Tiki Bars
Keko Moku
Manchester, United Kingdom (Closed)
Opened in 2009. Keko Moku was a small tiki bar in the Northern Quarter section of Manchester, England. The bar featured plenty of thatch, and a full menu of tropical drinks served in monkey, skull and tiki mugs.
Closed November 19th, 2017. It was replaced by Convenience Store, a convenience store themed bar.
de Young Museum
San Francisco, California, United States
The de Young Museum is located in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. An entire wing of the museum is dedicated to a permanent collection of Oceanic Art. The bulk of this is from The Jolika Collection of New Guinea Art, a stunning collection of over 400 pieces of native Papua New Guinea art donated by Marcia and John Friede. Ownership of the collection came under dispute in the middle of 2008, as both relatives of the Friedes and Sothebys contended that the collection had been used as collateral on loans, but this appears to have been settled. The family were paid using other funds and to pay off the Friedes’ debt to Sothebys, 29 of the nearly 400 or so pieces on display at the museum were sold by the auction house. However, most of the artifacts still remain at the de Young Museum today.
Tiki Town Adventure Golf
San Diego, California, United States
Tiki Town Adventure Golf is a themed, 18-hole mini golf course. It opened in 2013 in Belmont Park, an amusement park in the Mission Beach neighborhood of San Diego. The course is charming and appropriately cartoonish, with tikis and Polynesian Pop elements found everywhere. A large volcano sits by the entrance, there are thatched structures with A-frames, and some of the holes have animatronic features. The course runs both indoors and outdoors.
There is a nearby Dole Whip stand in Belmont Park, under the Sky Ropes Adventure.
Aqua Surf Shop - Sloat Boulevard - San Francisco
San Francisco, California, United States (Closed)
Aqua Surf Shop was a surf gear store located only a block from the ocean. The store had a collection of vintage tiki mugs on display, and was decorated with tiki paintings. The store had a good number of carvings by Bosko, including some flanking the entrance.
In the late '00s, there was a sister location in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, it closed in 2012.
This location closed in 2015 to make way for condominium development. The surf store is still in operation, having relocated to 3847 Judah St in San Francisco, but the new location does not have tiki decor.
Aqua Surf Shop - Haight-Ashbury - San Francisco
San Francisco, California, United States (Closed)
This was the Haight-Ashbury location of Aqua Surf Shop. This store had a variety of surf gear for sale, and also some Tiki Farm mugs. There was a collection of vintage and modern tiki mugs on display behind the counter, and the store was decorated with several tiki carvings by Bosko. The entrance had a tile mosaic depicting moai. This location closed in 2012.
The original location in San Francisco's Ocean Beach neighborhood had even more tiki character, and it remained open until the area was redeveloped in 2015. That Aqua location moved, and the new store has no tiki.
Tiki Bar - Moscow
Tsentralnyy administrativnyy okrug, Moskva, Russia (Closed)
Tiki Bar, on the northwest side of Moscow, opened in January or February of 2008. It occupied a spacious building, with several rooms featuring painted beach scenes, life-size boats, and some large tiki carvings. The restaurant menu was fairly extensive, and included an unusual variety of international fare, with everything from Italian to Indian to Mexican. A large menu of tropical cocktails was available.
Appears to have have closed @ March 2024.
Fong's Pizza
Des Moines, Iowa, United States
Fong's Pizza opened in January 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 is a funky mix of Chinese, Polynesian and uniquely American touches. Tiki drinks are served in tiki mugs from Tiki Farm (when secured with an appropriate deposit). Pizza is available by the slice until well past midnight; during lunch and dinner service a wider menu is 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.
The Galley
Santa Monica, California, United States
Established in 1934.
The Galley is Santa Monica's oldest bar and restaurant, and features decor from 1935's Mutiny On the Bounty (the production of that same movie also inspired the legendary Christian's Hut in Newport Beach).
The Galley is more nautical than tiki, but features a South Seas Bar with lots of bamboo and pufferfish lamps.
Another highlight of The Galley is a large collection of World War II era propaganda posters.
The Castaway - San Mateo
San Mateo, California, United States (Closed)
The Castaway was a nautically themed restaurant overlooking the San Francisco Bay from Coyote Point Recreation Area. While not strictly tiki, it had many tropical and flotsam-and-jetsam elements, like float lamps, netting and monkeypod tabletops.
The Castaway closed in 1997 for major repairs, but the repairs never happened. After standing in increasing disrepair for over a decade, the building was bulldozed in February 2008.
This location had a sister restaurant at 66 Jack London Square in Oakland, California.
Trailer Happiness
London, United Kingdom
Trailer Happiness is a retro-California lounge in the Notting Hill section of London, opened by John Downey in 2003.
Rather than finding its inspiration in midcentury Polynesian restaurants, it aimed for the feel of an American, kitsch-heavy, basement rumpus room.
The tiki-heavy drink menu was developed with a helping hand from famed cocktailian Dale DeGroff.
They proclaimed over 300 rums behind the bar.
The bar changed hands and has been owned by Sly Augustin since 2012.
For many years, patrons were greeted by Bianca the topless hula girl statue in the front window, but it appears Bianca has gone on vacation for parts unknown in recent years...
Augustin has made changes and updates since the early years, and especially after a disaster that happened to the bar right on the heals of Covid...
On July 12th, 2021, the location was flooded, but since then, they've been able to deal with the damages, do extensive remodeling, and re-open thanks in great part to help from the bar and spirits industry who have been very supportive and consider the location to be an iconic part of the bar landscape.
Lani Tiki Lounge
London, United Kingdom (Closed)
This tiki bar/nightclub on the south side of London opened in 2008 and closed just a few months later in 2009. The bar had three levels, the main level had a dance floor, while the upper level had a lounge with karaoke.
Converted to Fish & Chip Shop -- now Goddards at Greenwich Pie & Mash.
Kukui - Oxford
Oxford, United Kingdom (Closed)
Kukui was a modern tiki nightclub in Oxford, England, opened in 2008. Being a nightclub in a college town, its target audience was a young crowd, and was set up for music and dancing rather than lounging and conversing.
To give one example, they invited controversy at their first ever Halloween party in 2008, when an online listing promised “one of the naughtiest nights of the year” with “KY Jelly wrestling — naked” and “fetish snake shows involving a 12ft albino python”.
Capacity was set for 800 persons.
The space was an unusually successful melding of sleek, modern lines with Polynesian Pop. This same combination has been attempted many times before, and usually lands with a thud; in the hands of interior design firm CheekyTiki and graphic designer TikiRacer (responsible for the interior and graphics for Mahiki in London), the result was beautifully proportioned and worked well.
It was divided into six distinct areas, including the private blue-domed Castaway Room, seating 35 and sealed off from the main space by a 4m tropical fish tank. Alternatively, you could book the Californian Room, with a 15m tropical rainforest wall screen.
'Hula Hula Girls' and 'Honolulu Hunks' served the keenly priced cocktails, designed for sharing.
Kukui closed in May 2011.
A second Kukui location opened in Bournemouth in 2010 and then closed 6th February 2012, re-opened as Lola Lo Bournemouth on the 9th February 2012, before closing once more in July 2014 only to be re-opened as a non-tiki themed establishment afterwards.