Sneaky Tiki San Francisco NOT OPEN! July 2006

Some second hand information (originating from someone who lives above the old Hamburger Mary's space in San Francisco) is that the bar going in there at 12th and Folsom will be called the Sneaky Tiki.
Last weekend they were jackhammering out the old floors so I figure maybe early Summer 2005 this place will open. That is all I know for now.

Have a nice Tiki Day!

UPDATE; THE BAR IS NOW open!!
UPDATE TO THE UPDATE; THE PLACE CLOSED IN JULY 2006.

it is closed!

[ Edited by: mrsmiley 2006-07-22 11:16 ]

The guys at work are calling me Sneaky Tiki today!

Which corner is it on? There are about 5 bars in that 1 block area. Is it the big space on the southwest corner that becomes a new dance club every 6 months? They had a transparent dance floor over a lighted pool at one time. Seems the location is cursed and will never be successful.

Hmmm, Curse of the Sneaky Tiki...

sounds like I movie I've watched recently

They could at least come up with an original name.

Perhaps "Soon-to-be-Closed-Tiki" didn't sit too well with investors.

I've always had the vibe that this place was owned by gangsters or the Mafia or some such group. In my 16 years in the Bay Area, it's never been the same club for 2 years. Maybe it's a front for money laundering, in which case "Sneaky" is apropos.

On 2005-03-07 13:17, Unga Bunga wrote:
They could at least come up with an original name.

yes, like Sneaky TikiS !! (plural) tee hee.

My error--it is in the old Hamburger Mary's location which was at 12TH and Howard (not 11th).

On 2005-03-07 13:17, Unga Bunga wrote:
They could at least come up with an original name.

Yes , like "Otto Von Stroheim's Sneaky Tiki"

---just spreading false rumors!!!

mr. smiley - you know claiming to have 'insider information' won't be getting you invited into the tikifight club, so just knock it off already :wink:

We were just talking about Hamburger Mary's. They had great bloody marys, and a cute boy I knew from Philadelphia worked there....

On 2005-03-07 15:43, mrs. pineapple wrote:

We were just talking about Hamburger Mary's. They had great bloody marys, and a cute boy I knew from Philadelphia worked there....

lot's of "cute" boys worked at the SF one, too. (if ya know what I mean!)

On 2005-03-07 15:46, mrsmiley wrote:

On 2005-03-07 15:43, mrs. pineapple wrote:

We were just talking about Hamburger Mary's. They had great bloody marys, and a cute boy I knew from Philadelphia worked there....

lot's of "cute" boys worked at the SF one, too. (if ya know what I mean!)

Yes, Yes I DO! he was a cute boy FROM Philadelphia, who worked at SF HM. He played in a punk rock band and he smooched me good one night....
ahhhh those were the days! getting smooched by smelly punk rock boys.... there was a time when there were SO many Philly Ex-pats, we called it San Frandelphia...

but I digress...so, otto is opening a tiki bar??

On 2005-03-07 15:53, mrs. pineapple wrote:
but I digress...so, otto is opening a tiki bar??

---I made up the Otto / Sneaky TIki rumor. I do know that if Otto ever opens up a tiki bar he will use a more original name, like "Tiki Bob's and Otto's" tee hee

---I made up the Otto / Sneaky TIki rumor. I do know that if Otto ever opens up a tiki bar he will use a more original name, like "Tiki Bob's and Otto's" tee hee----

I know, I asked him, and he said that when I win the Lottery and fund it, it'll happen. SO, ANY day now...

"You're the mayor of shark city, people think you want the beaches open."

[ Edited by: mrs. pineapple on 2005-03-07 16:13 ]

On 2005-03-07 14:59, mrsmiley wrote:

Yes , like "Otto Von Stroheim's Sneaky Tiki"

What's so sneaky about Otto's Tiki anyway?...and how would you know?

On 2005-03-07 16:37, bigbrotiki wrote:

On 2005-03-07 14:59, mrsmiley wrote:

Yes , like "Otto Von Stroheim's Sneaky Tiki"

I know YOUR 'tiki' isn't sneaky thanks to midnight skinny dipping at the Oasis a few years back!!! tee hee i hope this isn't too much info! :)
What's so sneaky about Otto's Tiki anyway?...and how would you know?

great. now I've got "midnight at the Oasis" stuck in my head, among other things...

What's this about Otto opening a Punk Tiki bar in Philidelphia?

On 2005-03-07 17:06, dangergirl299 wrote:
great. now I've got "midnight at the Oasis" stuck in my head, among other things...

midnight at the Oasis, sing your tiki to bed!!!

[ Edited by: mrsmiley on 2005-03-07 17:48 ]

I wonder how many more tiki bars SF can absorb? Hopefully this one won't have heavy metal blaring like my last try at the north beach "tiki" spot. Come to think of it my recent visit to the Lucky Tiki down south was also plagued by loud metal.

I heard Otto is getting out of tiki and into Beanie Babies...

first rule of BBFC...

:)

I don't know where this was but apparantly "Joe" had a Sneaky Tiki.

Back in the good old days (late 70s, early 80's) there wasn't much down there. Industrial spaces and offices. Some artist studios .( the starving type ) and performance spaces. Worth your life to take the wrong turn. At night it was a counter-culture no man's land and Hamburger Mary's was a kind of starting point for your exciting evening activities. Very gay, but not to the exclusion of everyone else. You could even get a parking place down there back then (if you had a car which no one did). While strolling the area in the wee hours you would see home made S&M parlors and secret bath houses and lots of guys with big mustaches wearing black leather biker attire. Then the yuppie infestation started. Old warehouses became "showplaces" and everyone trying to "buy" cool moved their offices there so of course it no longer was. Later the tech thing happened and people were suddenly millionaires. the atmosphere died

There were a few hold outs, but they didn't really make it either. First the artsy community got pushed to the east bay, but people who didn't grab hold of something soon scattered to Sacramento, Los Angeles, Seattle and who knows where.

Just my take on things, but probably pretty right on. Not that some of the millionaires don't have the right stuff, but it just ain't the same.

Still, a new tiki bar is always a beautiful thing.

[ Edited by: spy-tiki on 2005-03-08 10:32 ]

[ Edited by: spy-tiki on 2005-03-09 20:53 ]

On 2005-03-08 10:21, spy-tiki wrote:
Back in the good old days (late 70s, early 80's) there wasn't much down there. Industrial spaces and . . . . performance spaces.

SpyTiki:

You forgot the Gift Center. That was the San Francisco of my pre-tiki college days (heading over the bridge from Cal).

I frequently hung out in that neck of the woods in the mid-80s, where I became a regular at DNA.

True, it was the location of Many, many after-hour underground clubs and, at the time, another more established restaurant.

The place where the mustached gentlemen were going (after hanging on Ringold Street) was named "the Eagle."

The times we had!

On 2005-03-07 22:41, limptiki wrote:
I wonder how many more tiki bars SF can absorb?

I think the saturation point will not occur until there are twice as many tiki bars as there are Irish pubs.

I just heard from someone "in the know" that this bar is owned by the same guy who owns Lime and several other bars in SF. Also it won't be all that "tiki" by our definition.

On 2005-05-24 13:55, cynfulcynner wrote:

I just heard from someone "in the know" that this bar is owned by the same guy who owns Lime and several other bars in SF. Also it won't be all that "tiki" by our definition.

Maybe that is the "sneaky" part-that it isn't "Tiki".

Sneaky Tiki Sneaky Peeky:

Oh, this is the new sports bar we were talking about the other night...

:wink:

They are having an open call for employee applications Today until 1pm and Sunday July 17 from 3-6 pm. Again it is at 12th and Folsom across from Manora's Thai restaurant .

It looks like one of my good friends is going to be the bar manager there, so if that pans out, I'd like to host a little Tiki party and dancefest to break the place in. Any interest out there?

of course!

Don't mean to get off topic but has anyone ever heard of "Sneeki Tiki?" I found this glass a while back and have wondered where it's from. Search on TC reveals nada and google tells me that there was a video slot machine called "Sneeki Tiki." Anyone?

the design looks a little "adult entertainment" oriented...

perhaps it was a strip joint?

Martiki and I checked out the new Sneaky Tiki at 12th and Folsom in SF last night for a private, invite only free event.
In a nutshell, cool Tiki swizzles, coasters and cocktail picks. The specialty drinks are not the usual fare and vary in how our tastes liked them (my opinion, the "Lychee Cosmo" was the best and the "Fish Bowl" wasn't too bad). The finger food they were serving was, well, ZAZZ!!! The interior is cool in a modern upscale kind of way, but it really isn't TIKI at all!! A couple interesting "melting ice" tiki masks and some spear light fixtures plus a backlit ceiling bamboo panel are the only items that have varying degrees of tiki feel to them. The nine spherical fish tanks are pretty zazz , too.
Guys will love the attractive female waitstaff and bartenders.
Martiki will post his opinions soon, I bet.

On 2005-07-19 12:54, Tonga-in-Chiki wrote:
It looks like one of my good friends is going to be the bar manager there, so if that pans out, I'd like to host a little Tiki party and dancefest to break the place in. Any interest out there?

let us know.

it sounds interesting~

so the real question is: is it tiki enough to be added to the annual SF Crawl?

so the real question is: is it tiki enough to be added to the annual SF Crawl?

I doubt it. It is too Nouveau Tiki Lite. If Tiki Central ever turns into "Club Tiki" the tiki website for hip, clubgoers, then it will be a great choice! :)

here is a slogan I thought of..."Not your father's tiki bar!"

You can substitute "grandfather" depending on how young you are.

***EDITED 11/15: The original opening paragraph of this post, upon further review, is poorly worded and inappropriate. I apologize for my sanctimonius tone. I should have in NO WAY implied that tiki enthusiasts are more "decent" than anyone else, because that simply isn't true. Yes, Sneaky Tiki is not what the tiki enthusiants of this website would call tradtional and probably wouldn't be their cup of tea. But that doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of people out there who will love the Sneaky Tiki and should. I wish the Sneaky Tiki all the success in the world. I hope they do well. I still feel that I was sneered at for wearing a hawaiian shirt in a room full of black-clad urban hipsters. I still don't think it's unreasonable to wear a little aloha to a tiki bar. I will suggest to my fellow SF Tiki Crawl planners that we reconsider the Sneaky as a destination, but as it's still quite far removed thematically from the atmosphere of, say, the Tonga Room or Bamboo Hut, and I doubt that it will happen for that reason alone.

**Unedited original post follows:

I doubt this place will make the SF crawl. I just don't want a bus load of decent tiki folk to be subjected to the disdainful sneers of a bunch of lousy SF hipsters. Not worth the visit.

My feelings are the same as Bruce's- it's very sleek, with some nice decorative touches, but it's very, very stylized and modern. The food is great, so that's a big plus. And they do use fresh lime juice, which is also excellent.

Drink Menu as follows:

Hula Colada (pina colada) $13 for 22 oz (!)

Lychee Cosmo $9
Fuji Apple-tini $8 (this should give you an idea of what we're dealing with)
Ginger Lycheeni $8 (my favorite- lychee syrup, vodka, FRESH ginger and FRESH lime juice- very nice)

Tiki Tai $16- you keep the glass two-face disney-style mug- but, fair warning, it's a terrible drink.

Sneeky Peeko Punch $8 (Hibiscus flavored- not bad)

Island Ice Tea $14 (22 oz) Long Island Ice Tea with a mango float

Blue Lagoon $8 (orange vodka, blue curacao, sour mix, 7 up, fresh lime)

Passion Margarita $8 (tequila, passion fruit sorbet, fresh lime)

The Fish Bowl $15 (for two, so-so. I asked for more lime juice and it helped)

Here's some pictures:

The acrylic masks over some of the booths

Plants behind one of the two bars

Sleek!

In-depth research.

[ Edited by: martiki 2005-09-07 19:38 ]

[ Edited by: martiki 2005-11-15 11:26 ]

At those prices the drinks should be better! What kind of rum do they use in the drinks?

But the really important question...What do the swizzle sticks and matchbooks look like?

Here's the top of their swizzle:

Here's a review doen by the Chron:

Tiki torches light up SoMa

Sneaky Tiki snuck into SoMa last week, lighting its torches at the space
that once housed Hamburger Mary's.
Co-owned by Greg Bronstein and designer Craige Walters, who also brought
Lime to the Castro, the restaurant and lounge's doors open upon an
illuminated wall of bubbling fishbowls. DJ beats fill the air while
customers sip drinks at thick, textured glass bars and sleek couches in
the lounge, while tiki coasters and swizzle sticks bring a retro feel to
the futuristic setting. Two private booths are enclosed with mesh curtains
and equipped with switches that illuminate glass tiki masks to signal when
service is needed.
The meal begins with crispy wonton chips and three dipping sauces --
lime-scented mango "ketchup," spicy cilantro jalapeno puree and a
pineapple sweet and sour sauce -- that complement dishes on the Pan-Asian
menu.
A three-tiered pupu platter is ideal for sharing, with spiced meatballs,
house-made peppery beef jerky, crispy coconut calamari and shoestring
sweet potato fries.
Main courses include entrees such as coriander-crusted lamb chops, as well
as sizable platters for two. The luau pork platter features a large tender
shank of braised Niman Ranch pork. Most entrees and platters come with
rice, and diners can choose additional sides such as Chinese long beans
and grilled mushrooms.
The menu includes suggestions for pairing dishes with the cocktails or
items from the sake and wine list, such as combining the slightly sweet
ginger lychee martini with barbecue spareribs.
End the meal with desserts like warm ginger-spiced donuts sprinkled with
sugar and accompanied by coconut ice cream.
After the kitchen closes at 10 p.m. (11 p.m. Friday and Saturday), the
dining tables are cleared out and the entire space is transformed into a
lounge open for several hours, adding another hot spot to the
neighborhood.

Sneaky Tiki, 1582 Folsom St. (at 12th Street), San Francisco; (415)
701-8454. Dinner nightly, weekday lunch to start next week. Starters and
salads, $4.95-$12.95; entrees, $8.95-$18.95; platters, $26.95-$38.50;
desserts, $6.
-- Amanda Bowman

Is Sneaky Tiki in San Francisco going going gone ?
I was in the neighborhood of Sneaky Tiki in San Francisco last night and the doors were locked. The lights were on but there were no employees or customers inside. I thought this was strange for 9:00 PM on a Saturday night.
Anyone know what's up ?

[ Edited by: Buster 2006-07-02 17:40 ]

From today's San Francisco Chronicle ...

Tiki was hot last year, but the trend might be winding down. San Francisco's Sneaky Tiki (1582 Folsom St., at 12th Street), opened by Greg Bronstein and Craige Walters, closed a few weeks ago.

"The area is really hard," says Walters, who also designed the space. "We were packed on the weekends, but completely dead Monday through Wednesday. We just couldn't survive on three days a week."

Vern

On 2006-07-19 14:07, ikitnrev wrote:
From today's San Francisco Chronicle ...

Tiki was hot last year, but the trend might be winding down.

Scoff... Tiki (done right) is still hot!! It's the drinks and ambience, not the theme that gives a bar longevity. I visited Sneaky Tiki once. I repeat once. Both drinks and service were shoddy!!

[ Edited by: Conga Mike 2006-07-19 16:02 ]