Alibi Update

I stopped by the Alibi last night and had a chat with Al, the bartender. Two items from that conversation I'd like to share with you all.

First, they had just last night had their first (as far as they know) customer visit due entirely to the Alibi's listing in Tiki Road Trip. This was somebody from California who was in town for business who stopped in and had a couple of drinks and dinner solely because of James' book! Yay!

The second item is not such good news - Al said they need all the business they can get because business has been slow lately (as it has been everywhere in Portland due to our exceptionally limp economy and record high unemployment, is my guess).

So our two lessons from this little chat: #1: If you visit a tiki bar in the book, tell 'em you saw it in Tiki Road Trip! #2: Visit The Alibi if you possibly can (or, if you can't visit the Alibi, the tiki bar of your choice). Often! Send the message that, in these dark times, a tiki bar will always get your drinking dollar before any other business. When business gets tight, many bar owners start looking around for a more profitable change of pace. DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOUR FAVORITE TIKI BAR! You have been warned...

Something else to worry about: If the afternoon regulars ever dry out the Alibi will definitely be in trouble.

Allllright all you TC-ers... I know Portland is out of the way, but it's your DUTY to save what may be perhaps the best-preserved, most authentic tiki trove on the west coast. I know the Alibi will be a big stop on MY summer road trip, and hey - you've all been SOUTH - why not go NORTH for the summer? It's gorgeous up there, and there are tons of cool events on, not to mention the thrifting - which is to DIE for... I'm actually thinking of doing a sub-page on my site full of Northwestern summer enticements - anybody interested?

Yes, see beautiful Portland...In case you missed it:

https://tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=1185&forum=1

[ Edited by: woofmutt on 2003-05-17 01:40 ]

On 2003-05-16 00:45, woofmutt wrote:
Something else to worry about: If the afternoon regulars ever dry out the Alibi will definitely be in trouble.

I'm hoping that won't be a problem when the light rail line is completed. With that done, a downtowner could easily pop up to Alibi for lunch and have a couple of mai tais before returning to work. There's less than a years worth of work left to be done, and Larry, the owner of Alibi, says that he's going to "freshen up" (NOT remodel) the exterior as soon as the Max construction is done. So I think we just have to make the effort to keep 'em afloat until then. And don't forget to tell 'em "II saw it in Tiki Roadtrip"!