Tiki Bars
Inside Passage
Seattle, Washington, United States
Inside Passage opened on June 25th, 2021 after a long delay because of the COVID pandemic.
It is owned by Pike Street Hospitality Group (the group behind Rumba, Agua Verde Café, and Tango Restaurant).
You enter by going through Rumba.
The interior was designed by Notch Gonzalez — and is more nautical than "tiki" in nature -- mixing tropical aesthetics (thatching, lighting, drink mugs) with Pacific Northwest seafaring history (including the name). That’s reflected in the rubber-and-foam octopus (which the bar nicknamed Kiki), as well as rustic wood accents throughout that recall an old ship.
Initially, the owners of the bar very pointedly tackled the concept of "tiki" on their website (in a section entitled "The Tiki Thing" which has subsequently been removed) and declared that they were not a tiki bar but an "immersion bar". They have tried to resist using any depictions of tikis, weapons, or sexualized native wahines (but topless mermaids and ship figureheads are nautical and okay apparently).
Despite this, if you are a fan of tiki bars, you will probably find much of their decor and their cocktail menu VERY familiar...
South Ocean Club
Palm Beach, Florida, United States (Closed)
This early pre-tiki establishment used a headhunter as its logo.
In January 1941, Jack Mitchell opened the South Ocean Club. It was situated north of the Lake Worth Casino when Ocean Boulevard ran directly along the beachfront, extending from the ocean to the lake. For its gala opening, Don Ferrara’s Latin American orchestra kept guests on their feet with congas and rumbas.
The lower floor of the South Ocean Club’s two-story West Indies-style building served as the beach club with colorful cabanas aligned along the shore. Highlighted by a circular teak dance floor, the upper-level restaurant and lounge overlooked the ocean and lake. A colorful mural of big game hunters and headhunters by R. Bushnell Hyman added to the exotic atmosphere.
But World War II deferred Mitchell’s club life. He served as a naval submarine commander from 1942 until 1946, before returning to Palm Beach and building his own club legacy, the Coral Beach Club.
The South Ocean Club was destroyed by fire in 1956.
Kawenzmann
Bamberg, Germany
Opened December 2016.
From their website:
"Kawenzmann means in sailor slang "Monsterwelle" (Monster Wave) and thus alludes to the origins of the Tiki culture of the ancient seafaring peoples of Polynesia. For us, Tiki means one thing above all else: exotic, completely casual and also a little ironic bar and drinking culture - so don't be too serious. In addition to iconic Tiki drinks, our own cocktail creations and some Colada variants, we also serve you over 60 types of rum from all over the world to enjoy."
Lono Cove - Chester
Chester, United Kingdom (Closed)
Lono Cove opened in Chester, United Kingdom, in September 2018, in the space formerly occupied by Zanzi Bar.
The bar was operated by Luke Edge and Carlo Guy, who formerly managed Red Door on St John Street, and who wanted to create a cocktail bar that, "takes elements of everything we've learned over the past few years and everything Chester requires from a cocktail bar."
Drinks were served in CheekyTiki (now known as Little Grass Shack) tiki mugs similar to what you might find at Lola Lo's or other UK tiki establishments.
The bar was intimate, decorated with palm wallpaper, trimmed in bamboo, and with an arched ceiling featuring a blue sky with magenta clouds and tropical birds winging overhead.
Like many tiki bars in recent years, it was a bit thin on actual tiki carvings, masks, or objets d'art such as one might expect from venerable forebears like Trader Vic's or Don the Beachcombers. The focus was mostly on the cocktail experience.
This Chester location closed @ October 2022.
A second Lono Cove opened in Manchester on October 10th, 2021 and closed three years later in 2024.
The Samoa Restaurant
Cocoa Beach, Florida, United States (Closed)
The Samoa Beach Restaurant was located in Cocoa Beach, Florida, off of Highway A1A and one block south of the Cocoa Causeway.
It was located in a strip mall with Causeway drugs and other shops on either side but stood out because of a grass thatched A-Frame entrance that jutted out from the otherwise normal-looking rectangular building.
Created by Mr. and Mrs. Guy Hovia. Opened June 23rd, 1960.
Nani Maka, the Hawaiian star and dancer (who also performed at the Yankee clipper and Mai Kai among others) often performed here during their early years -- doing the "Tahitian Twist".
The restaurant caught fire in 1960 due to a short-circuited flood light that caught the thatching on fire, but this did not apparently harm operations.
In later years, hula dancing seemed to be less of a draw and ads from 1968-1970 show that they brought in magicians and topless Go-Go dancers...which together with their house band formed quite a nightly bill of entertainment.
Unclear when they eventually closed...
Today, the site appears to be home to Ron Jon Surf Shop.
Dave Wong's China Sails
Salem, Massachusetts, United States (Closed)
China Sails was a Chinese restaurant created in 1949 and owned by Dave Wong in Salem, Massachusetts, and was located on 516 Loring Ave (where there is now a different Chinese restaurant called Fantasy Island, which still uses the original China Sails sign, although the sign now says “Fantasy Island”).
Dave wanted to bring his style of Polynesian/Chinese cuisine to his customers and break away from the traditional norm of being grouped with other Chinese restaurants in Boston’s Chinatown. He found an opportunity in Salem, Massachusetts, a traditional working class community, to purchase an existing 60-seat Chinese restaurant, called Red Sails, whose name he quickly changed to avoid any imagined connection to Communism just before the McCarthy Era. In the late 1950’s, Dave expanded the restaurant -- tripling its size. China Sails was so successful that Dave eventually expanded to Revere, Chestnut Hill, the North Shore Shopping Center, and the Liberty Tree Mall.
China Sails produced a variety of branded Otagiri manufactured tiki mugs, including one with a Chinese junk logo.
Dave retired in 1985.
Tiki Hotel -- Surfers Paradise
Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia
Originally named Tiki Village, the Tiki Hotel is an iconic Apartment Hotel located on the banks of the Nerang River at the end of Cavill Avenue in Surfers Paradise, Australia.
Built by Bernie Elsey (around 1965), who also built the Surfrider Hotel and the Surfers Paradise Beachcomber. Bernie's in-house entertainments were legendary. The pyjama parties and Hawaiian nights pushed the edges of the law, filling national papers with copy and his establishments with patrons. He also famously introduced the Surfers Paradise Meter Maids, clad in gold bikinis and armed with sixpences employed to rescue motorists from expired parking meters. They became internationally famous and still operate, nearly fifty years later.
Tiki Village was the first purpose built Timeshare Resort in Australasia and ran as such from 1982 until December 2018 when it was relaunched as a Full Service Hotel and renamed the Tiki Hotel Surfers Paradise.
AO Hawaiian Hideout
Chicago, Illinois, United States
It appears that Asian Outpost was established here in 2013 but that the Hawaiian Hideout remodel and change happened in 2020.
AO Hawaiian Hideout describes themselves as "A hidden tropical gem, serving onolicious homestyle cuisines from East Asia, Southeast Asia & Polynesia."
They don't call their restaurant a tiki bar, but it has all the hallmarks of one. Some of those details include tikis, tropical wahine paintings, Witco carvings on the walls, Orchids of Hawaii lamps, an outrigger canoe on the dining area's ceiling, a life-sized shark hanging over the bar, and tapa-cloth-patterned booths.
The owner, Betty, is extremely passionate about her menu and taking care of their guests, and her husband, Duane, has done most of the island-themed buildout himself. Keeping with their tradition of supporting the local tiki community when they ran Chef Shangri-La, they built a stage to host the area’s surf, exotica, and rockabilly bands, as well as their popular Elvis tribute show.
The bar uses and sells a wide variety of Geeki Tiki mugs.
Beachcomber Cocktail Lounge - at the Bonnie Oaks Lodge and Bungalows
Fairlee, Vermont, United States (Closed)
The Avery family operated three very different types of Vermont Inns. They owned a country inn near Dartmouth College in Norwich, a downtown hotel near the state capital in Montpelier and Bonnie Oaks Lodge and Bungalows in Fairlee, Vermont (a television Newhartish setting with a population then of about 600).
The lodge was located on Lake Morey.
The season was from mid June to mid October.
It's unclear when the cocktail lounge was added but it was open through at least the early 70s.
Trader Vic's - at The Benjamin Franklin Hotel - Seattle
Seattle, Washington, United States (Closed)
*1948-1960 as The Outrigger & 1960-1969 as Trader Vic's at the Benjamin Franklin Hotel.
This location at the Benjamin Franklin Hotel in Seattle was the second Trader Vic's, after the Oakland location. It was located at 1980 5th Avenue.
It opened in 1948 and originally it was called The Outrigger (a sub-chain within the Trader Vic's chain that lasted several years) but the name changed in 1960 to just Trader Vic's. This location stayed open until it moved its Seattle branch to the nearby brand new south cylindrical tower of the Washington Plaza Hotel (now the Westin) in 1969. The Benjamin Franklin Hotel was demolished later on 07/1980 to make way for the matching north cylindrical tower of the Washington Plaza (Westin).
The Trader Vic's at the Washington Plaza Hotel (Westin) closed in June 1991.
Joker Joe's Typhoon Club - Niles
Niles, Illinois, United States (Closed)
This pre-tiki bar was located at the Southwest corner of Milwaukee Avenue and Newark Avenue in Niles, Illinois.
The John Calef Tavern opened here in 1903 and then became Joker Joe's in the mid 1940s.
There was also a second Joker Joe's location in Chicago, Il.
Joker Joe (Joe Siciliano?) was ubiquitous on advertising and apparently liked to throw on a hula skirt and then jump up on the bar and do impromptu dances.
The bar's name was probably inspired by the 1940 film, Typhoon, starring Dorothy Lamour.
Chick-fil-A - Truett's Luau
Fayetteville, Georgia, United States
Open since 2013, just a year before the founder of Chick-fil-A, S. Truett Cathy, passed away.
It would seem like the kind of thing they might try out in the actual Hawaiian islands, but it's not. There are none in Hawaii as of 2021. However, if you are the founder, you can do whatever you want, and Truett decided toward the end of his life that it would be fun to have a Hawaiian-style version of one of his restaurants in Georgia.
This location is much larger and more resplendent than your typical Chick-fil-A but has a similar menu with the addition of some Hawaiian-themed foods like Kalua pork and Hawaiian-style bread pudding. They have Hawaiian-style drinks as well, like their Frosted Hawaiian shakes which are served in souvenir tiki glasses.
There are some tikis located throughout, Hawaiian art, tropical palm fans overhead, and koa wood (or local Georgian hardwood) tables. One seating section actually has booths with thatching and tiki poles.
They are fond of throwing luau parties for children, often featuring hula dancers.