Metro Times article on the Chin Tiki!

http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=5431

My husband just sent me this link...

Cool article, a couple of friends of mine are in there. Oddly, none of them are on tiki central.
Matt

"Detroit Tiki Appreciation Society"

Where do I sign up?

-Z

On 2003-09-25 14:40, mattfink wrote:
Cool article, a couple of friends of mine are in there. Oddly, none of them are on tiki central.
Matt

Are you there Freddy Fortune?

Really great article and I would expect nothing less from the ultra hip MetroTimes! Despite living in Detroit for 5 years I was never able to unearth hardly any of this informaiton. Thanks Sarah for the education on the Detroit tiki scene. And congratulations Detroit area tikiphiles for getting some recognition. I might actually have to come visit if they ever reopen the Chin Tiki.

ModMana :drink:

Some of those peeps have contacted me personally by email but not all are on Tiki Central. I can hardly assume it's because they are too shy. Weird! We must convert these people to our dark ways...

Freddy Fortune??!!! He's the coolest...Fortune & Maltese....Freddy Fortune and the Forgone Conclusions....he was doing garage music before it was chic. I've heard about his basement tiki bar, but haven't had a chance to check it out yet.

Matt

Yep, it's that Freddy! I'll take the credit for sending Sparklydevil (Sarah) to him when she asked for Detroit contacts here, and the bar IS beautiful (as is his whole HOUSE)!

Freddy was my traveling buddy for the closing of the Kahiki. What a perfect weekend. I buzzed up to Detroit on a Friday night. It was too late to do anything except down a few cocktails at his home bar and ogle "Bobo", the name he'd given the beautiful big Witco (in the photo) he'd just gotten for $100 at a local shop!!!

(Interesting note: Bobo was bought with the intention of being the center of attraction in the downstairs tiki bar, but as luck would have it, he was too long to find past the curve in the stairs!!)

Saturday morning, we stopped by the Chin Tiki so I could say I'd seen it, snapped some pics, then hit the road for Columbus and the Kahiki. That was my first tiki event with this gang, and the friendships founded that weekend have only gotten stronger.

Yes, how bittersweet that my first was the Kahiki's last, but I'm glad I saw it!!

Freddy's bar is now MUCH better than when I saw it, and he now has a FABulous woman with whom to enjoy it for ever: Amy of the Gore Gore Girls!

So there's your Freddy Fortune update, and I agree - he has only had cool bands! He gets Otto's Tiki Events emails, but to my knowledge, he never hangs out here. Our loss: FUNNY guy!

Yup, he and Amy are in Vegas for the Rockaround this weekend....the Gore Gore Girls and the Volcanos are there representing Detroit. I hope the Chin Tiki opens again and we can all get savage in Detroit!!! Unfortunately, I never go to see the Kahiki before it closed...definitely my loss.

Freddy partied in the "Playboy Club" (me and mrsmiley's room) at the Gold Coast during Las Vegas Grind 2. A great guy who knows how to have a good time in Vegas.

I was at his home, pre-tiki bar, and he did his own version of the drive in movie....driveway movie!!! He showed movies and old television commercials on the garage door!! That boy is a scream!!

Great article! Well written, informative & entertaining. I breezed right through it. Mahalo for this post. Hope to visit Chin's on my next trip to the midwest (so they better get busy and fix it up!)

Great article! I hope they re-open it! Would be awesome! I also hope that they don't play any rap or techno in the background if they do open the doors again. I would hate to see it overrun by a bunch of fans of '8 Mile' that don't give a damn about anything except a place that was used as a location for an Eminem film. Jeez. (What the hell is the big attraction with Eminem anyway? I guess that's material for another posting).

If it does re-open maybe I'll make my first trip to the Motor City. Maybe I should by now. The Stooges and The MC5 are two of my fave bands of all time. Wonder if any of those guys ever did any hangin' at the Chin Tiki back in the day?? 'Kick out the Zombies, Motherf*ckers!!' :drink:

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2003-09-26 22:41 ]

aloha!

thanks for the lovely feedback, and so glad you all enjoyed the article! i had a great timing writing and photographing the piece, and i look forward to attending more tiki gatherings in the future! (i was the tiki burlesque performer at exotica :wink: )

speaking of burlesque, tiki and the gore gore girls, i literally just stepped off a plane from vegas, having returned from performing at the rockaround. what a fun time and a great event!

my boyfriend and i made a point to seek out the taboo cove, and we actually had a fabulous experience there. we swung by just as it opened, so we had the whole place to ourselves. our bartender was incredibly nice, and seemed to know a lot about tiki. he's been there since it first opened, and talked a lot about how it had changed since then. our drinks were great, he poured us numerous free shots (it was my boyfriend's birthday) and when we gave him a copy of my boyfriend's band's cd, he played it on the bar's sound system. we didn't want to leave! i think if one were to hit the place during off hours and bring an exotica cd, this guy would most likely play it. he was quite a character, and really fun to talk to.

sarah<
"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy." --Tom Waits

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sparklydevil