The Dark Marq Room, Ripon, CA (home-bar) CLOSED

Name:The Dark Marq Room
Type:home-bar
Street:
City:Ripon
State:CA
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:operational

Description:
here is a link to an album showing the birth of our tiki room the dark marq.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8BbtXLlozasMc

it is still not 100% complete (is it ever?) but i feel it is close enough to post. i will add some pics of the lanai when it is closer to completion. here is a before and after pic.

the ceiling is seagrass matting. looks great up there and is a staple in most vintage bars. but ....what a royal pain in the rear that stuff is. if i had to do it over again i would most likely use something easier to install. just a word to the wise.

we always serve tropical drinks in tiki mugs. my mixology skills are novice at best however my skills are improving daily(wow i guess i am a drunk). the menu includes the staple drinks as well as a few of our own drinks like the Under Tow and the Nutty Witchdoctor.

as we make improvements i will post more pics. we hope to have it "finished" by next spring.

if anyone has questions on how we did this transformation or would like to come by for a visit, please send me a pm. we would be more than happy to share or experiences and our room with folks that are interested.

Here is the like to the comments on Critiki.
thanks for the great comments!

http://64.81.235.211/cgi-bin/location.cgi?loc_id=500

mahalo for looking!

[ Edited by: the drunken hat 2006-10-11 18:22 ]

[ Edited by: the drunken hat 2008-05-21 20:18 ]

I had the distinctive pleasure of visiting The Dark Marq Room.
It transports you in time to a better place. The drinks are great.
Your hosts are true ambassadors of the Aloha spirit.
If you ever have that rare chance to visit. Drop everything and paddle your outrigger to the Dark Marq Room.
The Dark Marq Room belongs in Critiki

Good people and plenty of aloha. If you are ever given the opportunity to visit the Dark Marq Room. I would highly advise to do so. A nice little oasis in the sea of California inhabited by two gracious hosts with penty of artifacts to behold.

Chongolio

-- I believe that our Heavenly Father invented the monkey because he was disappointed in man."
... Mark Twain

Come explore http://www.lost-isle.com

[ Edited by: Chongolio on 2004-11-08 19:07 ]

I especially like the "before" picture with the tiki cat with extra glow-ey eyes!

That looks awesome! Love the dark, cozy look of it! Amazing job, I'm sure it took many hours of hard work, but it looks fantastic.

We visited the wonderful Dark Marq Room last weekend and I took a few photos. Check out the fun animation I did of Scott in his happy place :D

http://www.tikiroom.net/scott.html

Thanks for the rum tasting and great company, Scott & Colleen!

mike, that is too funny! i love it! i especially love it when the trader vic's kava bowl mysteriously appears when scott appears. how does that happen? usually alcoholic drink vessels DISAPPEAR with scott's presence.

we absolutely loved having you guys over. so when are you moving out here again? :)

hey, how can i get a copy of that pic? i want one to put in my gallery of lamp pics (the lamp looks perty good up there, tikicleen! hope you guys are happy!)

Great Job Guys!!! Fantastic!!! I LOVE the ceiling, and I like how you did the walls. Just great, cool!!!
Al

Crazy Kids, 6 years ago I was going to have my bar finished in the Spring too.

[ Edited by: Alnshely on 2004-12-07 22:54 ]

mike~ thanks for posting the pic! i too love the magic kava bowl. we had a great time with you two.

kahaka~ we love the lamp! it looks great. i don't have a pic or i would send it to you. check mike's site. he may have posted pics that you can copy to your shutterfly account there. http://www.tikiroom.net. if that dosen't work then let me know and i'll take a pic and send it to you.

alnshely~ thanks for the kind words! but i wouldn't say it is done yet. there are a few more things to do! when are you guys coming up this way again?

I put the photos in the tiki gallery. Once you're viewing a photo you can click on it to see the original (bigger, much bigger) size. Mine are 2.8 megabytes each, so only do this if you have broadband.

Download any photos you like!

here is some pics of the awesome drape that was made with aloha by tikihula's girl alia! thank you so much for sewing this for us. we LOVE it!

here is a detail of the print.

edited to fix pics

...liquor in the front, poker in the rear...

[ Edited by: the drunken hat on 2005-01-03 15:38 ]

DH,
Love the room, especially the backlighting on the shelf of mugs. Very sexy. How'd ya do it?
Aloha,
:tiki:

royale,

it is a standard red rope light ran behind the mugs. target had them in 18'ft lengths for $7. thanks for the "provacative" comment.

dh

here are some updated photos. between a trip to OA and oasis we've collected several new items(including the drink contest trophy. damn that thing is huge!).

some of the pics are of tikis that are not yet house-broken.

this is an OA piece

on the door is a gecko panel and on the floor a new tiki tony

this is one of poly pop's sign

here are some oasis purchases bosko, mt bumatay and a couple of those cool munktiki stacker mugs

another OA piece

a "swingin" tiki from tiki tony

our first real tiki! also by tiki tony

this is our biggest tiki at 5 1/2' this is by jungle trader.

and last but not least a couple of tikis by seamus.

i've been working on a bigger bar. when it is done i will post some pics of it as well.

mahalo for looking!

edited to fix a pic

don't let the bus leave without me!

[ Edited by: the drunken hat on 2005-05-15 11:09 ]

Yo TCer's, if you haven't seen the Dark Marq room, you're missing out. I was just there again Friday night. Very relaxing, good conversation, just what the docta ordered. The drinks were superb. Mahalo Hat and Cleen.

you two are really doing a fantastic job with your room.

I cant wait for my chance to see it in person.

Looking good guys! Can't wait to get up there and see it in person. When's the next Hooptylau?

wow...that's a nice home bar. You've got some great pieces in there. Thanks for sharing!

well here are our most recent changes to our room. in case you were not aware tikicleen and i are stockton islander nuts! well we finally found some things from there besides mugs.

we had heard that there were some float lamps in SF that were from there but there was no way of authenticating at the time. lately we have been researching the islander an we spoke with the current owner of the building. he told us of how he had sold a bunch of stuff to a guy in the bay area including some small fence/stair rail tikis and several float lamps. that gave us the green light we'd been looking for and we called to see if there were any more. there were one tiki and one float we drove to SF and picked them up today!

you may recognize this tiki from an earlier post from mrsmiley.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=14916&forum=5

it was tagged trader vics but this is exactly what the owner of the islander described that he had sold to the dealer. i think this is a case where trader vics demands more money!

we also bought some of the large tiles they used as screens from the owner of the islander building. they will one day be incorporated into our tiki room. here are some pics of the objects:

Congratulations Drunken Hat,
That is a fine tiki pole, I've had my eye on it for a while. I'm glad that it found a loving home with plenty of Islander artifacts.
Aloha,
:tiki:

"Mai Tai - Roa Ae"

Best of luck with your room it looks fantastic. A wonderful thing for any home for all to escape in fantasy at least until that sobering moment comes the next day. The search for hair of the dog resumes and the fantasy lives on!

Really nice room.

Last week I had the pleasure to meet up with JungleTrader, the drunken hat, and tikicleen at Minnies. After a round of drinks (or was that two rounds?) and some puupuus, I was invited to visit the Dark Marq Room! What a thrill to see so many mugs in person, which I have only seen in books and postings. And the room was perfectly assembled; everything in the right spot. After another couple rounds of delicious drinks carefully blended by the drunken hat, and some fun conversation by all, I had to leave and come back to the real world.

Cheers to a wonderful tikiroom and its great hosts. I am hoping to have a few more business trips back to the area soon! hint hint... Mahalo for the hospitality in such a warm and exotic environment.

• Myke

after 4 great years of marriage and home bar operation, the dark marq will no longer operate. this is due to the dissolution of our marriage. while colleen may decide to keep the ripon home bar open, it will not be the dark marq. i will be building another home lounge in the future but when and where is still up in the air. our separation is civil so no worries there. it is time to move on and we both hope that we can do that with all of you.

THE DARK MARQ IS OFFICIALLY CLOSED.

That is the worst thing I have ever read on any thread at anytime ever on Tiki Central.

Wow...is this why Tiki Central was down so long today?

I am shocked and hope things work out for you both...you both have been great friends here and in person.

All my best,

PTD

We feel for both of you and are sorry that things look bleak right now. We are always here for support if you need it. You are such awesome friends to us and we wish you both happiness in the future!

big hug,
Mike & Alia

Best wishes for you both.
I am grateful for the wonderful memories I have of your awesome tiki lounge and amazing hospitality.

Regards,

Jen

The Drunken Hat and Tiki Cleen, You were 2 of the first people I met on this board and 2 of the nicest people I have ever met. This is sad news indeed. I wish you both nothing but good health and happiness.