Noelle Coley and Martin Armendariz opened the Toltec Tiki Room inside the Toltec building in December 2020 and it quickly become a staple in the property’s revival.

The Toltec Building is a historic structure in downtown El Paso built in 1910. Its original purpose was to be the home of a men's organization called the Toltec Club, which was founded in 1908. Members of the club were prominent business, civic and political leaders at the time. British-born architect John J. Huddart designed the building in a combination of the Beaux-Arts, Renaissance, and Sullivanesque (named after American architect Louis Henry Sullivan) styles. As such, the Toltec Building is one of the more unique landmarks in El Paso. Notable features include arched windows, geometric terra cotta decoration, and balconies in front of the second-floor windows. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, it has been used for office and commercial space since the club closed in 1930.

The bar added to an existing Peking restaurant that is open for lunch during the week and a passport business.

*NOTE: December 24th, 2022 marked the end of this bar at the Toltec Building location.

Their social media announced a grand opening at their new space at 115 Durango St D, El Paso, TX 79901 in Union Plaza for January 2023 with "Toltec" dropped from the name.

This store in Heeia, Oahu, Hawaii flourished in the 1950s and 60s.

It was located across the Pali from downtown Honolulu at Kealohi Point, Heeia...a short distance beyond Kaneohe Town.

Here one could purchase gifts, jewelry, and curios, including koa wood bowls and other serving items.

It was also a photo opportunity and many people posed outside in front of the store next to the large tiki and outrigger canoe.

Hugman's Oasis and House of Má, the new tiki bar and restaurant concepts from Esquire Tavern owner Chris Hill, opened in April 2021 in downtown San Antonio's Historic Witte Building.

Named for Robert H. H. Hugman, the architect responsible for the creation of San Antonio's River Walk, the bar occupies the building's river level. The restaurant, focused on Vietnamese homestyle cooking, is located at street level.

Bamboo Ben did the build-out on Hugman's Oasis, which features glass floats, bamboo trim, black lava, neon lit fountains, a ton of skulls (including skull chandeliers!) and a wall of hand-carved and painted tiki panels similar to the ones installed by Bosko at False Idol in San Diego.

Hugman's bar menu features drinks such as the Bermuda Triangle, a tropical rum-based sipper, and a Piñagroni, a pineapple take on a traditional Negroni. House of Má features separate libations including the Old Siam and Soi Cowboy.

The Tropics Lounge was a pre-tiki establishment opened sometime during World War II and was located on the third floor (they counted the basement level as #1, so the third floor today is more like the second floor or mezzanine level).

Here's a quote from the hotel's history flyer:

"After dinner, the gentlemen would retire to the third floor to the popular lounge called the Tropics. The sound of thunder was piped in and the lights fluttered and went out. A mechanical hula girl would emerge from behind the bar and dance in a grass skirt while it rained behind the bar."

Although the hotel is still running, it has undergone many remodels and it is difficult to see any sign of where the bar once was.

Opened June 1975 (the hotel opened the year before).

This Kona Kai was part of a chain of restaurants that included locations in Chicago and Philadelphia. This location was the second to be built in Kansas City and was at the Plaza International (later the Hilton Kansas City Airport Hotel).

The second Kona Kai location was at the Plaza Inn just a block away from The Castaways.

Both Kansas City locations closed in the 80s and both locations featured "signature" 8-foot tall tikis carved by Oceanic Arts in Whittier, California (the tiki at this location has somewhat smaller nostrils -- a shorthand to tell them apart -- see last photo below). These tikis now reside in a private collection.

The Hilton Kansas City Airport Hotel is still running but all traces of the Kona Kai appear to have been removed. Instead, they now have the Asado Urban Grill as their hotel restaurant.

Opened in 2016.

The Hotel Tiki Tiki Tulum has only fifteen rooms and is surrounded by a magnificent jungle. Its architecture was inspired by mid-century modern architecture and it would be right at home in Palm Springs or Miami Beach.

There is a lounge area with bamboo bar, but other than the name, there are no tikis on site. However, they have started embracing tiki imagery and recently created some drink coasters with tikis and might be adding some other flourishes to match the namesake.

The hotel is an hour and a half from Cancun International Airport.

It is a 10 minute drive from the beach and not far from the Tulum Monkey Sanctuary.

Opened March of 2020.

Phat Sammy's began as a pop-up restaurant in spring of 2017. Co-owner Jeremy Esterly would do them at places like karaoke dive-bar Moody Monday's, cupcakery Sugar Belle and local brewery Yellowhammer. His Asian flavors/American dishes mashups quickly earned a local following.

Esterly was considering pivoting to a food truck for his next step forward, but he quickly found support and with 3 other co-owners was able to make this restaurant a brick-and-mortar reality.

Phat Sammy's has a very low key entrance marked outside by a small neon yellow and green pineapple sign -- located down two flights of stairs in a basement level room that is able to hold that perpetual state of twilight, blocked off from the outside, upon which tiki bars thrive.

With a capacity around 100, Phat Sammy's décor includes a mural, painted by local artist Logan Tanner, a full bar populated by tiki mugs and glassware to showcase signature as well as classic tiki cocktails (and rum flights).

They are a bit light on actual tikis, having a few signature pieces like the large molded Moai in their entryway and a giant filipino ifugao mask in their lounge area, but hopefully they will add more with time.

Burnt Ends opened in March 2021, above the Dr. BBQ Restaurant, located in the EDGE District of St. Petersburg.

Frank Simontics, known as the Tiki Rancher, was called on to blend classic tiki design with Dr. BBQ’s smokehouse roots in the second-floor bar. Design elements included charred end cuts of wood with red backlighting, and simulating glowing embers. There was also a thatch and bamboo awning and an 8-foot moai-like figure of Ray “Dr. BBQ” Lampe greeting guests at street level.

Closed December 2022. Though quite popular, the restaurant was only leasing the space and the owners were offered a deal to sell the property which they could not turn down.

The Tiki Apartments were an example of dingbats -- boxy apartments, usually supported by stilts, with open stalls below for parking. (Their name is likely to have been coined by architect Francis Ventre while he was lecturing at UCLA in the early '70s.) Thousands of the inexpensive 16-unit structures were built in the late '50s and early '60s to accommodate the huge number of people moving to the West Coast. Dingbats are being demolished by the dozen to make way for multi-story complexes with underground parking, so they are doubly ephemeral when paired with a tiki theme and tiki imagery.

Other than the sign, there doesn't appear to have been any other tikis or tiki features about this property.

Permits were issued for demolition in 2019 to build a 6-story, 56-unit new complex called Lake City Apartments.

The Tahiti Motel was opened in 1963. Its original owner was Robert Gerhardt Jr.

It is commonly referred to as being a part of the Doo Wop style of architecture, named after the popular music of its time, but this style is also referred to as Googie architecture in California and other parts of the country.

The Tahiti Motel was demolished in December of 2004.

It appears the letters of its sign were saved and displayed (at least at some point) at the nearby Tangiers Hotel which is also from the same era and has an A-frame out front that used to be a coffee shop but is now their office.

Opened in Fall 2020.

Located in a secret lounge above the Downtown Grill.

You needed a reservation to go and they only sat 8 people at a time.

The Monkey's Paw closed their Downtown Grill location and re-opened at a new location in the basement of Pearl Passionate Cuisine & Cocktails (which closed June 23rd, 2024).

The Pearl venue became a new location called The Monkey's Paw Tropical Tapas on July 11th, 2024 with tapas dining upstairs and the Monkey's Paw Tiki Lounge downstairs.

Kahala Koa opened in August 2020 and is located in Arlington Heights (Prospect Heights), about 27 miles (1 hour) from Chicago.

Located in what used to be Secret Garden, next to a Thornton's 24-hour gas station.

They are a family owned and operated pizza place (Lola's Pizza Palace) that developed a love for tiki and made a delightful transformation.

You can sip your tropical cocktails underneath the giant outrigger (originally from Chicago’s Kona Kai, relocated to California when they closed, and now recently returned) while enjoying some thin crust.