The Tiki Terrace

Its official... Coming this October.... 1 S. Wolf Road, Prospect Heights, IL 60070... just minutes from O'hare airport.

The Tiki Terrace... a full service restaurant, tiki bar and entertainment venue. Approx 3000 sq ft... seating 60-70.

We would love to have you! If you can make it to the grand opening week, we will have free food, entertainment, free merchandise and more.

Free Tiki Terrace Tees to the first 100 registered Tiki Terrace VIP's. Register at http://www.thetikiterrace.com ... we are at approximately 75 members now so hurry for the free tee. No obligation to register.

Decor by A Custom Production, http://www.acustomproduction.com
Entertainment by The Barefoot Hawaiian, http://www.barefoothawaiian.com

What to expect. We are going with a faux rock and tropical theme. Much of walls will be covered with rock formation and large Maoi statues still connected to the rocks. Many greens. About 20 wood carved tikis custom made for this place. We will have an approx 17' X 10' stage for music and Hawaiian entertainment. We have a concept called the Kapa Nui Cove which should be very fun! This will be an enclosed "hut" type area which will seat up to 12 guests for parties and meetings. Since one of the partners is the owner of the Barefoot Hawaiian, we will have cocktail waitress/entertainers. We would like to offer a short hula dance at the top of every hour with our waitresses. Those are all the main ideas. I will keep you all updated through Oct.

I will post pics as we demo/renovate.

Thanks for listening!
Scott

Sounds cool. I registered. Will I get a t-shirt?

Glad to hear more tiki will be in Chicago-and I just registered.Thanks for the heads up.

cant wait!!!....ill be there opening night or asap!!!

Me too Me too.....hope it signed up in time for a
free shirt....I missed Exotica but I will be sure to
make it for the grand opening (if I am a VIP).

I signed up too! I can't wait for the opening! Always up for another tiki place within driving distance!
Best wishes and much success!

Fantabuloso! We signed up yesterday and are looking forward to it checkin' out. Nice work! See y'all at the Grand Opening.
TTFN,
D&C

Update on The Tiki Terrace:

Here is our first newletter... you can view it at http://www.thetikiterrace.com/newsletters/ttt_newsltr20050915.htm

It is now 2.5 months into the build out. We are doing the build out ourselves and to be honest, my brothers and I are tired. We are enterting the inspection process which can be a difficult time. But we are slowly progressing. The decor is about half way installed. All the large scale decor will be fabricated and installed in about 3 weeks,,, we hope.

I know many of you were in the first 100 group to register on our mailing list and are due a free tiki terrace tee shirt. They are all printed and will be in the mail shortly. Sorry for the delay with this.

Thanks for listening.
Kalani
The Tiki Terrace

I'm now a VIP member. Can't wait for the Grand Opening in Oct.

Now THAT is the way it should be done. Looks top notch. I'd love to carve something for you.

I'd be on board for some carvings too... I think you may have seen my work at Exotica... let me know... after Hukilau my carving duties are open... I can even deliver right to you since I'm fairly close.... good luck with the progress!

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer 2005-09-17 23:25 ]

Man oh Man, I wish I lived closer to Chicago. Your special Grand Opening sounds like quite an exciting event. I will Hate missing this. Be sure to take lots of photos (in all your spare time!) and post them here for all us "Outlanders" to see.
All you Chicago area tikiphiles are SOOO Lucky to be near this Fantastic little piece of "Hawaiian Heaven".
Best of luck to you on your opening night.

just got my shirt direct from the store...pretty cool!!! can't wait for the opening. from the newsletter, sounds like it will be awesome.....thinking of the food there is making me hungry already!! Anyone in the area that isn't aware of this place yet should check out their newsletter and website.....

Chicago is officially surrounded by tiki bars......tiki terrace to the northwest, hala kahiki to the west and chef shangri -la to the southwest....hurray!!

Any new news on the Grand Opening? I signed up for the newsletter but it was unfortunately too late for the t-shirt. I haven't really heard any new information on this lately.

i heard the 16th or 17th of this month(oct.), but havent heard anything in about 3 or 4 weeks now....

I'm a little late getting in on this but I'm signed up and eagerly awaiting the opening date. Unfortunately I've burned up the last of my vacation time at Hukilau(totaly worth it). So it will be a quick drive up and back but I can't wait.

Scott Zuziak told me today that the opening has been pushed back to Mid-November.

If he doesn't post more here himself, I will be seeing him next week and will get the scoop.

Sorry for the delay in updates.

Everything is unfolding smoothly. Though we are a little behind schedule, I can not complain. I am very happy with the process so far.

We will open in early to mid November.

James Teitolkokabaum (tikibars) will be stopping by next week and can give his review.

Thanks everyone for the support and offers to help. I appreciate it greatly!

Scott

For those who don't get to the "creating tiki" forum I wanted to display a sampling of my own creations which will be available for purchase at The Tiki Terrace when they open.

You've seen the carvings. Now I've cloned them with the help of some modern chemicals and processes to produce an army of tikis.

more castings.

Pulled from last night.

oh my god are those cool!!!........and scott, i hope you take basement kahuna and lake surfer up on their offers, as their stuff is amazing. hell, id LOVE to see a ton of t.c. ohana work in the terrace, cant wait til the opening, ill be there.....got to get up to the store to get my shirt too!!!

Where's the store? I would love to stop by before the opening next month.

The Barefoot Hawaiian Shop
1401 East Oakton Street
Des Plaines, Illinois 60018
(847) 699-7336

I was at Tiki Terrace last night. The place is 90% done, and it looks terrific. It isn't a huge place - think bigger than Tiki Ti (of course), but not even as big as Omni Hut - but there are tons of Tikis in there, great big ones in sculpted rock alcoves, overlooking the booths. Most of them were made by the Zuziaks, but there is some Oceanic Arts stuff in there as well.

Scott was telling me that me is interested in having some of the TC ohana provide some additional Tikis as well - the names Basement Kahuna, Benzart, and Lake Surfer came up in particular - but I know Scott would love to hear from the rest of you carvers as well.

There is a cool private hut in the back with two booths in it, and about ten other booths scattered around the two-room restaurant. A stage for entertainment is near the bar, which seats about 10. There are tons of fishing floats hanging from the grass-roofed bar, and I noted a case full of Tiki mugs (Dynasty) to be used as standard serving vessels for the drinks. No custom Tiki Terrace mug is planned for the moment, but Scott says that is a possiblity in the future. He is interested in selling other Tiki merchandise, however.

More good news: I spotted NO neon signs or TVs in the place, save for a flat-screen monitor in the private booth (to be activated when the booth is used for things like wedding parties, corporate functions, etc).

The bar staff have selected an array of tropical drinks direct from the Grog Log, and we mixed up a bunch of them last night. In addition to the classics (Mai Tai, Zombie, Blue Hawaiian, etc), they selected a few more obscure ones, and even paid homage to Kahiki by ressurrecting the Polynesian Spell - Scott's bro Phil has this one down pat. Yum! Tiki Terrace is going to open with between 10 and 20 tropical drinks on the menu, most of them straight from the GL, and some slightly modified from the GL versions.

We also spent some time last night concoting a house drink. I can't give away the secret ingredients of course, but I will say that if it remains unmodified from it's present form, it is a delicious brew, and contains seven ingredients including Rhum Barbancourt. Scott and Phil are stil working on the name, but I think we nailed the recipe after only about five tries and some group brainstorming.

The food menu looks awesome, and the samples of the teriyaki steak and a vegeterian mushroom dish that we tried were deee-lish.

There is a lot of regular entertainent planned, with Barefoot Hawaiian performances on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and special kids shows on Sunday afternoons.

Ukulele legend Jake Shimabukuro is already slated for a Saturday, November 15 musical set, as well. Local acts like Cocktail Preachers and Windy City Islanders are on the radar too. Talent from other cities will be considered as soon as it becomes affordable for this start-up business.

The waitresses who have been hired are being trained in the hula arts so that they can do impromptu performances at your table! I saw a pic of four of them in their uniforms - sarong skirts, coconut bras, and leis - and I can say this: fellas, you'll be pleased.

The grand opening is slated for Tuesday, November 8.

For that week, from the 8th through Saturday the 12th, there will be two 'seatings' per night, at 6PM and 9PM (subject to change, of course - watch this space).

During these seatings, there will be free food, entertainment from Barefoot Hawaiian (on all days), and more surprises.

The Official Tiki Central gathering is on Thursday, November 10, at 9 PM.

Scott wants to get an idea of how many people to expect, so if you think you're going to show up, post here!

All in all, it is hard to truly review a place until it is open for business, but given the sneak preview I got last night, I think the brothers Zuziak have their heads and hearts in the right place, and I think they can make this place a real destination point for both locals and Chicago visitors as well - they're definitely on the right track so far.

[ Edited by: tikibars 2005-10-18 17:02 ]

Man, I'm so hyped for this place to open. It's about 5 minutes from my house.

I called and talked with Scott, and I'll extend the offer here as well. If you need help with something, feel free to contact me, I can run over and give you a hand. I've done all sorts of construction work, and I'm pretty good at lifting heavy stuff!

Tikibars, if you imbibe too much sometime, you can always crash at my place.

Later,

Tiki Flange!

I'll be there - count me in for 2 people.
Can't wait!!!!!!!

Sounds fab, I can't wait to see it!

Rather than muddle up thread topics, can you guys start a thread in Events for this event? Thanks!

As per Humu's request, I started a thread for the grand opening party... continue to discuss the restaurant in general here.

oh good lord i cant wait....had the barefoot hawiians perform at our wedding last month at the kona kai in the ohare marriott, and they were great, cant wait to see this place, and im glad to hear they're interested in gettin some of the t.c. folks work in there!!!

Looking forward to the VIP party at Tiki Terrace. Nice to find some tiki in my neighborhood! Mahalo!

[ Edited by: love2uke 2005-11-05 04:30 ]

On 2005-10-13 12:04, ManoKoa wrote:
For those who don't get to the "creating tiki" forum I wanted to display a sampling of my own creations which will be available for purchase at The Tiki Terrace when they open.

Mano, I wish you'd had those at exotica. Can't make the trip to the Grand Opening. Just not is the $ with the holidays coming up.