"Waikiki" in Edinburgh?

I was taking the bus to work on friday and was passing a local lesiure complex and high on the building side was a sign "Waikiki Beach" opens 26th september.
My heart trembled a tiki bar opening here in edinburgh WOW, then i got to work and discovered this little article in the local newspaper..

Evening News
Fri 12 Sep 2003

Aloha hard work for bar's staff

STAFF at Edinburgh’s new beach bar are being taught how to speak Hawaiian before it opens its doors.

Workers at Waikiki will have to get their tongues around phrases like Komo Mai (welcome) and Mahalo (thank you).

Bosses say the move is aimed at ensuring visitors to the Fountainbridge bar will enjoy a "living and breathing Hawaiian experience".

General manager Andy Millichamp said: "We’re trying to create an atmosphere of Hawaii that is as close to the real thing as possible. Our staff will be in full traditional costume, including garlands of flowers and sea shells. It’s been a bit of a struggle to pick up the lingo, but it’s also been great fun."

The Evening News revealed last week how staff at Waikiki, named after the Hawaiian resort, would be taking to the streets of Fountainbridge dressed in grass skirts and bikinis to promote the new venture.

Waikiki, which is opening later this month on the site of the former Brannigans, is promising visitors a temperature indoors of up to 32C (90F), a cascading waterfall, palm trees and screenings of surf videos.

The 1200-capacity venue has been created at a cost of £1 million at the FountainPark leisure complex. The Fountainbridge bar has also ordered a speedboat, scuba-diving equipment and wetsuits to help with promotions around the city.

...you may expect my expidition report soon after this "Beach Bar" opens.

Now, if that had been open when I was in Ireland recently, I would have made a special trip! Would have been a nice treat after hiking all day and conversing with numerous sheep.

Z-Girl and I were in Edinburgh a few weeks ago (tried to get tix for one of the last nights of the 'Tattoo' but no such luck...) and that certainly would have been a place to check out. With the exception of my Shecky mug (that I took everywhere and photographed in many places, much to the bemusement of our fellow travellers - pix to be coming eventually...), we didn't find anything even remotely tiki any of the Scottish towns we hit, so that definitely sounds like the first place of its kind!

(Of course, for Scottish tiki I s'pose we could have dropped by your place ATT, but I didn't know you were in Edinburgh! It certainly would have been better than the bizarro hostel we stayed in...)

On a good note, we found an Edinburgh bar called "Acanthus" that had 5 Carlsbergs for a pound one night and 5 Stella Artois for a pound the next! (I think that comes out to being about 33-cents a beer!) Best bargain I've ever found in all of the U.K.!!

We were in Ireland too, and we did find a place in Derry called the "(something) Beach Club" that sounds almost identical to the one opening in Edinburgh. It's a 3 story place with airbrushed Hawaiiana on all the walls, a waterfall or two, thatched bars and hut/booths, hostesses in grass skirts and bikinis handing out plastic leis as you enter, even t.v.'s with surf vids and fake tiki torches. Unfortunately, both the drink menu and music were devoid of anything befitting the atmosphere, kinda like an Irish 'Taboo Cove': dance/rap being played waaaaaay toooo louuudd! The clientele seemed oblivious to the tropical theme, as the place was packed (this was on a Friday night) but I was the only one in sight wearing an aloha shirt. However, I do still give them an "A" for effort for trying it out in one of the 'less-touristy' Irish cities. I, too, have yet to find anything tiki/tropical in Dublin either, but if you're ever in Derry and need a Hawaiian fix (no tikis, I'm afraid) check it out!

ATT, definitely let us know how the "Waikiki" turns out!!

On 2003-09-14 18:40, Doctor Z wrote:

(Of course, for Scottish tiki I s'pose we could have dropped by your place ATT, but I didn't know you were in Edinburgh! It certainly would have been better than the bizarro hostel we stayed in...)

there's also the queen's yacht, which you can read about a few posts into the following thread:

https://tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=363&forum=1

atomic tony,
please give us the scoop on waikiki (w/ pics!) if & when you have a chance. the place sounds dubious to me, but there's always a chance. i think edinburgh is a great place for a tiki bar. where in edinburgh will it be?

[ Edited by: Tiki Chris on 2003-09-15 06:26 ]

The new bar will be at the Fountain Park Lesiure complex, which is by the scottish and newcastle brewery at the back of tollcross, near where sean connery was born.

Doctor Z description of the beach bar in derry is how i imagine what "Waikiki" may be like.

Doctor Z - if you were trying to get tickets for the Tattoo, I take it you were in town during the festival. Hope you had a fun time, would have been great to have met you.

Wakkiki Beach turned out to be a seething pile of anti-tiki, i myself never went in but my wife visited it with a friend and reported back on it. The bar was definatly of the beach theme i.e. blue dance floor, thatch over the bars and no tiki's not a single tiki.
First Leisure the creator of this anti-tiki have been visited with vengence by the god's and gone bust, i now await its refitting into another theme and the opertuninty to swipe the palm thatch from the skip when it happens.

http://business.scotsman.com/media.cfm?id=543402004