Mahu Nui Loa is the home tiki bar of artists Joe Witkowski and Bruce Paul Reik in Baltimore, Maryland. They built the bar in the dining room of their home (known as Bratteigh Manor) in August 2017. The name of the bar is Hawaiian, and roughly means "very big and gay." Inspiration for their home bar came from their wedding on a beach on Kauai at sunset in March 2014, and their visits to tiki bars all over the world.

The anchor of the room is a 1950s two-seat bar set with rattan and salmon-colored vinyl they found in St. Louis, Missouri. The room's built-in china cabinet has been electrified and fitted with lauhala matting, special lighting, sea shells and netting, post cards, tiki mugs, tikis, and small mementos of the pair's travels including Bali, Fiji, Australia, and more. The room is encrusted with hundreds of "poinsettia" Christmas lights, acquired from a Woolworth in Miami that went out of business just after Christmas in 1993. The ceiling is illuminated with a woven net of green lights, inspired by the many Indian restaurants on 6th Street in the East Village of New York City. 1960s pierced, electrified ceramic pendants hang over the bar, and a Balinese Garuda figure perches above the cabinet. The room also displays a wall of carnival chalkware figures, vintage tube radios, Japanese souvenir boxes, and more. The walls are hand-painted in a reimagined version of the room's original botanical wallpaper pattern.

Details

Address

Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Closed?

No