Tiki Bars
The Drunk Munk
Scottsdale, Arizona, United States
Opened March 28th, 2019, The Drunk Munk is located on the corner of 6th Avenue and Stetson Drive, in the building occupied for 21 years by Cowboy Ciao.
Greg Donnally, who owns Drunk Munk with partners Andrew Nam and Scott Hane, brings a decade of experience operating a tiki bar in Scottsdale to the new project.
From 2002 to 2012 Donnally operated Drift Lounge, once located on the other end of Stetson Drive in the current home of Boondocks Patio and Grill.
Drunk Munk utilizes some of the decor from Drift, including a large Moai head on their back bar but was not intended to re-create the old venue.
They have integrated several new features. One lounge area in the restaurant, for instance, looks very similar to that first introduced by the Tonga Hut in North Hollywood, CA -- cozy low bench seating with cushions and pillows, stools, and dark-stained wood walls with a Witco outrigger wall hanging next to a 1960s Malm freestanding cone-shaped fireplace.
The 4,600-square-foot restaurant seats 150 in the dining area, along with 50 spots on the patio.
MAORI - Pacific Rim Cuisine
Schlieren, Switzerland
Opened July 31st, 2014.
The MAORI is a Pacific Rim restaurant with 80 seats and a large bar with 30 seats in the Schlieren industry near the gas works. Their cuisine is a fusion of Polynesian cuisine with Asian, American, Australian and New Zealand influences.
They also serve tiki cocktails in tiki mugs.
The Conch House Marina Resort Restaurant & Lounge
St. Augustine, Florida, United States
This is a very large complex which includes a marina, a restaurant, a lounge, a long pier-side walkway lined with carved tikis, and a motel.
For over 70 successful years, the Ponce family has owned and operated the Conch House Marina Resort. The Ponce family is one of the oldest families in the United States and has been in St. Augustine for over 400 years. The property was purchased in 1946 by Jimmy Ponce and his wife Jackie, and was once the Coast Guard gunnery station. The business started as a 4 room hotel, called Ponces By The Sea in which the family lived in one room and rented the other rooms to guests.
Their Lounge Tiki Bar was built in 1976 and sits out 300 feet over the water.
The Islander Apartments
Santa Ana, California, United States
The Islander Apartments were built in 1962, in the Riverglen neighborhood of Santa Ana, California. The entry is a swooped A-frame structure, with a tiki underneath. More tikis can be found supporting a second A-frame structure by the pool area. The apartment complex has a carved wooden sign. More free-standing tikis likely existed and have long since rotted away or been removed, but the tiki poles for the A-frames still remain.
The community consists of 63 one-story units in 1, 2, and 3 bedroom arrangements. The property sits on 5 landscaped acres.
Test Pilot
Santa Barbara, California, United States
Test Pilot is a "tiki-inspired" craft cocktail bar in Santa Barbara. It opened in September 2016.
The decor is tiki-lite, with just a few tiki masks on one wall. The walls are painted turquoise, and there is a light beachy feel to the space.
The drinks, some served in tiki mugs, are modified versions of tiki cocktails, and some originals.
They have an excellent selection of rums and a strong bar program.
*NOTE: You can reserve the Sea Wolf Room (see last 2 photos) for yourself and your friends as a space for group gatherings, meetings, and parties.
Cat Eye Club
San Diego, California, United States (Closed)
Cat Eye Club was a small bar and restaurant with a lightly-applied mid-century and tiki theme. It opened in 2013 as more of a "Mad Men" mid-century bar, but shifted to tiki in 2016.
There was a menu of tropical and classic tiki cocktails, many served in tiki mugs, and a small food menu (food came from the kitchen of the attached Blind Burro Restaurant).
The decor was more tropical-lite than tiki, with a few tiki masks on a wall, and palm frond wallpaper on another.
Closed September 28th, 2018 to make room for a Blind Burro expansion.
Marina Palms Apartments
Seal Beach, California, United States
This 54-unit apartment building was built in 1963 with a Polynesian theme, and was originally named Marina Lani. The entrance is a grand A-frame, with a dramatic lava rock wall intersecting it. Over time, the Polynesian details were removed and it was simply called Marina Apartments.
In 2009, a refresh of the communal spaces brought in fresh tropical landscaping and the addition of many new tikis, and the apartments were renamed Marina Palms. The color scheme was green/orange/yellow for this iteration.
As of 2021, the color scheme appears to be slate blue and white. The 2009 tikis are not as evident in promotional photos, although the honu/sea turtles can still be seen on the front.
Polynesian Putter
St. Pete Beach, Florida, United States
Polynesian Putter is a bit of classic roadside Florida, a miniature golf course built around 1966 in St. Pete Beach. It has a giant moai with light-up eyes at the street front, which may have been sculpted by Lee Koplin. It is next to the Sea Palms Motel, both have been owned by Renate Ostrovski and her late husband since 1972.
B.G. Reynolds Tasting Room
Portland, Oregon, United States (Closed)
Since 2009, B.G. Reynolds has been selling the syrups needed for classic tropical drinks: orgeat, passion fruit, cinnamon, vanilla, special Don the Beachcomber blends, and more. The brand was originally called "Trader Tiki" and changed to "B.G. Reynolds" in 2011. In November 2015, this tasting room and storefront opened in southeast Portland. In addition to the syrups, the store also offered barware, tiki mugs, pre-mixed bottled tropical drinks, vintage aloha wear, and special cocktail mixing classes. The retail store closed in April 2016, but the syrups are still available from their online store, and are distributed to stores across the country.
The LuWow - Fitzroy
Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia (Closed)
"Skipper" Josh Collins opened the LuWow in 2011 in Fitzroy, a suburb of Melbourne. The LuWow was divided into two sections: the Island Village, which was a traditional Tiki bar, and the Forbidden Temple, a music hall. On weekends, the music hall portion hosted bands, '60s-era DJs, and the occasional Polynesian revue.
The LuWow closed in late December 2016, when their lease on the space ran out.
However, it re-opened in a new location in 2019 at 212 Little Collins Street, Melbourne.
Tiki Haven
San Francisco, California, United States
Opened in 2011.
Tiki Haven is a tiki bar in the Inner Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco. The decor is beachy-tiki with mainly mass-market tikis and lauhala matting, and there are about a half-dozen glaring video screens throughout the space.
They do serve drinks in tiki mugs and have a small menu of classics and signature cocktails.
Freaky Boutiki
San Diego, California, United States (Closed)
Freaky Boutiki started out in 1999 as the Freak Factory, selling a mix of original art, retro items, surf stuff and midcentury pieces. After a fire in 2006, owner "Hodad" Hank Adelson transformed it into Freaky Boutiki, with a stronger emphasis on all things Polynesian Pop.
The store billed itself as a "coastal curiosity shoppe" and had a great mix of items: art by modern tiki artists, Oceanic art pieces, nautical knick-knacks, tiki mugs, aloha wear, carvings, and more. Freaky Tiki had work by many well-beloved tiki artists, including Ken Ruzic, Heather Watts, Derek Yaniger, Doug Horne, Sam Gambino, Squid (especially his Acme Bakeware line), Tiki Tony, Shag and more.
In July 2016, Adelson sold the store to a new owner. It now operates under the name "Boutiki" but does not retain the Polynesian Pop focus of its predecessor.