Tiki Bars
Paradise Club
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Paradise Club (or Club Paradise, depending on which sign you read) has been under the same ownership since about 1991. It has gone through at least two name changes since its opening in 1954, when it was first known as Gene Kamp's Island Home. For a while it was known as Gracie Dee's Sneaky Tiki.
Lauhala matting is used throughout (and the bar appears to still have its original ceiling treatment) but the tiki/tropical vibe has been toned down over the years.
Drinks, once selected from the single tropical drink menu on the premises, are served in tiki mugs. They are known for their original, called the "Banana Spider".
The bar reportedly has a bit of a dive bar feel, and caters to the area's robust Polish population.
Martell's Tiki Bar
Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, United States
Fred Martell opened the bar circa 1962 or shortly before, when there were no raw bars or multiple restaurants at the beach the way there are today. Then, it was known as Martell's Sea Breeze Club.
Dave Bassinder bought the place in the 1980s, and set to work transforming and expanding the operation.
Martell's Tiki Bar is a prime example of the confusion that has arisen between midcentury Polynesian Pop and muddled, any-tropical-will-do, anything-with-thatch-is-tiki "Tiki Bars."
This is the latter -- a bar focused on steel drums, Jimmy Buffett and Corona -- and the WRONG BODY OF WATER. While Caribbean influences have always been present in Polynesian Pop (rum, calypso), this is completely missing the mark. There is little or no tiki to be had here.
It's sad that Martell's owns "tikibar.com". They're completely within their rights, but... ugh.
Polynesia Supper Club
Waupaca, Wisconsin, United States (Closed)
Polynesia Supper Club had a large tiki on its sign, exterior tiki torches, and included a bar, restaurant and motel.
The exact location of this restaurant is a bit ambiguous -- the address of "Hwys 22 & 54" was probably specific when this restaurant was operating, but today these highways appear to overlap.
This location appears to have undergone a couple of name changes, possibly later called the Outrigger. Apparently burned down in 1985.
Foundation
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
Foundation began as a punk bar, and around 2004 began a conversion into a punk tiki bar at the prompting of manager Don Nelson. Today the bar has left its punk roots behind, and has completed the metamorphosis into a beloved and completely punk-free tiki bar. It is chock full of tikis, many carved by local tiki artist Lake Tiki. The menu is full of traditional and modern tropical drinks, served in tiki mugs.
In 2017, a fully tikified vacation rental was added above Foundation, the Captain's Quarters.
Kontiki Slottsskogen
Änggården, Göteborg, Sweden (Closed)
Tiki bar and restaurant near Slottsskogen, a large park in central Gothenburg. Kontiki opened in 2007 (it had existed in another location earlier, starting in 2004), and closed in November 2015.
The space was decorated mainly with bamboo, and lots of it. Several tables had different themes, including "The Diner," "The Beach," "Flamingo Hrnet" (Flamingo Corner in English), "Fjllstugan" (Winter Cabin in English) and "Japan Skrubben" (Japan Hut in English). There were loft spaces accessible by ladders, and an outdoor patio.
The food offerings were an unusual take on tropical flavors, including some tropical pizzas. Kontiki had both live and DJ music nights.
Kahlua Hut
Hyattsville, Maryland, United States (Closed)
Owned by local restaurant moguls “Jake” and “Mama Jo” Tavenner, the Kahlua Hut was operated by Bernie Atkins and Bob McGeehan from spring 1967 until 1973.
Located in a former ice cream shop at Riggs Road and East-West Highway (built in 1955), its décor was “that of a South Pacific hut—thatched roofs, hurricane lights, can-like fixtures and, at least once a week, a hula band.” It seated up to 140 patrons, leaving floor space for seven-nights-a-week dancing. The Kahlua Hut’s pan-Asian and “continental” cuisine was initially prepared by Chef Yee M. Kiang. The restaurant staff fielded a team of duckpin bowlers competitive locally and nationally.
Featured on its drinks menu was the “Kahlua Tiki Tumbler,” offered in such a mug: “an exotic mixture of the finest rums and passion fruits, gin and vermouth.” For $2.15 total, the mug was yours to take.
After 1973, this location became The Outrigger, presumably with the same Pop Polynesian theme intact.
Today, as of 2023, this original 1955 building is still intact and house three businesses (Dry Cleaners, Bakery, and Pizza Bolis).
Solomons Island Tiki Bar
Solomons, Maryland, United States
Solomons Island Tiki Bar opened in 1980, and is a more 80s-style tiki bar -- it's open-air, heavy on the party, and light on the tiki. There have been more additions of tikiness starting in early 2006, and of particular note is the addition of many Bosko carvings and a couple of large moai. It's open seasonally, from April through October, and opening day is a major event, drawing up to 10,000 people.
The bar started as an addition to the Island Manor Hotel, by original owners John and Kathy Taylor.
New owner, Terry Clark, removed the hotel in 2005 to expand the bar into a restaurant, and to accommodate the Tiki Bar's massive weekend crowds; and Terry was responsible for the stronger emphasis on tiki. A small store was also added that sells t-shirts, sweatshirts and mass-produced modern tiki items.
On September 19th, 2018, Terry Clarke passed away suddenly at the age of 54. There was some confusion at that point as to whether someone would continue the bar, but it worked out with new owners.
A Howard County couple, Sarah and Peter Bates, purchased the bar for $2.4 million from Terry's widow.
Thatch
Portland, Oregon, United States (Closed)
Thatch opened in northeast Portland in January 2007.
It featured a sunken bar, booths rescued from a nearby original Armet & Davis Denny's, lots of bamboo, and of course, thatch. Some of the tiki decor came from the nearby Jasmine Tree, which in turn got its decor from the Portland Kon-Tiki when it closed.
Thatch closed in late spring 2012, and reopened in late August 2012 under new ownership as Hale Pele.
The Jungle Room - at Graceland - Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee, United States
Graceland is the mansion of Elvis Presley, and today it serves as a museum, with daily tours. Graceland is notable as a tiki destination for one reason: the legendary Jungle Room. This was Elvis' den, and it was decorated entirely with chunky Witco furniture, made of singed Cypress. Included is a small bar with stools, decorated with tikis. The room is also notable for its lime-green shag carpet, not only on the floor, but also on the ceiling.
Legend has it that Elvis found the furniture in a showroom in Memphis, and bought the entire set; coincidentally, that same day, his father Vernon had seen the set in the same store, and mentioned to Elvis how ugly it had been, without knowing that Elvis had bought the whole shebang.
The Jungle Room was the site of Elvis' final two studio recording sessions in 1976, when he set up a makeshift studio in the room. Tracks from the sessions have appeared on several posthumous releases.
Rummy's Polynesian House
Douglassville, Pennsylvania, United States (Closed)
Rummy's Polynesian House was located in Berks County. The menu from this Polynesian restaurant features imagery lifted from other restaurants, including the Kon Tiki, and the Hilton Hawaiian Village. The restaurant had tikis, a large fish tank, and plenty of bamboo and pufferfish lamps. The restaurant probably opened some time in the '60s (open at least as early as 1968), and closed in the early 1980s when its owner (Warren "Rummy" Steinle) passed away. The building was unused for a few years, later re-opening as a bar; today (as of 2024) it is a strip club called "Utopia Cabaret Diva's Gentleman's Club." Menus and matchbooks from Rummy's list its location as simply being on Route 422 in Monocacy; today's modern address for this spot is 395 Ben Franklin Highway in Douglassville. A menu also lists what appears to be a second location, in nearby Douglassville (so nearby that the "Monocacy" location today is in the now-grown Douglassville), on a nowhere-to-be-found Route 2.
Waikikian Hotel
Honolulu, Hawaii, United States (Closed)
The Waikikian Hotel, right on the beach & lagoon at Waikiki, was a long-time touristy institution on Oahu. The Waikikian housed the Tahitian Lanai restaurant and Papeete Bar; all three opened in 1956.
The hotel is instantly recognized by its unusual lobby, a dramatically stylized A-frame fashioned from a massive hyperbolic paraboloid, designed by architect Pete Wimberley. Much of the decorative carving and other touches were from Edward Brownlee. The grounds also included tiki-spotted gardens, and the lobby housed a gallery of black velvet Leeteg paintings.
The Waikikian closed in 1996; in December 2008, a 38-story timeshare opened in its place as part of the nearby Hilton Hawaiian Village complex. The new tower is called the "Grand Waikikian."
Kon-Tiki - Zürich
Zürich, Switzerland
Kon-Tiki dates from 1955 and still has some great details from the period. Rather than being a tiki bar, it was inspired by the famed Kon-Tiki voyage; the exploration's logo is used as the logo of the bar. The Floss Bar is connected inside.
Closed briefly for a couple of months in 2016 but re-opened under new ownership.
Although the Kon-Tiki looks much the same as it has for the last 60+ years, as the new signs proclaim, it is now one of the first legal weed coffee shops in Zurich. You can buy four different strains of cannabis at the counter — Lion Haze, Orange Bud, Purple Bud and Kon-Tiki Kush — and smoke your purchase in the large upstairs lounge. However, by law, their cannabis can contain no more than 1% THC, so may be less potent than some users are expecting.