Hell or High Water Tiki - Denver, CO

A new tiki bar in Denver is opening at the end of the month. Located on Blake St. in LoDo they are running a Kickstarter for a little extra help. We're going to be downtown over the 4th of July weekend for Fan Expo Denver and I'm hoping to get a chance to check it out.

https://www.hellorhighwatertiki.com/

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hellorhighwatertiki/hell-or-high-water-tiki

Thanks, Jason. I had not heard about this one. However, based on its website's About page, it does not sound like it will be my kind of place.

While I like the Piratical/Nautical theme I too am a bit unsure if its my thing or not. But its worth checking out once.

Have you been to Swaylo's in Longmont yet?

I have, twice, and enjoy it. Here's my post after my first visit: https://tikicentral.com/viewpost.php?post_id=803218

I would totally meet up there some time if you're interested.

I'll let you know if we ever plan a trip with advanced notice. :D

Yeah, after doing some more research, I'm not interested in this place.

Among other things, this quote from an article I found puts me off:

You won't find any traditional tiki totems, however. "We don't do any tiki totems because we don't want to step on any other culture's toes, so we don't have masks and we don't have tiki mugs that are totems," Healy explains. "There are people in the tiki community that say if you don't have masks or totems, you're not tiki."

However, according to the same article, they do have lots of one specific image....

They are a gay tiki bar, leaning more heavily into the gay than the tiki it seems. Probably not my vibe but happy to see another tiki spot in Denver. Will check it out at least once.

Hey guys, ridiculously short notice and not sure why I didn't think to post here sooner, but I'm in Denver for the night and plan to hit up Adrift around 8 (in less than an hour from now) if you just so happen to see this post and have nothing else to do but rush out to hang. I'll be in a green tiki shirt and jeans with a couple friends.

Oh man, Mike, that would be great, but I have an hour and a half drive to Denver. Enjoy Adrift.

Are you just around for the evening? You might also check out Ohana Room in RiNo (north of downtown); I haven't been yet. And if you have more time and can get north to Longmont, you should also check out Swaylo's.

Was just in town for the night. We went to Adrift, which was very well designed but the drinks were disappointing. Ended up at Williams and Grant where we had a remarkable time. I fell in love with Colorado on this trip and plan to be back soon to check out more spots.

Well, please let us know the next time you're planning on visiting, because I am definitely game for meeting up somewhere. Plus, if you're lucky, Casa Bonita might even be reopened by then.

Reports of bad drinks is enough for me to steer away from this place but what cant be said here drives nails in the coffin of its visitation.

I'm from Denver and this is just my two cents.

I wouldn't call it a gay bar, although that is part of the theme. They call themselves a "scurvy pervy" pirate bar. It's got a tongue-in-cheek bawdiness with a sense of humor to it. Without having any tikis, it's still an immersive escapist experience. It's a fun, well thought out, welcoming place that doesn't take itself too seriously. Along with their other two bars, they're always mixing things up with new drink menus and events. It's up upstairs inside their other creepy themed bar without any signage. So you get to feel like you're in the know about a hidden little place. And that also means it's usually pretty easy to get a seat.

My local tiki group, the Denver Tiki Tribe, has our share of discerning tikifiles and everyone I've talked to seems happy to have a place like this here in Denver. I've NEVER heard anyone complain about the cocktails being bad.

Is it for everyone? I donnoh. You'll have to decide for yourself. But if you're in town, I'd recommend checking it out.

[ Edited by AcmeTiki on 2024-02-22 11:38:11 ]