This speakeasy style nautical bar is adjacent to (and owned by) Hula's Modern Tiki in uptown Phoenix and also opened in 2018. Look for the unmarked porthole door outside.

From Hula's Modern Tiki website:

"Set sail from HULA'S Phoenix every Thursday - Saturday from 6pm to close, step through the porthole door to explore, and let the waves carry you away to The Captain's Cabin, where a late ’40s era Tahitian sailor’s bar meets the modern day craft cocktail lounge. It's the perfect spot to savor HULA’S “Uku Nui” Cocktail Menu (which means “premium” in Hawaiian); hand-shaken with fresh squeezed juices and housemade bitters and syrups. Plus, sip & savor HULA’S Rum Flights, allowing you to take your taste buds on a self-guided tropical tour of some of the world’s finest rums. Truth is, you never know what kind of craft cocktail shenanigan's "The Captain" might be up to!"

Hours: Friday & Saturday, 6pm to Close

This bar has only a few tiki decorations and is overwhelmingly nautical but it is a fun themed space adjacent to Hula's. PRO TIP: It does not have bathrooms, so you may have to step back into Hula's next door. Plan accordingly.

The Chi Chi opened in 1936 as the Desert Grill. Eventually, Jack Freeman sold his financial interest in the profitable eatery to his business partner, Irwin Schuman, who revamped it as a fancy Polynesian-style restaurant and bar.

Schuman christened his new venture Chi Chi Grill Cocktail Lounge in 1938 — inspired by an exotic portrait of a topless Hawaiian girl painted by Edgar Leeteg he’d seen in an art gallery on a trip to Honolulu.

Credit for the club’s name also has been attributed to Palm Springs artist Jack Church, who reportedly dubbed the painting “the Chi Chi girl” because of her sexy expression. For good luck, Schuman displayed a copy of Leeteg’s portrait, Hina Rapa, on the wall of his cocktail lounge. Onlookers found the image of the smiling native girl so captivating that Schuman blithely had it reprinted on cocktail napkins, dishware, glasses, matchbooks, swizzle sticks, menus, and playing cards. These dinner-table items quickly became prized souvenirs.

“I did not give Chi Chi permission to use my Hina Rapa to reproduce in any way,” complained Leeteg in an angry letter from his home in Tahiti. “The least they could do is to give me a credit line, but that is too much to expect from a Hollywood gin mill.”

The unexpected controversy helped publicize the tropical-themed restaurant; and Schuman opened a second Chi Chi bar in 1946 on Santa Catalina Island. More locations followed in Riverside, Hollywood, Long Beach, and San Diego.

The media described this giant supper club as “The second biggest nightclub west of the Mississippi,” where some of the brightest names in showbiz gathered for more than 25 years.

Practically any New York and Las Vegas headliner that ever took a bow performed at the Chi Chi in its heyday: song and dance pioneers such as Eddie Cantor, Sophie Tucker, Rudy Vallee, the Ritz Brothers, Lena Horne, and Mickey Rooney, along with virtuoso performers such as Tony Martin, Jane Russell, Hoagy Carmichael, Rosemary Clooney, Johnny Mathis, and Peggy Lee.

The Chi Chi lasted until 1977 when it was torn down and replaced by The Desert Fashion Plaza.

Strong Water Anaheim is a tropical, nautical bar with Asian inspired food and a small hidden room full of wonder based on the mid-1800s mysterious shipwreck of the vessel Clementine. Brought to you by the owners of Blind Rabbit, this Packing House-adjacent bar has a whole back bar dedicated just to gin and also serves up tropical libations and Asian-Hawaiian inspired appetizers and entrees. It does have some tikis throughout, a fountain shaped like a giant moss-covered skull, and a tiki mug cabinet with several shelves of mugs -- vintage and from other establishments and events.

Opened August 15th, 2019.

Located in the Canvas Condos tower, Esotico's chic take on the retro Polynesian Pop theme featured bold tropical wallpaper offset by black-and-white checkerboard flooring and a contemporary exposed ceiling. Lush greenery tied together décor such as a Hawaiian surfboard, muted sconce lamps and track lighting. Potted plants surround the patio while a backlit bar featured a bamboo footrest and nearly 230 rums, including Daniele Dalla Pola's own label, Alamea.

On 11/18/22, they opened a speakeasy adjacent space, the Kaona Room, which was accessible through either Esotico's interior secret door or through an exterior secret door beneath next door's Caribbean Water Supply. The Kaona Room is a bit more traditional tiki with its decor, and is more than just overflow seating -- including an entirely separate bar. For more on the Kaona Room, please see separate listing.

*NOTE: Dalla Pola announced the closing of Esotico Miami, beginning March 3rd, 2024, with the assurance that the Kaona Room would remain open.

Tiki on 18th opened July 20th, 2019.

It is a small tiki bar located above the Game Sports Pub in Adams Morgan. Their goal is to pay homage to classic tiki cocktails, as well as introducing some modern twists. The small-plate food menu consists of Polynesian inspirations, Hawaiian favorites and a Filipino twist.

Patio and Private reservations are available.

The Kon-Tiki opened in early November 2017 in Oakland, California, in a space that had previously held Longitude.

Owned by Christ Aivaliotis and Matthew Reagan.

The Kon-Tiki was born out of Christ’s long standing desire to stop commuting to San Francisco, but still wear a Hawaiian shirt to work every day.

December 22nd, 2024 was the last day of operation.

Tiki Tap House was opened by Cindy and Jordan Peabody in Centralia, Washington in July 2013. It is an "island inspired" pizza restaurant -- not a tiki bar. There's only beer and wine available, so no tiki cocktails. The decor is spare, but there's a clear love for tiki here. There is a wall with tiki mugs, tikis adorn the thatch-topped bar (which has 18 rotating beers on tap), and some tiki art is on display -- including impressive tikis carved by Cindy's son, restaurant manager Anthony Dijos. The pizzas incorporate lots of unusual island flavors, going beyond the expected Hawaiian pizza, with Spam, mango, macadamia nuts and coconut.

The Reef Bar is within the Caliente Tropics Resort in Palm Springs, a historic tiki hotel that opened in 1964.

The bar at the Caliente Tropics has changed names, theming, and management many times over the years. Originally, the bar was the Congo Room restaurant, a steakhouse. After the Congo Room years, the bar adopted its most-used Reef Bar name, and there was also a brief period in the late-'00s when it was Hawaiian Bill's.

After many years with the bar in flux, as of March 4th, 2017 it re-opened under the management of Rory Snyder, perhaps best known as the organizer of the annual Tiki Caliente event at the Caliente Tropics (and Circa Caliente). The bar has large windows and a patio overlooking the hotel's swimming pool, and rather than fight the light, Snyder aims to differentiate from the other tiki bars in town and create a space that blends the mid-century history of Palm Springs with the classic tiki elements on the grounds. A menu of tropical drinks and food is available. See cocktail menu below...

In addition to mugs and glassware, the bar also sports its own line of branded rum bottles with label designs by Anthony Carpenter.

Malia Polynesian Room was inside Bill Green's Golden Dragon in Asbury Park, New Jersey. It opened in late 1968, and didn't last very long.

Mr. Green had run this site previously as the "Rustic Lodge" nightclub before remaking it into the "Golden Dragon" restaurant and then he decided to try rebranding it yet again a year later as the "Countrypolitan" nightclub. That must not have worked either, as Green turned over the site to a new owner that same year and it became Danny's Bar and Package store before being destroyed by a fire in June 1970.

Today is it known because of an album recorded there of a performance by Sam Makia and his Hawaiian Islanders, called "Live Hawaiian Party." The address was Coleman at Summerfield; Summerfield no longer intersects with Coleman, but a look at satellite photos from the era shows a building at that location that today is a parking lot.

Kona Pali is a 63-unit apartment building, built in 1962 in Granada Hills, in the San Fernando Valley. It is a remarkably well-preserved example of a midcentury Polynesian-themed apartment building. It has an identical twin in San Gabriel, the Kona Kai Apartments. The entrance is a dramatic A-frame. The entryway has a tile mosaic of the Hawaiian islands, and a water feature. Tiki carvings are all over the common grounds of the complex.

The Castaways was opened by a young Birmingham nightclub impresario, John Reeve, in November 1966. It held a restaurant, bar, nightclub and casino. The Castaways attracted many big name acts of the day, including Dusty Springfield, Liberace, Engelbert Humperdinck, and Tom Jones. The house band was the Waikiki Islanders, a band that had begun playing Hawaiian music in 1937, was being continued in the 1960s by the daughter and son-in-law of an original member, and still continues on today.

The upper floor, where the dining and performance happened, was thoroughly themed with massive, 40-foot faux palm trees, carpeting made to look like footprints in sand, and a ship's hull.

After The Castaways closed sometime around 1969, it became a succession of other nightclubs. The multi-story building that housed The Castaways, Bradford House on Bradford Street just off of Rea Street, has been an empty husk for many years now.

Opened in 2012, Follynesia was a beach condo in Folly Beach, just outside of Charleston.

It was owned by Tim "Swanky" Glazner and his wife Stephanie Romer (their home tiki bar is the Hapa Haole Hideaway in Knoxville, Tennessee). This vacation condo was available for rental. The condo was just a block from the Atlantic Ocean, right on Center Street, the main drag of Folly Beach, above a beachwear store. The condo was completely decorated in Polynesian Pop style, with Papua New Guinea, Maori, Hawaiian and mid-century carving styles represented. The one bedroom, one bath condo had a kitchen and could sleep up to four thanks to two queen size beds.

Closed November 26th, 2022.