Have We Just Experienced the Latest Wave of a Tiki Resurgence, and resulting Devolution?

You hit the nail on the head Tikiyaki.
Power to the Pu pu platter.

Hey, if places like this.... http://www.heartattackgrill.com/index.html .....can exist, I have hope for real old school cantonese.

Ouh my gaaaawd! :roll: I forgot, people here are into the weirdest things! :lol:

On 2011-04-25 10:29, tikiyaki wrote:
...I have hope for real old school cantonese.

Definitely a vanishing breed in LA, but it has its fans...

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/545283

I grew up on Far East Cafe, New Moon, Paul's Kitchen, etc. I love the stuff but a (Chinese) ex-GF was horrified. She called the places "chinky" Chinese. :)

My friend's uncle owns this place which might be worth a Tiki expedition...

http://www.yelp.com/biz/hong-kong-inn-ventura

Sorry for the further derail.

Just know this Sven...we are being poisoned daily by the food companies. Check your basic bread and rolls ,cereal, soft drinks, COCKTAIL DRINK MIXERS etc....
HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. ...even in the most unlikely of foods. We consume it daily...it's WAY worse for you than MSG.

The worst part is, Chinese restaurants take the bad rap for MSG, but most fast food places use it....read here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate

Anyway, sorry for the derail. Give me Cantonese or give me death !

TIKIYAKI EGG ROLLS, proudly clogging your arteries with Aloha since 1951 !

On 2011-04-25 10:49, tikiyaki wrote:
Just know this Sven...we are being poisoned daily by the food companies. Check your basic bread and rolls ,cereal, soft drinks, COCKTAIL DRINK MIXERS etc....
HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. ...even in the most unlikely of foods. We consume it daily...it's WAY worse for you than MSG.

The worst part is, Chinese restaurants take the bad rap for MSG, but most fast food places use it....read here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate

Anyway, sorry for the derail. Give me Cantonese or give me death !

TIKIYAKI EGG ROLLS, proudly clogging your arteries with Aloha since 1951 !

I gotta definitely agree with Jimmy on this one! Those trips to "chinese" restaurants with my family during the early 70's were the most fun, and the most I looked forward to going out to eat! back then, every restaurant was dark inside! There were no "wraps" and no Thai/fusion whatever on the menu...it was sweet and sour pork, and soft drinks with plastic monkeys or paper parasol in them. The sweet sauce on half those dishes tasted like hawaiian punch concentrate! Simply fabulous!

[ Edited by: lucas vigor 2011-04-25 11:29 ]

Ha, take THIS, you Egg-rollers!:

Guys, you don't have to convince me of nuthin', I am not a "Foodie". I was talking in general terms with "we", as in "we today". And there are people here, like Bongo Bungalow as a restaurateur, that have to heed the public's changing food palates.

But Jim's and now Lucas' enthusiasm reminds me of the fact that there must be still a whole generation or two out there that have fond memories of such food. And since Chinese restaurants were even more ubiquitous than Tiki temples throughout the U.S., maybe it is time to bring back an expressively mid-century Chinese restaurant concept, marketing itself on being "old style" - maybe sans the unhealthy part, or maybe even proudly touting it!

Oh, and John-O....

On 2011-04-25 10:44, JOHN-O wrote:
My friend's uncle owns this place which might be worth a Tiki expedition...
http://www.yelp.com/biz/hong-kong-inn-ventura

This is Bongofury's turf, and has seen various TC gathering over the years:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=11530&forum=1

Do you know if they still have Polynesian floor shows?

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2011-04-25 12:12 ]

"Have We Just Experienced the Latest Wave of a Tiki Resurgence TC THREAD, and ITS resulting Devolution?" :D

On 2011-04-25 11:50, bigbrotiki wrote:
"Have We Just Experienced the Latest Wave of a Tiki Resurgence TC THREAD, and ITS resulting Devolution?" :D

Here's my analysis of your analysis of this thread's analysis of the waves of tiki: It's meta-rrific!

Couple comments on some of the milestones...

• Taboo Cove closing. Not sure that's really a significant event in the scheme of things. The death of neat design concepts due to poorly executed business plans seems to be par for the course in Las Vegas. However, I think the point may have been that it was one of the best early examples of a fully realized atmosphere by one of the artists from the modern tiki "movement" (kudos to Bosko!). And as such, it was sad that it didn't last. Old Taboo Cove thread for reading pleasure.

• House Industries tiki fonts. Although I am too lazy to look up when those came out (2001?), I think the influence of the House tiki collection as a graphical toolkit is highly underrated. For better or worse, the fonts and especially the clipart tiki images spawned wave upon wave of "watered down" tiki products at Target, Big Lots, etc. They're beautifully done, and thus very appealing when used on packaging, and even pseudo art objects. I remember seeing custom tiki "art" cards in a giftshop in Kauai, which just directly used the House clipart. It's a funny indirect effect, because probably the talented people at House get very little proportional return from the mountain of geegaws, t-shirts, and other stuff that has used their imagery. Pure speculation, but I kinda think that the availability of their tiki imagery may have actually been a contributor to the product decisions in the following years by the companies making discount tiki junk (sorry - I mean "fine tiki artifacts"). Just as BOT images were poached for a fair number of products, the House tiki collection was even easier to use. It's a strange kind of devolution when the original source artwork is great, but the product range on which it gets used descends several steps downward.

• Oasis and Hukilau. JOHN-O pointed out some of the new events that have arisen since 2004, with resounding success. But even more indicative is the continued success and growth of the old events. If we were experiencing the receding waters of the most recent tiki wave, one would expect to see these events fading away or holding steady. But they've grown enormously, certainly since 2004. What may have started as a ragtag collection of shared interests among various hipster groups (modcom, incredibly strange music / exotica, etc.) transformed into this thing that keeps drawing more and more people in and uniting more parallel interests ("cocktailians", rockabillies, garage-niks, burly-q's, etc.). Theoretically that might not have much bearing on the core TIKI question of whether there's sustained life for bars and restaurants done "right" with tiki style. But aside from the continual churn in the waters of the hospitality business, it seems pretty clear that we're still in the growth phase in that respect too.

Maybe the ones most qualified to comment on the bigger trends are the modern day Barney Wests and Milan Guankos (like Bamboo Ben, Tiki Diablo, and others). And of course Oceanic Arts - as far as I know the ONLY people to bridge both the modern phenomenon and the original era that many of us analyze and dream of. But maybe they're too busy to comment! (And wouldn't that be the best comment in itself?)

-Randy

On 2011-04-25 13:49, aquarj wrote:
tiki fonts

...danger!!! :D

[ Edited by: Johnny Dollar 2011-04-25 14:16 ]

For those who are not familiar with the House Industries font kit that Randy mentioned:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=23398&forum=1&vpost=293353

The easiness of having pre-fab fonts and Tiki icons available with a computer click made this kit a fave for mass-manufactured Tiki items.
The great thing was that the art work and fonts were well done - as all House Industries work is.

On 2011-04-25 11:44, bigbrotiki wrote:

Ha, take THIS, you Egg-rollers!:

Guys, you don't have to convince me of nuthin', I am not a "Foodie". I was talking in general terms with "we", as in "we today". And there are people here, like Bongo Bungalow as a restaurateur, that have to heed the public's changing food palates.

But Jim's and now Lucas' enthusiasm reminds me of the fact that there must be still a whole generation or two out there that have fond memories of such food. And since Chinese restaurants were even more ubiquitous than Tiki temples throughout the U.S., maybe it is time to bring back an expressively mid-century Chinese restaurant concept, marketing itself on being "old style" - maybe sans the unhealthy part, or maybe even proudly touting it!

Sven, you're KILLIN' ME ! You've been holding out on us....I've never seen you post this before. I can't believe there was a TIKI EGG ROLL joint. Amazing.
OK, that's on the time machine list.

Any more info on this?

Jim - that postcard is one of the most enigmatic and frustrating pieces of ephemera out there. No address on the back. We don't even know what state that restaurant was located in.

The state of BLISS.

We recently lost Li's in HB. :(

Any good canton near HB Jim??

On 2011-04-25 19:03, RevBambooBen wrote:
We recently lost Li's in HB. :(

Any good canton near HB Jim??

ACTUALLY....Yes there is...even by my strict NY Cantonese standards...

http://goldengardenrestaurant.net/gallery/

Awesome...Real Egg Rolls...NY style Chow Mein, Great WonTon Soup. BOMB !

I have to agree with Jim, we talk about Cantonese and the loss of it like a lost friend. We east coasters had Cantonese before Hawaiian and after Hawaiian came and went, fried egg rolls, vegetables with pork and almonds was called char shu ding, not almond ding,and it exists in NY the old way and I'm sure elsewhere. The west coast is really so different then everywere else. Out here we have enbraced healthy, and different where food is nolonger a defined dish with great tastes but asian fusion,texmex, new wave cusine, pan fried pizza, stuff crust, and no real deli's( I save this for another food discussion)etc...... Also, I think the rise and fall of anything seems to move faster here. California is a hub for many things and ideas so things become cool faster here, long after its cool here, its cool everywhere else. And the bad ecomony makes things seem old or tired, or even depressing.

But overall I think Tiki is alive and well, I feel like it is bigger than its been in years and more and more is being discovered and people continue to try and open establishments. It will last longer this time, I am sure of it. One thing for sure, if we want things to last forever, it won't, but it will last longer if we support them.

I once said to my husband Ray when we were in NY " I am so sad the drive-in in our neighborhood is closing, and with a kind but stern face, said" when was the last time you went there? spent money? and supported it? Ths is what happens when you sit back and expect others will do what you should do.....I now do my best to frequent as many favorite places as possible.....just my .02

[i]On 2011-04-25 09:05, bigbrotiki wrote:

And here-in lies the crux and the contradiction for 21st Century Tiki restaurants: We want them to have the old classic Tiki temple decor, but we don't want to eat that ol' Chinese MSG glob there anymore. They have to come up with a Pacific rim modern version of that cuisine that makes them special . . .

I am sure that now Trader Vics offers healthy cuisine to match the less healthy fried food, but I miss the Tiki Mecca restaurants, particularly as the Sugar Shack used to be such an incredible party:

Subsequently, transformed into Wan-Q:

But, maybe the reincarnation answer is before us, even if very thin on actual Tikis:

Roy's Hawaiian Fusion (Pasadena location)

[ Edited by: christiki295 2011-04-25 23:18 ]

But maybe all is not lost.
While their ribs are disappointing, the interior & exterior qualify it for Tiki Mecca standing:

I think we all need to remember that evolution and devolution are two opposites, if something is to survive it has to move forward with the times. It then comes down to personal views and choices, whether you want to see a future for "Tiki" that may be different, but truer to the pop cultural roots (aimed towards a wider market) or live in a romantacised bygone age which makes Tiki sub cultural (not as originally intended anyway)and feeling happy being part of a clique makes you feel "special".
Personally even with the mass market items etc being produced, this is what it means to evolve, devolution is when nobody finds it intersting anymore and even the crap stuff has gone.
Tiki here in Europe is having a huge resurgence still, partly because it has evolved (for a younger audience, good or bad) and it still feels like it has a long way to go

On 2011-04-26 06:03, cheekytiki wrote:
Tiki here in Europe is having a huge resurgence still, partly because it has evolved (for a younger audience, good or bad) and it still feels like it has a long way to go

Coming from you, THE European Tiki Temple builder, that is good to hear! :)

Just to help derail this thread a little more...
some pic's of the local old school location we we go to drink out of Dynasty mug's and have Egg Rolls.

Denvers own Twin Dragon..
http://www.twindragonrestaurant.com/bar.html

The locals havin a little fun!
http://fraternalorderofmoai.org/huimalu/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11608

On 2011-04-27 17:02, Beach Bum Scott wrote:
Just to help derail this thread a little more...
some pic's of the local old school location we we go to drink out of Dynasty mug's and have Egg Rolls.

Denvers own Twin Dragon..
http://www.twindragonrestaurant.com/bar.html

The locals havin a little fun!
http://fraternalorderofmoai.org/huimalu/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11608

That is a nice blend of Tiki and Chinese, glad to see it is still exists.
However, on the interior, I have to cite Telescopes, it is so bright as to be blinding!

A Tiki Timeline:

Some notable tiki culture dates.

1934: Don the Beachcomber serves the first Zombie in Hollywood.

1941-45: World War II sends millions of Americans to the South Pacific.

1944: Trader Vic's in Oakland serves the first mai tai.

1948: Thor Heyerdahl's "Kon-Tiki'' and James Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific'' are published.

1959: Hawaii becomes a state.

1963: The Enchanted Tiki Room opens at Disneyland.

1960s: It's the tiki heyday, with hundreds of bars and restaurants popping up. Tiki eateries populate major hotel chains.

1979: Luau in Beverly Hills is bulldozed, an early victim of tiki's waning popularity.

1994: Trader Vic's in San Francisco closes. Tiki News, a revivalist magazine, begins publishing.

2000: Kahiki in Columbus, Ohio, closes, despite preservationists' pleas.

2000: "Book of Tiki'' is published, fueling a tiki revival.

2000: Orange County artist Shag sparks tiki pop art revival.

2003: "Tiki Road Trip'' is published.

2003: Costa Mesa's Kona Lanes, built in 1958, are bulldozed.

2005: Disneyland's Enchanted Tiki Room makes a refreshed appearance March 12.

2009-10: Sam's Seafood, a longtime tiki-themed restaurant in Huntington Beach, changes hands. New owners eventually license the name Don the Beachcomber, including many of the original restaurant's drink formulas.

2010: Tonga Room at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco is saved, for the moment, by historic designation.

Thank you, Mongoloid.

2005: Shows Tiki ascendancy based on Disneyland's Enchanted Tiki Room, and also notes that Sam's Seafood, now Don the Beachcomber, miraculously persists, despite being surrounded by a sea of apts and condos (thereby suggesting that the land would generate much more being redeveloped into multi-unit housing.

Also, lacks the reference to TV BH closing and TV LA Live opening and TV SF closing again.

OK, STOP POSTING ABOUT CHINESE RESTAURANTS in this thread!

...but just to let those here who heart them know, this is the May issue of LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE cover:

An now NO MORE, done, finito! :D

Back to what the header says...

Just had some tasty chinese lunch today at Don the Beachcomber.

Some important dates are missing from that time line.

c.1885-1914: Around the turn of the last century artists like Gauguin and Picasso were influenced by primitive art, so much so Picasso buys a Marquesian tiki in 1910.

1915: Hawaiian performers demonstrate Polynesian dance to the exotic strains of Hawaiian-style guitar and ukulele music at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco, setting off a Hawaiian music craze in the U.S. (and Britain) that lasted through the 1920s. The birth of Exotica?

1916: The Victor Record Company (forerunner to RCA Victor) sold more Hawaiian music recordings than any other type of music.

1933: Prohibition ends, the floodgates open for exotic tropical drinks to be created in establishments with equally exotic decor. Pre-Tiki has arrived.

Bear

On 2011-04-23 11:21, JOHN-O wrote:
10. Upcoming Tiki bars at Clifton's Cafeteria and a Bamboo Ben project in Hollywood

Clifton's Pacific Seas is reopening after 50+ years?!??! Or is it Clifton's Brookdale, the one that was just sold, the one with the Redwoods theme?

On 2011-04-23 14:07, GROG wrote:
For instance, GROG has the "WANGAROAN" mug series planned.

Round the bottom of the mug and put a weight in it so it's self righting; "WANGAROAN's might wobble, but your drink won't fall down!"

On 2011-05-02 07:48, freddiefreelance wrote:
Clifton's Pacific Seas is reopening after 50+ years?!??! Or is it Clifton's Brookdale, the one that was just sold, the one with the Redwoods theme?

The latter. They're planning on building a "Tiki" bar on the 3rd-level. We've discussed it here...

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=19060&forum=2

On 2011-04-25 09:05, bigbrotiki wrote:

This stems from the fact that Tiki style is, as far as I can see, the only pop culture that was firmly based on restaurant decor. It was the restaurants who introduced Tiki images to the people on a larger scale. It was the restaurants who had the money to go all out in the style, and thus inspired people to build their own backyard or downstairs Polynesias, and it was the restaurants that made developers utilize concepts like waterfalls, Tiki torches, and Tiki support posts for apartment buildings and motels. Only when that happened did Tiki become a pop genre BEYOND restaurants - but it is they who were the inventors of the style's language.

And here-in lies the crux and the contradiction for 21st Century Tiki restaurants: We want them to have the old classic Tiki temple decor, but we don't want to eat that ol' Chinese MSG glob there anymore. They have to come up with a Pacific rim modern version of that cuisine that makes them special, because nowadays there is ten-fold competition from all the other exotic cuisines available to the customer, while back in the mid-century, Chinese food was the most exotic food you could find.

hello all, a long time lurkers first post here.

sorry to dredge up an old thread, but this topic came up in a search, and i found the above statements very interesting. specifically, i was wondering if there were, or are any tiki restaurants or lounges that didn't specifically specialize in asian/poly/hawaiian/island cuisine? could one?

meaning, if it had authentic tiki decor, a specific craft tiki cocktail menu, but a non-descript food menu (burgers, steaks, pub fare, etc...), would you patronize the place? my thought is that the culture seems born out of cocktails & decor, but the food seems to be ancillary to some degree.

in another thread, there was discussion about how a tiki themed place might not be sustainable in some areas, and that you would need something "more" to offer instead of being a one trick pony. could a hybrid establishment exists if say, it provided a 60's era lounge atmosphere, contemporary american menu, and a tiki themed room or satellite lounge? does this exist somewhere?

i can't help but think that 50's & 60's era restaurants & lounges tried to get on the tiki bandwagon to some degree, even if it was a small "jungle room" or whatever that may have been part of an otherwise italian restaurant for example.

thanks, and look forward to some schooling>

Welcome to Tiki Central Porco. Here is a link to El Tiki which was a Tiki restaturant that served Mexican food in the 60s & 70s. Decor was definitely Tiki with lots of carved Tikis outside, inside individual booths with thatched rooms, dried pufferfish, etc. The bar served beer, wine & sangria but I don't think they had a license for hard liquor. The only faux Polynesian food on the menu was ambrosia salad with canned fruit cocktail, sour cream, and coconut.

Better have been Marshmallows in that "Ambrosia Salad"
if it was authentic! :P

Or the place was just another "Tiki Mexican" wanna be.

Are you a Tiki Mexi-can or a Tiki Mexi-can't?

Oh yeah, marshmallows too! The little multicolored ones :D It was real AUTHENTIC Mexican food, the head cook was a little old Mexican lady named Petra and I was the only one in the kitchen who spoke English. I learned a lot of Spanish working there.

"...i was wondering if there were, or are any tiki restaurants or lounges that didn't specifically specialize in asian/poly/hawaiian/island cuisine? could one?

meaning, if it had authentic tiki decor, a specific craft tiki cocktail menu, but a non-descript food menu (burgers, steaks, pub fare, etc...), would you patronize the place? my thought is that the culture seems born out of cocktails & decor, but the food seems to be ancillary to some degree.

in another thread, there was discussion about how a tiki themed place might not be sustainable in some areas, and that you would need something "more" to offer instead of being a one trick pony. could a hybrid establishment exists if say, it provided a 60's era lounge atmosphere, contemporary american menu, and a tiki themed room or satellite lounge? does this exist somewhere?

i can't help but think that 50's & 60's era restaurants & lounges tried to get on the tiki bandwagon to some degree, even if it was a small "jungle room" or whatever that may have been part of an otherwise italian restaurant for example.

thanks, and look forward to some schooling>" *

-porco-

Not sure if this was thread you mentioned...

Don't like it? Do it yourself.

...But it's definitely one worth looking at if you're interested in the idea of a Tiki joint taht serves food not typically found in a Tiki joint.

great thread woofmut, thanks for that...hadn't come across that one.

very enlightening points from "bongo bungalow" with regards to mexican restaurants. i can't help but think that the modern mexican (tex-mex really) restaurant in some way mirrors the american tiki restaurant heyday.

both are made to mimic a culture with borrowed design elements (clay tiles vs. thatch, aztec vs. tiki gods, margaritas vs. mai tai's, cactus vs. palm trees, mariachi bands vs. fire breathers, etc...), yet one seems to have a more perceived sustainable life/business span?

is it because food is primarily the focus? is it because the food is better/more appealing? they're both (texmex/tiki) practically american inventions, but with american tiki culture being born out of primarily cocktails, does it have a disadvantage when it comes to a full fledged business? theme bars can prosper in locations with high traffic and other options, but they limit themselves from "regulars" relying on tourist traffic.

i guess my whole point is, why isn't there more prevalence of tiki rooms or patio bars in otherwise non-tiki establishments? how many people here have or would decorate their entire home in tiki? i would assume most is confined to one room, a basement, or patio. so why shouldn't this carry through on a business level?

is the idea of an all out tiki establishment too much? do you need to have a german or italian theme throughout if your place has a great selection of import beer or wine? if the focal point is the cocktails, then why not reserve a small space within your establishment dedicated to such?

[ Edited by: porco 2012-03-28 10:26 ]

Several people on this forum have gone all out and made the whole house tiki. Check out the home tiki bar section. Atomic Tiki Punk is one of them, I believe.

[ Edited by: lucas vigor 2012-03-30 08:07 ]

Devolution. Kiki the Fashion Tiki Doll. A doll that looks like somebody that smokes and tans too much. Yikes!

OMG that is SCARY!!!!

I think I dated her?

I'd hit it.