully expressed before is how HUGE Castaway Cove is. Maxton's Tiki bar could swallow your Tiki bar whole.
About the size of small city block (so I'm exagerating a little) Castawy Cove is in its own freestanding building which is nestled in the mostly tamed jungle that is Maxton's backyard. The rustic urban exterior of the building gives no hint of the exotica gigantica interior. Inside the walls and ceiling are completely covered in reed (Now we know the reason you can't get reed fencing at Home Depot anymore...Maxton bought it all!). There's a large 3 stool bar with a cool rocks-in-lucite bar top on it, a thatched roof over it, and a tapa patterned bark cloth covered wall with shelves of Tiki mugs, bottles, and paraphernalia behind it. The bar is the heart of Castawy Cove and one could happily sit and drink at it for hours, I'm sure. The bar is flanked by some of Maxton's electric Tiki torches (the sturdiness of which I can attest as I saw one hit the floor during the party but the electric flame did not go out).
Roughly a half acre behind the bar in a corner flooded with red light is a large rock fountain which looks like it could have came from some swell old Chinese restaurant (except Maxton's fountain works and isn't full of dusty plastic plants).
One wall near another corner is covered with a photo mural of a palm tree lined beach. As it's so large it really plays tricks with one's head, especially when the wall near it is suddenly rolled away to reveal an outdoor sandy beach guarded by two large palm trunk Tikis (when Maxton first mentioned this feature in a Tiki Central post I imagined a little 3'X 6' door opening on a tiny patch of sand...The actual opening is big enough to drive a school bus through).
Back to the yard surrounding Castawy Cove...It's pretty danged big and is full of dozens of mature plants and shrubs which create a really wild feel, especially when lit by Tiki torches. When the place becomes full of Tikis (probably not the Maxton's plan, but Tiki is a consuming passion) it'll seem like a tropical island.
I was at Castway Cove for the season opening party, and here are some party tips worth considering: Maxton had two types of Mai Tai on hand, the original and right one which was served to those in the know, and an orangey one for the folks who probably had a Mai Tai once on a Caribbean Carnival Cruise. His music was a mix of exotica with some swing and Sinatra type stuff. Good ideas as a party should be about entertainment not education.
And finally, a note on MrsMaxton's elegant presence in an incredibly cool Day-Glo orange and yellow vintage evening gown. Gliding through the twilight shadows of the yard she looked as if she were clothed in fire. It seemed just the sort of thing Pele herself would have worn for an evening on the town circa 1971.

Wow!! That sounds wonderful. And I thought I was doing ok because I built a bar myself and a year later it is still standing.

Maybe I have missed them, but are there any pictures of TikiMaxton's bar around? I would really love to see it.

-Matt

I have only seen a few shots of Maxton's creation but I can attest to his talents. My opinion he should become a full-part-time Tiki Bar architect/designer. I am definitely going to pick up two of his torches for my own Tiki decor, really I am!

Would be great to have a file of pics from Tiki members' home bars. There are quite a few out there, keeping the dream alive.

midnite...barless and not liking it, but try and put one in a small SF apartment!

I would just like to third that motion. The Maxtons' pad is really something else. I haven't seen all that many peoples' home bars; but of those I have, two of them rise above the rest-- the Maxtons' and, of course, MrSmiley's. Those two set the curve.

midnite...barless and not liking it, but try and put one in a small SF apartment!

Proud to have a tiki bar in a small SF apartment. Sure, there's no room to do irrelevant things like "sleep" or "eat", but that's the price ya pay. As Heather mentioned, we have been discussing a Bay Area home tiki bar tour. I'll be on the itinerary, as I hope many others will be (we'll all pile in to Shutterfly's offices one day and party at Mig's, too). I'll start a new forum on it soon, and we can see who's interested then. And we'll definitely have to have tour t-shirts made afterwards, so we can be like rock stars.

-martin

you can do great things with limited space... because so much goes on the ceiling... so long as you paint the walls dark and the ceiling black, you can sit in your matchbox sized tiki bar and stare into the vast darkness beyond the floating pufferfish...

There may be some photos of Maxton's Castaway Cove back at the Yahoo Tiki Central. I forgot to mention in my original post that I had seen photos of his place and they didn't begin to show how swell it really is.

There were some pics -- in fact a whole pictorial tour, I'm sure -- back at the old Yahoo place. Of course, I may be mixing it up with something else, but I'm 90% sure. Can old posts from the Yahoo setup be accessed?

I believe (but am not 100% sure) that Yahoo wiped out all photos when they converted to groups.

I can tell you that your humble moderators really want to get an image archive up and running, but they (okay, Hanford mostly, since he's the programmer) are still working on it!

Thank you, woofmut for the wonderful write up, and everyone else for your comments. To everyone who cares to know, Woofmut is a gracious guest and I hope he'll become a regular fixture at CC events as he's only 3 hours away. He brought me some beautiful hand carved (by him) decorations, including 2 foam tiki wall hangings and a wooden Witco-inspired tiki head on a bamboo pole (the pole came from Sparky's garden as I understand it). Anyway, the party was a huge success, setting new records for crowd size (about 60 by evening's end) and liquor comsumption.

As I've been recently laid off and am no longer chained to a computer all day, I am way behind in my postings (I have over 500 TC messages waiting in my inbox!). At least now I don't have to write a party review, as Woofmutt beat me to the punch and did a much more flattering job of it than i would have.

RE pictures - I wish I could have had Sven shoot my bar while he was in town - his Alibi photos are incredible, and regular flash photography just doesn't cut it in a dark room like that... Maybe I'll do some experimenting with slow shutter speeds during my "sabbatical"...

beautiful hand carved (by him) decorations, including 2 foam tiki wall hangings

Woofmutt, I would love to hear more about these and how to make them, if you don't mind sharing...

Thanks!

I would love to see any of these photos and share photos of my Portland, OR tiki bars (one in the basement and one in the back yard). Trouble with the backyard unit is it is under an ugly blue tarp most of the time and I haven't finished the outdoor wiring. Still, when both are fired up it is something to behold.

I have webspace for anyone's tiki bars or polynesian decor pictures. Just email them to me and I'll be glad to put them in the Decor section of my site.

A Bay Area home bar crawl sounds great! My small tiki room/bar is always open for you guys. I met Mig and a few other Tikicentral folks at the Tropics and look forward to meeting more of you!

mrtikibar - I'm way behind on my posts, so maybe I missed your introduction, but I thought I was the only tikihead on the list from Portland! Where have you been hiding? Had I known sooner, I could have invited you to the Castaway Cove season opener! I'm in St. Johns; where are you?

TikiMaxton,
Aloha! I just registered yesterday. I don't know if I touched all the bases doing the start up thing but what are you going to do?
Thanks for the friendly gesture concerning your bar. Love to see it some time. If I do my chores,and mind my p's and q's, my wife says I can have a tiki party in August.
I will send you a note. That is if you can stomach partying with geezers in their 40's and 50's. I barely can.
I live in southeast Portland near Ladd's addition. One of you P-Town youth's should organize a Portland pub crawl. It would be pretty simple. Back and forth from the Alibi to the Jasmine Tree. Or perhaps you know of other tiki establishments in the metro area? Thanks again for the greeting.
I have noticed FrenchyPolynesia apparently
is a Portland Tiki Centralite. It's happening. Saw TikiFarm items at Home Ec. and Presents of Mind on Hawthorne St. The movement is here.
mrtikibar

mrtikibar, I think geezers make the best partiers!! :)

On 2002-07-08 19:04, mrtikibar wrote:
TikiMaxton,
Aloha! I just registered yesterday. I don't know if I touched all the bases doing the start up thing but what are you going to do?
Thanks for the friendly gesture concerning your bar. Love to see it some time. If I do my chores,and mind my p's and q's, my wife says I can have a tiki party in August.
I will send you a note. That is if you can stomach partying with geezers in their 40's and 50's. I barely can.
I live in southeast Portland near Ladd's addition. One of you P-Town youth's should organize a Portland pub crawl. It would be pretty simple. Back and forth from the Alibi to the Jasmine Tree. Or perhaps you know of other tiki establishments in the metro area? Thanks again for the greeting.
I have noticed FrenchyPolynesia apparently
is a Portland Tiki Centralite. It's happening. Saw TikiFarm items at Home Ec. and Presents of Mind on Hawthorne St. The movement is here.
mrtikibar

Okay....we need some pictures of this gem. I just searched here, and online and on FB and didn't find anything that was still active for viewing. Who's got 'em? Who's gonna show 'em?

Glad this ancient thread got dug out and dusted off! The whole "what happened to early TC home bars" has been on our mind lately and we've been hoping some people coud dig out some pics for some of the more intriguing-sounding ones.

LoungeShark, we've always been interested in this place, too. Actually this one, along with Basement Kahuna's Kon Tiki Paradise Room, are among the top of the first-gen tiki revival home bars that we really want to see. Dave hasn't answered his PMs or emails :( and doesn't appear to be on FB so we have no way of contacting him. Just tried a pm to TikiMaxton. Any active TCers in the Portland area?

[ Edited by: mike and marie 2017-05-02 17:41 ]

On 2017-05-02 17:41, mike and marie wrote:
Any active TCers in the Portland area?

I hope so! Visiting Portland in July and looking for some local guidance to maximize the tiki experience! :)

Tiki Kon, June 30 to July 2. I'd say pretty darn active in Portland

I haven't been to all the events at Tiki Kon, but I've been to their Market Place several years in a row, and they always have some cool stuff!!
I'm sure you can see all the main Tiki haunts in Portland on Critiki, but Hale Pele and Alibi are pretty awesome!!

On 2017-05-03 20:17, Bloody Good wrote:
I haven't been to all the events at Tiki Kon, but I've been to their Market Place several years in a row, and they always have some cool stuff!!
I'm sure you can see all the main Tiki haunts in Portland on Critiki, but Hale Pele and Alibi are pretty awesome!!

Alas, our trip is coming a little late for Tiki Kon. Had we known about it sooner, we could've adjusted our schedule, but now we're locked in. Hale Pele and Alibi are definitely on our lists. The closest we've ever come to visiting an actual tiki bar was Pilikia in Dallas, and if you read any of the reviews, you'll see how that barely counts. :)

Ok, you guys who are getting out to Portland need to hunt down TikiMaxton and post some pics!

Well, I'm from Portland but I've never met TikiMaxton or many of the Portland Tikiphiles aside from a small handful.

That said I would love to go on the Tiki Kon Sunday home bar tour! I've been to several of the Tiki Kons since 2010 but usually have only attended one event if that and the market place. Anyways I was looking at the Tiki Kon website today(home bar tour already sold out) and noticed they had pics of Castaway Cove from an old bar tour. I thought was funny cause I had just read this thread!

Here's the link... :)
http://www.tikikon.com/past/2004/Cove.html

-Bloody

I heard a sad rumor this past weekend that the Cove is changing themes soon. :(

And do try to do the Tiki Kon Home Bar tour one of these years. Just be aware that the tickets for this sell out in a matter of hours. They only run 3 buses of 50 people each bus. I am excited to say that after nearly a decade of collecting, and a few delays, my home will be on the tour this year.

[ Edited by: KeithH 2017-05-30 15:21 ]

Keith, we don't like the sound of that rumor! :(

Bloody Good, thanks so much for posting that!

It's funny how this was like 15 years ago and the digital pics from then are so different from now. We bet those 9 pics were probably considered "a lot" at the time, and maxxed out the camera's card!

[ Edited by: mike and marie 2018-04-04 14:45 ]

Hate that this board software only supports jpg files... but anyway out of a sense of "completeness," here's the image files from the link above. The page also described the 500 square foot outbuilding this bar was in ...