The Golden Tiki opened in Las Vegas' Chinatown on July 24, 2015. The man behind The Golden Tiki, Branden Powers, has been part of the nightclub scene in Las Vegas for some time now (he was Creative Director at the Hard Rock Hotel), but is himself a longtime lover of Tiki, having spent some of his youth DJing Exotica tunes at the Islands Restaurant in San Diego's Hanalei Hotel.

The Golden Tiki is in a large space, 4,000 square feet, and split into four different zones. The interior design and build out were done by Danny "Tiki Diablo" Gallardo. The bar has a thatched roof, and is topped by an animatronic talking tiki head, named Goldy, created by Erik "Irk" Hedman. A loveseat-sized artificial giant clam is popular for photos.

A flaming pu-pu platter is available on Friday and Saturday nights.

The greatest honor at The Golden Tiki is to have your head shrunken and enshrined in their glass case, wherein you can see many celebrities, Las Vegas personalities, and Tiki icons.

Fong's Pizza opened January 26th, 2009 as a partnership between Jeff Bruning (part owner of several other Des Moines bars) and Gwen Schlepphorst. Bruning had dreams of opening a tiki bar, Schlepphorst had dreams of opening a late-night pizza joint. Fong's Pizza took over a space vacated by King Ying Low, a Chinese restaurant that had operated for over one hundred years.

Fong's was a funky mix of Chinese, Polynesian and uniquely American touches. Tiki drinks were served in tiki mugs from Tiki Farm (when secured with an appropriate deposit). Pizza was available by the slice until well past midnight; during lunch and dinner service a wider menu was available with some traditional Chinese and Polynesian offerings.

Three more Fong's locations followed after this first one, starting in 2015, but the expansion did not last and each of the three closed shop until only the original remained by 2023.

The second location in the District at Prairie Trail in Ankeny opened 2015 and closed in 2023, a third location in Cedar Rapids NewBo entertainment district opened in 2018 and closed in 2022, and a fourth location in Des Moines on Forest Avenue opened in 2019 and closed in 2021.

At last, however, the original location closed on March 9th, 2025. This closing was part of a planned relocation with plans to reopen in early April in the former Peace Tree Brewing Co. space in the Market District.

The new location offers double the seating capacity, expanded parking, a patio, and a pick-up window.

Chef Dennis Epps plans to expand the menu with new noodle and rice dishes, salads, appetizers, and late-night options.

The Sip-N-Dip Tiki Lounge has been part of the O'Haire Motor Inn since 1962. The main attraction is the mermaid show -- there are windows in the bar that look into the hotel's pool, and mermaids put on a show on weekends. This mermaid show and the push towards being more "tiki" began in 1995 as the Tiki Revival was just beginning to ramp up. Another attraction is "Piano Pat" Sponheim, who has been playing piano five nights a week (Tuesday through Saturday) since 1962.

When actress Daryl Hannah, who famously played a mermaid in the movie Splash, was filming in the area, she made a special visit to the bar, even donning a mermaid suit and jumping in the pool to give a show.

In 2003, the bar was featured on a list of the top 10 bars in the world in GQ Magazine. In 2004, a crack in one of the glass pool walls threatened the bar; the glass walls have been replaced with new triple-pane glass.

The bar's ceiling is lined with bamboo, and there are beachcomber-inspired fish trap lamps.

The bar does especially well on weekends during the mermaid show, when patrons line up to get into the small 72-person capacity bar.

Vera's White Sands began in 1960 as a private club, White Sands Yacht Club, owned by Dr. Effrus Freeman and his wife, Vera, and opened on a small part of 800 acres of land they owned. As the years progressed and the area was developed, the once-private club was opened to the public, sometime in the '70s.

Vera's White Sands has varying seasonal hours, open more during the summer months, and slips are still available for rental. For many decades, the main attraction was Miss Vera herself (Dr. Freeman passed away in the '70s); the well-traveled woman added a touch of glamour and exotica to the proceedings, and played the perfect hostess to the guests. She passed away January 23, 2007, at the age of 93.

In 2006, Vera transferred ownership of Vera's White Sands to a new owner, who has removed most of the classic Polynesian Pop touches, in favor of a more Maryland Crab Shack or Jimmy Buffet-flavored tropical scene; the changes have been poorly received in the tiki community.

For all intents and purposes, Vera's White Sands Beach Club as tiki fans remember it is gone. The new restaurant may have "Vera's" in the title but that's about it -- there are a couple of cartoony tikis flanking the stage in back where they have live music and bikini contests. A few other details remain, but nothing like it was before.

This seaside resort opened in the 1960s (circa 1961), and advertised that they had "Four Exotic Cocktail Lounges - Polynesian and American Foods in Tiki, South Seas or Kona Rooms or in Beefeater Restaurant."

At some point it became the Sheraton Bel-Air Resort Hotel & Marina (which housed a Trader Vic's in 1971 and closed in 1973 -- possibly as late as 1975).

The property became a Days Inn in 1987, and in 1998 became the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort. As of 2012, it was the Magnusson Hotel Marina Cove Resort and by 2020-2021 this location had fallen into disrepair.

In 2022, investor Ben Willner and his team purchased the 18-acre property for over $17 million and began renovations.

The resort, now named SkyBeach Hotel and Marina, contains 113 renovated guest rooms, a private beachfront, a rebuilt marina, a sports complex with pickleball courts, a two-story beachfront bar, a cafe, a food truck, and more.

*NOTE: Their new bar & restaurant, South Seas Tapas, is slated for Fall 2025 and intends to have tropical drinks and honor the Pop Polynesian history of this location.

This listing is describing a physical location for the Munktiki business.

Munktiki is a father-son outfit that started in early 2000, and their specialty is crafting beautiful, high-quality tiki mugs. Paul Nielsen (the Dad) has been selling his ceramic crafts since he was in high school in the '60s; his son Miles "Stuckie" Nielsen has similarly been dabbling in clay since he was a child. Paul made his first tiki mug in 1997.

Most Munktiki mugs are of their own design; each mug has a character name on the back, and a number and date on the bottom. Many Munktiki mugs are fiercely collected limited editions, notably the "Shecky" mug based on the Tiki Central mascot designed by Tikifish.

There is also a Munktiki Imports line with their designs crafted in China and then imported to the United States. These are more commonly used with large wholesale orders. These are marked as such on the bottom and are less expensive than the pieces crafted in-house.

Additionally, there are non-tiki lines affiliated with Munktiki, including Münkstein and Yakimon.

Munktiki's original location was in Pacific Grove, California (near Monterey), at 561 Junipero Ave. In 2009, Munktiki moved to Portland, Oregon. In 2017, the business again moved to Astoria, Oregon.

Munktiki also owns and operates Dead Man's Isle, a tiki/nautical bar in Astoria that opened July 14th, 2022.

Munktiki items can be purchased through the Munktiki website, eBay, and a limited number of retailers.

This classic Hawaiian hotel with striking views of Diamond Head near the beach of Waikiki was built in 1955 by famed American industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, and was originally named Kaiser's Hawaiian Village. The property began with a few buildings, but rapidly expanded, with soaring towers eventually contributing to Waikiki's skyline. The Rainbow Tower in particular is a local landmark. Kaiser also built a nearby geodesic dome auditorium, the Kaiser Aluminum Dome, where some Exotica classics were recorded.

Hilton purchased the hotel in 1961, and still owns it today.

The Hilton Hawaiian Village and its Shell Bar were also the setting for the TV show Hawaiian Eye, produced by Warner Brothers in Burbank and originally broadcast on ABC-TV from 1959 to 1963. Hawaiian Eye was a "private eye" adventure in modern Honolulu, with murder and mayhem set against the tropical scenery of the islands. The show had a vacation-like atmosphere with plots rum-infused with luaus, surfing, ukuleles, and Navy Grogs. Anthony Eisley and Robert Conrad were the private investigators working from their stylish poolside office. Pretty nightclub singer Connie Stevens performed each week in the adjacent Shell Bar, and Hawaiian-born Poncie Ponce added to the fun as a colorful cab driver. Even the villains on the show each week seemed to be on vacation. The most familiar icon of Hawaiian Eye, however, was the tiki seen at the opening and closing of every episode. The tiki also stood in the Hawaiian Eye headquarters and served as a sort of good-luck charm for the private eyes. See photos below...

There was even a "Hawaiian Eye" cocktail with its own mug on the original menu.

Martin Denny played regularly in the Shell Bar, and for a couple of years Arthur Lyman played here with him.

There is currently no Shell Bar (or other tiki bar here), but you can get tropical cocktails at the Tropics Bar & Grill.

*Original Cocktail Menu shown below.

The Polynesian Lounge opened in 1990, as a newly themed bar for the New Chinatown Restaurant. It was owned by Freddie and Jane Baker. Freddie "Kekaulike" Baker was born in Hawaii and moved to the mainland in 1949, he was an extra in Hollywood for some time, before forming a band. His band played hapa haole and other Polynesian-tinged tunes all over the country, including the Aku Aku in Las Vegas. He started headlining at the Tiki Kai Supper Club in the '60s, where he met Jane. The couple performed at the lounge regularly, along with a hula dancing friend, Evalani.

The New Chinatown was co-owned by the Ong family, and opened circa 1976. The restaurant was built using hundreds of green tiles which were brought over from China and are much coveted today (but these tiles were destroyed when the site was later leveled). When first opened, it advertised a Pagoda Bar and Kung-Pei Cocktail Lounge (one or both of these was probably coverted over to the "Polynesian Lounge"). It sat 400 people and they touted it as the finest Chinese restaurant in the Southwest.

When the New Chinatown Restaurant changed hands in 2003, the Polynesian Lounge was also sold, and the new owners turned it into a non-tiki, cabaret joint, and re-branded the restaurant as Mr K's Oriental Restaurant & Bar.

That was short-lived. This site has been re-developed (some time prior to 2015) and is now home to Labor Finders and Albuquerque Distilling (as of 2022) on the footprint of where the New Chinatown Restaurant used to be.

On June 23, 1937, the world-famous Hawaiian Room opened. This marks it as a pre-tiki venue although it produced its own tiki mug years later.

The Hawaiian Room was located in the Hotel Lexington (now the Radisson Lexington Hotel). Guests had a hula of a time sipping coconut willies and watching live hula performances. The space became synonymous with entertainer Arthur Godfrey, a well-known TV personality in the 1960s. He’d broadcast his radio show live from that space. The hotel's recently renovated Arthur Godfrey Suite pays homage to his legacy.

The Hawaiian room closed in 1966.

*NOTE that the brochure image shows full detailed recipe for the "Pineapple Paradise" which is only briefly described in menu: 4 small pineapples, 2 oz pineapple juice, 2 oz lime juice, 3 oz Demerara rum, 2 oz light Puerto Rican rum, 2 oz peach brandy, 2 teaspoons fine sugar. Use pineapple shells as containers for this drink. Cut the edges off of pineapples about 1 1/2 inches down, then cut a small notch in the top through which you can insert a straw. Scoop out the interior leaving a shell about 1/4 inch thick. In a shaker put pineapple juice, lime juice, Demerara rum, Puerto Rican rum, peach brandy, and sugar. Add crushed ice and shake. Pour into pineapples, replace pineapple tops, and insert a straw in notches.

Polynesian Village was in the Edgewater Beach Hotel (its sister hotel, Hotel Somerset in Boston, also had a Polynesian Village).

The Edgewater Beach Hotel was built in 1916, facing Lake Michigan. This pink-painted hotel had 400 rooms and was a landmark for half a century. The complex had a private beach and offered seaplane service to downtown Chicago. During its lifetime, the hotel served many famous guests including Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Charlie Chaplin, Bette Davis, Tallulah Bankhead, and Nat King Cole.

On June 14, 1949, Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus was shot and nearly killed by an obsessive fan at the hotel; this later would be a large part of the inspiration behind Bernard Malamud's novel The Natural (adapted to screen starring Robert Redford).

The original and very elegant Marine Dining Room was replaced by the Polynesian Village in the 1950s. Employees who were trained in serving fine cuisine at the Marine Dining Room disdainfully referred to the new restaurant as "that chop suey joint."

Less Waverly, a band leader during the Polynesian Village era, has these reminisces:

"They had huts and all the motifs of a Polynesian village. There was one act called the Pearls of the Pacific and they had Tahitian drum dancers with them. The Tahitian drums were actually fuel cans and they made a high-pitched metallic sound. It was a pretty ordinary stage but, instead of a curtain, they had something like bamboo crossed. You could see through it, but it still gave you the feeling of a curtain.

Martin Denny performed there. He was a very big act and he had records with bird calls on them. The Boyd Twins performed there. They were quite well known throughout the country because they were the Doublemint twins. We had Dorothy Shay, the 'Park Avenue Hillbilly.' She did a song about underage hillbilly marriages and marrying your cousin.

They replaced the Polynesian Village and they tried to bring back the Marine Dining Room. There would be people who would come back to relive their honeymoon of 20 or 30 or 40 years ago and they were looking for that nice hotel that they enjoyed so much - and they’d spend one night in the rooms up there with the peeling plaster and the crummy bathroom and all that. We saw the hotel slip little by little. The stores began to close and they stopped operating the summer theater, but still you thought it would keep going."

The Edgewater Beach Hotel closed in 1967 and was demolished mid 1970. There is now a high-rise condominium building in its place.

The Mainlander restaurant was opened on July 3, 1962 at the intersection of Bonhomme and Hanley roads in Clayton, Mo (which borders the west side of St. Louis). The restaurant's primary owner was Dale McGowan. McGowan lived in Webster Groves and had formerly lived in Tahiti.

The Mainlander's dining room featured grass shacks, a tiki fountain, bamboo covered walls and many Polynesian artifacts. Outside in front was another fountain and a white sand beach. The tiki fountain, designed by William Westenhaver and sold through his Witco company, was used as The Mainlander's signature tiki, appearing on its advertising, matchbooks and in the form of its souvenir mugs.

In its lower level, a waterfall of lava rock decorated the Mainlander's Huki Lau bar and lounge.

On November 18, 1971, a shooting took place in The Mainlander's lower level bar, with two customers killed and a waiter injured.

Shortly thereafter, Dale McGowan sold his restaurant to John Bristow.

Bristow ran the restaurant for six years until the Mainlander closed in early 1977.

Former owner Dale McGowan went on to become a broker developing real estate on the island of Maui. He passed away at the age of 84 in 2011.

Afterwards, The Mainlander became a non-Polynesian restaurant called Lautrec's. There was a fire in the building in 1978, and an office building is now in the location.

The Kon Tiki Lounge (no relation to the Steven Crane Kon-Tiki chain) is a classic original tiki bar. Open since 1961 according to the old Critiki site (January 30th, 1962 according to the Arizona Daily Star and 1963 according to the Kon Tiki website), the Kon Tiki Lounge has seen modern-day Tucson grow up around it on all sides. It is tucked back a bit on its busy street, surrounded by strip malls and small office buildings. The small-looking building feels a bit out-of-place. There is an almost lush little garden area out front, with tikis and a small "water feature" -- Tucson's arid climate wouldn't easily support a pond, so a tiled mosaic pond is in its place, with a small walkable bridge over it. To the left of the building was a great old Milan Guanko tiki originally purchased from Gray's Nursery and which was eventually brought in to the outdoor patio area for its protection.

Inside, the restaurant is dark and mysterious, with no windows, and much of the original decor still in place. A former aviary behind the bar is a jarring flash of light -- it used to house parrots, then a lizard cage, now it is used as an outdoor patio space. Large bamboo, gorgeous light fixtures, and tikis aplenty are throughout. The room is structured with smaller sub-rooms encased by bamboo and thatch dividers, giving a feeling of coziness and mystery.

The menus are standard fare for an old tiki bar -- barbecue ribs & similar items for food, and lots of tropical drinks (though a bit on the sweet & sugary side).

Today, the Kon Tiki's future continues to look very bright. It has been kept open through the years with a never-ending supply of college kids who love the place and keep it packed on weekends. These people are who we have to thank for keeping the place alive, but it's a bit more enjoyable when visited earlier in the day or on a weeknight, when the music is more in keeping with the environs and the place isn't so packed with bodies that the decor can't be seen.

In recent years the management has been working on spiffing up the place, while keeping it classic. The Kon Tiki now has their own tiki mug, designed for the Milan Guanko tiki outside (now in the outdoor patio), and has undergone some sprucing up courtesy of Bamboo Ben. A new Bamboo Ben bar looks like it has always been there.