Tiki Underground (Cuyahoga Falls, OH)

Name: Tiki Underground
Type: bar
Street: 1832 Front Street
City: Cuyahoga Falls
State: OH
Zip: 44221
Country: USA
Phone: 234-380-5398
Status: operational
Description:

Located in downtown Cuyahoga Falls, this can be considered TU 2.0, the new incarnation of Tiki Underground after the original location in Hudson shut down.

https://www.tikiunderground.com/

[ Edited by mike and marie on 2022-09-27 18:29:32 ]

[ Edited by mike and marie on 2022-09-27 18:30:18 ]

Admiral Locnar's new venture in Cuyahoga Falls just opened two weeks ago (with Vincent & Magdalena of Hi-Tide spinning). It's so completely different from the TU in Hudson (which was a great place itself) that you'd have to squint and hunt to even find anything inside the place that resembles the old. (Hint: our two favorite Witco stools are still here. Yay!) But this is a hundred times better, they've amped the Tiki up to High and made it the number one priority.

A standalone building in the walkable heart of Cuyahoga Falls, from the outside there's little hint of what it contains:

But you walk in, and BOOM: it hits you. Tiki. It's no bigger than the Tiki-Ti, and has the mid-mod feel of the Tonga Hut. It's only been around for two weeks, but it feels like they were slinging Port Lights here back when Bobby Kennedy was running for President. This place is absolutely off the meter in two departments, (1) Atmosphere and (2) Cocktail Quality, and to that we just say Bingo, Bullseye, Finito, Mahalo. It's everything we'd want in a tiki bar. The atmosphere excels so well firstly because they get it, and they get the lighting -- the entire place is lit only by tiki lamps and accent tiki lighting. That's it. There's no other light source. None. And it's just perfect ... not nearly as dark as a cocktail lounge like Fox's in Miami, but close ... on the tiki bar Light Index scale, they are set to "Perfection." And it's loaded with great stuff, like a giant tiki from the Sheraton Kon-Tiki, a lava wall, animated portholes, great old lamps (some undoubtedly from the Kahiki, some from Tikiskip), Witco, nautical detritus like fishnet and huge ropes and giant anchors ... and of course a dedication to all the right music, and lots of vinyl nights. This place is just a big wow.

And the drinks are terrific ... even beyond that ... we haven't had a Jet Pilot this good outside the Molokai Bar at the Mai-Kai, and don't know where you could get one this good ... their various Mai-Tais and all the classics are looking spot on, we're eager to try the rest. There's plenty of original new cocktails here, too, and that's very exciting: Tonga Tim just keeps getting better as a mixologist by the nanosecond. We noticed all the interesting and innovative recipes in his new book, and TU has a lot of new cocktails in that caliber.

[ Edited by mike and marie on 2022-09-27 19:01:57 ]

Looks great!

"great old lamps (some undoubtedly from the Kahiki, some from Tikiskip)" I sold them ten Tikiskip made lights when they opened and then 4 matching original Kahiki lights (Rattan globes) sometime after they opened.

I also sold them a 3 foot by 1.5 foot carving from the Kahiki that was really awesome and one of those sold at the OA auction for lots would bet that carving came from the OA people way back when the Kahiki first went in in the early 1960s, so they do have that Kahiki stuff from me.

I keep a list of where most of my lights went after being sold/given away/traded.

We do want to get over to Tiki underground and still have not been to Porky's yet.

Will try to meet you two when we do go.

OA carving, look for it when you go.

[ Edited by tikiskip on 2022-09-28 15:31:13 ]

Was glad we got to go to the old Tiki underground with you two before it went out.

I was going to put some Tikiskip stickers on the bathroom stall and went in the men's room to do so and when I opened the bathroom door there were stickies all over the stall already so seeing this I said out loud "Alright" Well when I went all the way in I could see there was a black guy in there going to the restroom.

I thought he must have thought I was some guy looking for some guy, thought that was kinda funny.

Does the new place have stickies all over the bathroom walls, thought that was cool, with or without a black guy peeing.

noice!

I hear they have the Chisel Slinger big tiki from the closed Grass Skirt in Columbus, nice to hear that little bit of history has a good new home.

looking forward to more photos and reports.

$$$$$

We know that carved piece very well, it was in the vestibule at the old TU with a nice plaque and info. I was looking for it here, didn't see it. I spotted Tikiskip lamps indeed, and many other lamps. But it was crowded beyond crowded, so even though it's a cozy place we didn't scour every square inch. It's a very, very cool place and the kind of bar you can disappear into for many hours. To speak in 2010s tiki parlance, the TIPSY factor is high. No stickers in the bathrooms. In fact, the bathrooms are what I would call "fancy," and we appreciate and approve. Not as laid out as the Mai-Kai bathrooms, but definitely in that vein, not a place for stickers or anything like that. The sink fixtures are similar to the ones in the Madonna Inn, which is really cool -- will have to make a short vid next time. There might be a place for stickers by the side door, I don't remember, but in all it's definitely not a place for ad-hoc customer additions. You guys will love it. The big Sheraton is like 500 feet away which means the place really lends itself to an Order of the Drooling Bastard type club. We'll definitely get more photos next time we're there!