The Tropic Bowl began in 1955 at another location, across from Bilotti's Italian Village, at 309 3rd Street SW (where the Third Street Ramp is now).

The bowling alley was moved to 430 Fifth Ave. S.E., in 1963, and its lounge was dubbed "The Outrigger."

In 1978, Rochester had a huge flood, which filled the entire site with 4 feet of water. They opened 4 days later when the waters receded.

The Outrigger was eventually changed to a Country-themed bar (In Cahoots) in 1985.

Eventually, the city began a massive flood control project and this necessitated buying out the Tropic Bowl. In the end, the city paid $2 million for the Tropic Bowl, the In Cahoots lounge and the property around the businesses, plus some accrued interest. At the time, it was the largest single purchase the city made in connection with its flood control project.

The Tropic Bowl and the In Cahoots lounge closed its doors May 13, 1993. By the end of the month, the items from the alley and lounge were auctioned off, and the final ball was rolled down the lane.

Opened January 21st, 2023.

Owner Michael Richardson is a longtime tiki bartender and co-author of the Frankie's Tiki Room (Las Vegas) cocktail book, “Liquid Vacation.” Chef Mike Lutz helms the kitchen, serving Hawaiian-inspired dishes.

Interior design was done by Bamboo Ben.

April 19th, 2025, the building was sold and the last day was abruptly announced.

Opened July 1st, 2022.

This was not what anyone would describe as your usual tiki bar.

The owners (Lexi Healy and Veronica Ramos) opened Hell or High Water Tiki a mere six months after opening their first bar (The Electric Cure in Edgewater, CO).

Lexi described it as, "A gay pirate ship meets Land of the Lost with phallic and bird undertones."

It didn't have any traditional tiki totems, either. "We don't do any tiki totems because we don't want to step on any other culture's toes, so we don't have masks and we don't have tiki mugs that are totems," Healy explained. "There are people in the tiki community that say if you don't have masks or totems, you're not tiki."

In response, Healy commissioned a Las Vegas artist to make a "five-foot dick totem" for the new bar. "It's as tall as me," she noted.

*NOTE: In social media, the bar announced their closing for January 11th, 2026 with re-assurances they would be re-locating to a new location some time in 2026...

Opened in December 2021.

Red Dwarf is owned and operated by Russell Gardner.

This is not a traditional tiki bar, but might be described as a punk rock dive bar with a splash of tiki, and an elevated beer list, that serves Detroit-style pizza.

It has a wall of vintage concert posters and an elevated stage that hosts live music—everything from blues and ska to soul and garage rock—and doubles as a makeshift living room with a couch and mismatched chairs.

A large wraparound bartop is full of angles to encourage conversation. Netting overhead holds fish floats, flotsam, and jetsam.

There is a side cubby that feels more "Tiki" than the rest of the space, but there are still scattered tiki touches throughout the entire area.

They have about a hundred rums and a short list of funky cocktails, including a few mashups on traditional tiki classics. See menu below.

The craft beer list rotates regularly. The one constant is the Dwarf Piss, a $4 house lager brewed in partnership with Astronomy Aleworks.

The bar's excellent Detroit-style pizza is made with an airy, chewy dough that's pan-proofed and fermented in-house for up to 72 hours.

They do have some branded mugs, some of which are standards by Tiki Farm, but they also have a mascot mug of the red devil (red dwarf?).

Opened April 28th, 1960.

The Luau copied its name, logo and much of its menu from The Luau of Beverly Hills, but it's unclear whether there was any formal connection.

Closed in 1966.

Opened May 23rd, 2019.

This bar is located in Des Moines' Historic East Village.

The decor is not the usual Trader Vic's and Don the Beachcomber dark and moody environment with layers of bamboo, lauhala matting, and carvings. "Our mood was Brooklyn Diner-meets-Palm Springs hotel lobby," said co-owner, Nick Tillinghast. "Because the bones are industrial and brick, we didn't want to lose that completely. We wanted to meet somewhere in the middle." One entire wall is wallpapered in a tropical leaf pattern. Another wall also has tropical leaves but in a rainbow of different neon lights. The central bartop and matching tables are white laminate with chrome trim. These are matched by diner-style bar seats upholstered in different colors.

Behind the bar it is all business with an excellent assortment of rums and their menu features a good assortment of both classic tiki cocktails and their own signature libations.

Built in 1907, the Perkins Building is a historic building in Tacoma, Washington, United States. The 8-story building housed the offices of the Tacoma Ledger/Daily News. It was the tallest reinforced concrete building in the Northwest and the first building on the West Coast to have a basement parking garage.

The Islander was opened in this building in 1951 by Bill Mead and Bob Trent.

This pre-tiki establishment advertised itself as "Tacoma's Smart Charcoal Broiler Restaurant" where people could enjoy "Dancing and Dining in a Tropical Atmosphere." In May, 1957, the restaurant changed hands when Walter F. Clark returned to Tacoma after an absence of 30 years to include the Islander in his chain of Northwest restaurants. Clark sold it in 1960, thus ending the Islander, and the space changed hands a few times, hosting different restaurants. In 1966 it became a Black Angus Restaurant.

In the early 1990’s, the Perkins Building served as the first home of the University of Washington Tacoma. In 2004 the building was converted to residential condominiums, office and retail space at a cost of 9 million dollars. The first floor is restaurant/retail space, floors 2-4 are commercial office space, and floors 5-8 are condominiums.

This location had a long history. It was originally called Badini's from 1926-1946. From 1946-1965 it was The Pine Grove Inn.

Tiki was originally opened in this location in 1965 by Bob Gaudio, part of the famous singing group “The Four Seasons”. That explains the name of the drinks on the first portion of the menu entitled "The Golden Hits that built the Tiki!"

This location was only open a few years and then closed to be re-opened as Oriental Luau in the late 1960s or early 70s. The Oriental Luau kept a full menu of tiki drinks as well. It lasted into the 1990s.

This tiki bar appears to have been active @1961-1962.

It was later the location of the Bali Hai which ran from June of 1963-1969.

The Tropic Isle's tiki mascot figure was issued in mug form, both with and without dry ice pockets on top rim.

As of 2022, this location appears to be a Vans shoe store or adjacent to where the shoe store currently stands.

This 46 room mansion was built in 1913.

Later, it was sold in 1941 to Stanley Wiedner who invested half a million and remodeled it to become the Plantation Restaurant.

The pre-tiki establishment had a smaller area known as the Tahitian Room located inside, complete with plenty of rattan, bunches of bananas hanging from the ceiling, and private huts for intimate dinner conversation.

The picture of the nude Tahitian girl shown below was a backlight transparency and was there until the restaurant closed.

The Tahitian Room was open until 1980 and was the social setting for those in the Quad Cities and beyond.

The days of the Plantation and the Tahitian Room were numbered when the Manager, Nick Chirekos, was murdered by a disgruntled employee on November 18th, 1979. The restaurant closed in 1980.

In 1981, the building was sold and reopened as W.L. Velie’s along with a club called the Back Door Club that was quite popular. As time went on, it was hard to compete with river boat gambling.

The restaurant and club closed and an antique mall was there briefly before closing and leaving the mansion empty. That is until Quad City Bank and Trust chose the location for their bank.

On Tuesday, October 11th, 2022 Barter & Shake Cocktail Entertainment, the hospitality group behind the award-winning Century Grand in Phoenix, opened their second location of UnderTow (the third in a series including the original that closed) at the Epicenter at Agritopia in Gilbert, Arizona. Marking the group’s first expansion, the new location offers an immersive experience complete with special effects, transportive décor and exotic cocktails that bring guests on a novel adventure with every sip.

At UnderTow, guests embark on a 90-minute worldly journey in the belly of a spice trader’s turn-of-the-century Clipper ship, following the adventures of revered Captain John Mallory and his crew. Similar to its original location, the new bar features signature design elements such as a hand-carved bar top and a figurehead salvaged from the bow of a ship. The experiential atmosphere also features custom-made thunderstorm and lighting effects and a new surround sound system to provide an enhanced audio experience, along with handcrafted carvings from Daniel “Tiki Diablo” Gallardo and illustrations by Tom “Thor” Thordarson.

The cocktail menu features a variety of on-theme signature drinks, classics with a twist, and non-alcoholic libations. Some of the drinks included are The Missionary’s Downfall, the Mai Tai, the Clear Skies & Tropical Winds and the Shipless Sailor.

The menu also features a wide selection of rums.

Opened December 21st, 2020 by Beverage Director and General Manager Jeremy Ross, along with co-owners Porntipa “Pat” Pattanamekar and Parasak “Sing” Chokesatean.

As you would expect from the name, this is not a traditional tiki bar/restaurant. The space is open and modern, with light oak woodwork, slate floors, and simple tropical flower print wallpaper. There are repeated tiki face panels both on the standing pillars and on metal panel dividers. However, bright track lighting and open windows in front leave no shadows to speak of.

That said, Ross's creations honor the tiki and craft cocktail culture -- with fresh ingredients and fine rums -- albeit with some sometimes surprising Thai-inspired flavor combinations.

Drinks are served in branded tiki mugs supplied by Munktiki Imports among others.