Kahiki Moon....the Story

****** Grand Opening Update Update ******

We opened our doors July 16, 2004

!!The Fisherman's Trio - July 23, 2004!!

Grand Opening Update

Aloha mi amigos!

The Grand Opening Celebration with the Fisherman's Trio has been postponed. The city will not be able to meet to officially approve our liquor license until June 23. An unfortunate but all too common fact of business today were it typically takes 3 - 4 months to get pemits and such together. No problem though.... buys me some more time to get the place tricked out.

***** We can swizzle to the Fisherman back here July 23, 2004******

Major Contributors:
Ken Pleasant - Carvings
Miles Thompson - Logo artwork and element design (menus, coasters, etc.)
Oceanic Arts - Decor
Flounder - Artwork
KAHAKA - Tapa Lamps
Many more have offered and I will contact you SOON!
UPDATE

Not to be confused with the Kahiki Moon Room: https://tikicentral.com/viewtopic-new.php?topic=7285&forum=1

I believe this might be the first time in history a home bar has inspired the real
thing. Because of my home bar I was able to rope in some restaurant investors.

I have been ready to open a tiki bar/restaurant in my town of Burlington, VT for quite a while now with the intention of only opening if the location is prime. One basement restaurant in my town has always been this prime candidate but has always had a successful Mexican restaurant installed and it appeared that this successful eatery would remain indefinitely. After 15 years in the same spot this restaurant closed its doors unceremoniously two weeks ago. I pounced. Long story short a sports bar had beaten to the punch and submitted the signed lease, but the building owner had not signed it yet. Upon my presentation the landlord was floored and all but burned the sports bar lease in front of me. On April 1st I received my keys for a 3500 square foot bar / restaurant, my tiki bar.

I just can't wait any longer to share the Kahiki Moon.

The following pics are as I received the space....

The front entry. Imagine double doors with totem pilasters and a 4 ft mask door pull.

Looking up the entry staircase.

The lounge area

Bar Back - yuck!

Another view of the bar

A view of the dining room

Another view of the dining room

The outdoor patio

The entire bar has been removed and a good chunk of the kitchen. I will post more pics of the progress!
Aloha!

[ Edited by: Primo Kimo on 2005-03-12 08:11 ]

Very cool! Congrats and good luck.

-Z

Aloha and Thanks FZ! It has already been and will continue to be a lot of hard work. I can't wait to wake up in the morning for hours of backbreaking labor. Really!

I forgot to mention that the decor will come mostly from TC members including:

Ken Pleasant (Keigs20) - stools/entry doors/lots 'o other stuff

Interested but as yet unconfirmed Artist - Menus, matchbooks, coasters, etc.

I will be contacting some more of you directly in hopes of securing more fine art and decor.

Mahalo!

There is a Chinese Restaurant in TOronto (Champion House) that is in a basement as well, and every time I go in there, I think, DAMN! This would make a fabulous tiki bar - keyhole shaped doorways, multi level dining, etc. I think they even served drinks in tiki mugs at one time...

However after watching friends go through opening a restaurant/bar here in TO, I can safely say that I won't be leaving my day job to open a tiki bar anytime soon, as that looks like an INSANE amount of work. I truly admire anyone who has the drive to do it.

I wish you tons of luck! It looks like it will be great!

Congrats! But...will there be video games?

Holy Shit! Vermont Tiki! Finally! This 6'4", 300lb Gorilla will gladly help out on days off!

Alright Vermont! Way to Primo Kimo. Now I have another reason to get over to Vermont and see some old friends. Good Luck with everything. I am sure you will find plenty of support from the fine folks at T.C.
Chongolio

This is great! So many new tiki bars popping up all over the world and in areas that need them the most!

Best of luck with everything, I know it will be fantastic!

Congratulations, Primo! What fantastic news. What will your food menu be like?

On 2004-04-07 05:46, Primo Kimo wrote:

Upon my presentation the landlord was floored and all but burned the sports bar lease in front of me. On April 1st I received my keys for a 3500 square foot bar / restaurant, my tiki bar.

This is the kind of story that brings tears to this grown man's eyes...What more can I say, I am floored.
I bestowe the blessings of TIKI, the god of good food, good drink and good fun upon you.

Hey, are you gonna have food? Beachbum Berry's new recipe book "Taboo Table" will be out the end of May, filled with all authentic recipes (he picked the eatable ones...) from the heyday of Polynesian restaurants.

Maybe by the end of the decade there will be as many new tiki bars as there were old tiki bars.

Score!

Congrats Primo! I must visit-I do all me drinking in basements.

Great news Primo! If you need some manual labor, I could work something out in my schedule during the summer. Let me know!

Space looks very promising Primo. Can wait to see the end result!!! Congrats and good luck!

Kanaka

Primo King!
A new horizon for you. I wish you all the best in the new adventure.
This settles our last destination problem for the future, Tiki Central Coast To Coast Bar Crawl!!!

Primo King.......Good Luck! If your home bar is the blueprint, this place should be very nice indeed!

Aloha and thank you everyone...

Martiki: Yup. I'm gonna sneak a Pacman and maybe a Tempest in an alcove.

BadMojo & Tikigreg: Help is always appreciated. Especially during the parking lot luaus we will have this summer.

Humuhumu: Menu has yet to be resolved but I do know I will keep it relatively authentic, but with good food.

I will post some pics of the joint hollowed out maybe this evening.
Muy Mahalos!

...all this and Purple Jade too. Next on Tiki Central.

[ Edited by: Primo Kimo on 2004-04-08 06:51 ]

Can you divulge the Secret Location?
And seriously, I'm just over an hour away, with Sundays & Mondays off, just let me know if you need any basic Carpentry assistance, or any Paint slung. And I know their not much, but you are more than welcome to a few of these if they will help out:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=7532&forum=7&7

sorry i haven't been following tc like i usually have time for but DAMN this is exciting news!

best of luck!

a new BASEMENT tiki bar is an excellent idea!

best of luck!

wow 2 road trips ahead - to GA and now VT! j$

I have not posted in a while due to a full time job again and a ton of carving for the Kahiki Moon. So I thought I would post one of the many totems I am carving for the Moon. It is my first Ku totem and I was kind of excited about it. I am not quite finished with it but I had to post a picture anyway. Primo Kimo has some great ideas and I think the tiki bar is going to turn out sweet!! Here are the pics.

However after watching friends go through opening a restaurant/bar here in TO, I can safely say that I won't be leaving my day job to open a tiki bar anytime soon, as that looks like an INSANE amount of work. I truly admire anyone who has the drive to do it.

I wish you tons of luck! It looks like it will be great!

Hahahahaaaaa..... YES! I am glad someone said this before me. As some of you may know I hack taxi here in Key West, but some of you may not know I spent 20+ years in the restaurant and bar biz (I say it in that order 'cus I am a chef by trade and spent almost all of my time in the 'back of the house'). After 20 years of busting my ass in the biz (I started washing dishes at 14) and knew little else, other than a short stint in the Merchant Marines and a bit of construction laboring, I got tired of hardly making ends meet for a stupid amount of effort. Unable to bring myself to bartend or (God forbid) wait tables I decided to start hacking a cab in Las Vegas. For me it was stunning and amazing to make almost twice the money for half the effort, even though a typical taxi shift is 12 hours long! Bar and restaurants come and go, why? Because it is one of the most stressful and difficult industries there is and many that get into it have little or no experience and ABSOLUTELY no idea what they are in for! So if you don't know it well, don't try and learn it with your (or your investors) money. But if you do know it well, I say the best of luck to you! One day I may return to do the same myself........the fool that I am :wink: :lol:

On 2004-04-25 06:07, Rattiki wrote:

So if you don't know it well, don't try and learn it with your (or your investors) money.

Well Alo-F*ing-ha to you doctor KILLJOY.

I don't know anything about restaurants except how to eat and drink, but I sure know where I like to do those things.

Thanks for the support Ratfink!

****Let's hear it for the Ku! Right On! and thanks Ken!

[ Edited by: Primo Kimo on 2004-04-25 17:52 ]

Primo !
aha.. finally a GREAT reason to return to burlington.. (my husband graduated med school there, and they had the class reunion in the coldest may in history )

the best of luck to you in this new adventure!!

elicia
ps: PLEASE replicate the Hawaiian Nachos from the Hyatt in Kauai.. they have kalua pork on them...mmmm tasty!

Yessss! I was just googling for information on this. My wife and I were regulars at the previous restaurant. We'll miss the taxi margaritas, but we've been jonesing for a tiki lounge in Burlington. We look forward to you bringing some Quiet Village to the queen city. Best of luck!

Man, what a tiki it is!!!

Matt

On 2004-04-24 19:48, keigs20 wrote:
I have not posted in a while due to a full time job again and a ton of carving for the Kahiki Moon. So I thought I would post one of the many totems I am carving for the Moon. It is my first Ku totem and I was kind of excited about it. I am not quite finished with it but I had to post a picture anyway. Primo Kimo has some great ideas and I think the tiki bar is going to turn out sweet!! Here are the pics.

On 2004-04-25 17:48, Primo Kimo wrote:
Well Alo-F*ing-ha to you doctor KILLJOY.

I don't know anything about restaurants except how to eat and drink, but I sure know where I like to do those things.

Thanks for the support Ratfink!

Well that was a bit rude.

Soooo.........Just because I know what cars I like to drive and can drive them well doesn't put me in a position to own a dealership or be a mechanic, or even be a professional race car driver. Never the less a professional designer and manufacturer!

If this is your 'dream' then learn how to make it happen first. A succesful professional learns his trade from the ground up. A Tiki Bar & restaurant is more then your personal taste in tropo decore and nachos. Take a job as an assistant manager at a chain bar and grill for 6 months (TGIFs, Chilis, etc.), learn the ropes. Learn how to order and control stock, schedual employees and maintain labor costs, food costs, liquor cost, portion controls, how to deal with inspecters, VIPs (self proclaimed or otherwise), broken toilets on a Sat nite, a puker, a runner, a fight, you just ran out of WHAT! Where's my order for table 6?! etc., etc., etc. Learn the meaning of words and phrases like 'SLAMMED!', "In the weeds","didn't turning to","86ed", etc., they do not have pleasant meanings. Find out with someone else's money the million ways you can be scammed from double clocking employee hours to purveyors shorting you, 'bait and switch' on dry goods pricing, steaks stashed in the garbage for the dishwashers to take home, and on and on and on it goes. It normal takes 5-10 years of pratical ground work training to learn the BASIC management skills needed, never the less the artistry of cooking etc.

I spent 20+ years across the country and in 3 other countries doing this (as well as have fooled around in the front and back of the house of restaurants in a large % of the 40+ countries I have been to). From dishwashing at local Lums to head chef in fancy Sydney ala carte restaurants, to slinging hundreds of thousands of racks of ribs in one of the busiest B&Gs in Amsterdam (I was the cook, then chef, then GM there, eventually for their THREE outlets).

So I was (and am) giving you some FRIENDLY, FREE, PROFESIONAL advise. This is something that your 'buddies' will not do as they want to live the fantasy too (and drink and eat your profits). Read a Kitchen Confidential (by Anthony Bourdain) to try and get a clue. And if you don't like, or want to hear the truth, tough, it doesn't change the reality of the frequency of amature run bar and restaurant bankruptcies.

In the end I don't post this for you, since you seem to not want to hear it. I post it for all the others who dream the dream, but haven't a clue.

Now you all know the words:
Bali Hai is calling, any night, any day......

[ Edited by: Rattiki on 2004-05-13 05:53 ]

Primo ~ will you be open by October?? (please o please say "yes")... my lovely husband and i will be in Vermont to see the leaves.. hopefully we'll be able to enjoy the new Kahiki Moon..

elicia

Why don't you help out the Kahiki Moon with your all powerful insight instead of pontificating on how much you know about the restaurant biz and the hard work involved?

Well that was a bit rude.

Soooo.........Just because I know what cars I like to drive and can drive them well doesn't put me in a position to own a dealership or be a mechanic....blah, blah, blah and on and on....

Hey Primo Kimo what a great story!! I love the part about the landlord burning the sports bar lease, you go! I bet it will be fabulous when you get through with it.

If you need any custom tiki type wooden signs for it, we'd love to and can make you some at a real good price. Email me at [email protected].

Good luck with it, can't wait to see the finished pictures!

Right on Kimo! I dig it when someone goes after something that turns them on. That's what I did with my business and all the hard work (and I do mean HARD) paid off. Can't wait to see where the tiki you bought at the Oasis ends up. If I knew it was going in your bar I would have tried to sell you on one that wasn't dinged up. Let me know if you need anything else.... Mahaloz brah!

Way to go Kimo. I'm excited for you.

I was in the bar/restaurant business for almost 10 years in Washington DC and it still stands as the most exciting and gratifying time in my life. I'm very jealous. I'm not gonna say it was easy, cause it sure wasn't, but with the right advertising and marketing you can be very successful.

Good Luck with it all and please keep us posted with updated pics.

The restaurant/hotel industry has been my career for over twentyfive years.I can't imagine doing anything else,but Rattiki is absolutely,100% correct-it is a hard,hard business.Very gratifying,but running a place is like having a newborn baby 24/7.Just be prepared to work your tail off-and keep eyes at the back of your head.

Several years in the restaurant & Catering trade myself, my company went under after the combination of several late checks from clients, a seasonal slow period, & the embezzlement of a few thousand dollars by a partner. A couple of our checks bounced, our suppliers pulled our lines of credit & insisted on cash payments for each delivery, we came up short & were out of business.

I'd sugest hiring a successful Executive Chef/Manager to sweat the day-to-day stuff for you. Someone who's dealt with the problems your gonna face already so you don't have to. I'd expect the money men to insist on it.

GRAND OPENING July 23rd !!!
with the Fisherman's Trio + 2

Aloha and thank you everyone for your support! Upon returning from the west coast I feel recharged and loaded with inspiration and ideas for the Kahiki Moon. I met with Bob and Leroy down at Oceanic Arts, Miles Thompson and others at Tiki Ti, the Tiki Room and it's a Small World at Disneyland, copious amounts of TCers among others at Tiki Oasis in Palm Springs and Mig and Hanford Lemoore at Trader Vic's. I really could'nt have handled much else and I thank you all sincerely.

GRAND OPENING July 23rd !!!
with Fisherman's Trio + 2

Major Contributors:
Ken Pleasant - Carvings
Miles Thompson - Logo artwork and element design (menus, coasters, etc.)
Oceanic Arts - Decor
Flounder - Artwork
Many more have offered and I will contact you SOON!

You nay sayers can go jump in the lake!

With that said I feel like I should nip any further poop slinging in the bud. I have two other partners in this venture. One partner has 30 years experience in the restaurant industry and currently runs 4 successful restaurants in the surrounding area. The second partner is a well known and adored promoter in town. He has booked 100's of awesome bands and acts to our small town. The third partner is me. Me, if I do say so meself, am a successful businessman and I have had lots of experence putting projects together and then managing them $UCCE$$FULLY. This project will prove to be similar to previous ones and requires me to put together a good team (starting with the partners) and to work very hard. I am also an experienced carpenter, computer programmer/network engineer, professional DJ, audio engineer and graphic/web designer.

Again, I would like to thank ADHD, Don Ho, Pac Man, eBay and now Hanford Lemoore.

Please check back as I do have some updated pics to upload=)

[ Edited by: Primo Kimo on 2005-02-10 09:32 ]

Right on Primo!

The accomplishments that I am most proud of in my life all began with several people telling me that I couldn't do them. That includes a business that I started from scratch and ran successfully for 10 years.

Looking forward to trying a Mai Tai at the Moon!

-Z

Thank God The Tiki Bar Is Open
Thank God The Tiki Torch Still Shines...

[ Edited by: Feelin' Zombified on 2004-05-14 08:54 ]

Wonderful news sir! I'm glad to hear that everything's going full steam ahead and wish you & your partners clear sailing. I wish I could be there for your opening, but I'll try really hard to squeeze in a side trip next time I'm in NYC. :)

I'm waiting with bated breath for the pictures, if they're 1/2 as nice as your home bar it'll be spectacular!

Can't wait my man! Get back to me about the Tiki Candle Holders so I can make sure to have 'em to you for the opening.

Way to go Primo! There is nothing like owning your own business (despite the hard work.) Sure beats a grey carpet cubicle (just ask Bong!)

If I'm up your way I'll sure try to stop by. Best of luck!

Wow with Hale Tiki open & now yours coming up, i cant wait to get back to the east coast. Good luck Primo Kimo!

Tbird.

UPDATE
GRAND OPENING June 18th !!!
with Fisherman's Trio + 2

Major Contributors:
Ken Pleasant - Carvings
Miles Thompson - Logo artwork and element design (menus, coasters, etc.)
Oceanic Arts - Decor
Flounder - Artwork
Many more have offered and I will contact you SOON!
UPDATE

Here are some updated pics. A lot has happened since these were taken. All the brick columns and all sheetrock (walls and ceilings) have been painted flat black. The kitchen is 90% complete (but boring so I haven't posted pics). These are taken after the gutting and re-finishing the cobblestone floor (shiney) and of the beginning of the rebuid.

Stitched together bar front (weird perspectives)

Fishtank bar

Dining Room

More Dining Room

This corner will have the lovers booth with a waterfall and fountain.

Here is the stage that has been cut down to 9.5ft square.

AFN!
(aloha for now)

[ Edited by: Primo Kimo 2006-01-19 08:18 ]

Terrific news about the Kahiki Moon.
I'm a Burlington vet... and have always enjoyed the scene there. The place looks like something ready for the Tiki-ing. VERY cool logo, too. I want a shirt - uhhhh - 4XL. Yeah - it's all muscle.

EDIT:Favor asked - wish granted!
Thanks Kimo!
(you had to be there)

I'm positive that RT doesn't have anything other than good hopes for your venture. I mean - we ALL want to see more Tiki Bars. You may need a ride from him when you open up Kahiki Moon #14 in Key West. :)

See you in August or Autumn, most likely.

When's Phish playing? :wink:
Save some primo for that one.

How about a drink contest to determine your signature drink - unless you've already got one.

[ Edited by: pablus on 2004-05-17 12:35 ]

What message?!?!?

I have a name but no drink. Probably should have blueberries and/or maple involved. Yeah I would love to know what a 'Kahiki Moonlight in Vermont' tastes like=)
Suggestions?

On 2004-05-17 11:34, Primo Kimo wrote:
What message?!?!?

I have a name but no drink. Probably should have blueberries and/or maple involved. Yeah I would love to know what a 'Kahiki Moonlight in Vermont' tastes like=)
Suggestions?

Just a fun suggestion for what it might look like/visual; use Blue Curacoa (only enough for coloring, say 1/2 ounce) with a touch of grenadine on top (applied like a tequila sunrise) the rums and other mixers apply to the taste your after.

Primo Kino,
Regarding your signature drink: Do they still make Rock Maple Liqueur up there? I got a bottle 20 years ago from my college roommate's dad. Very tasty stuff that would make a great accent to a tropical drink. Just a thought.

-JTD

Here's four mug paintings I just completed for the Kahiki Moon.

More to come.

Original Art by Flounder

http://www.flounderart.com

[ Edited by: FLOUNDERart on 2004-05-21 11:21 ]

Awesome work yet again, Flounder!

Submit those to the Post Office, Flounder. Those need to be the first set of U.S. Commemorative stamps released in 2005. I would buy blocks and blocks of them and use them on all my tiki party invitations.

Sabu