Tucana Tiki Bar

Birmingham, Alabama, United States

Tucana had its grand opening on November 3, 2023 at The Denham Building in Parkside, in Birmingham, AL.

It is owned by Nicky Vann Tisdale.

Their creative team includes architect Haley Treadaway with Black Design Architecture and Josh and Shelton Carnley with Studio Carnley for branding.

The overall concept is modern and streamlined without the dense layering found in traditional tiki bars (like in an old school Trader Vics for example). Rather, the atmosphere is open and industrial with concrete floors, lots of windows, high ceilings, and exposed duct work.

No evidence of actual carved tikis, masks, tapa cloth, or hula girls...

However, they do evoke some jungle island vibes downstairs with tropical wallpaper, upside-down basket ceiling lamps, some fish floats over the bar, lots of rattan furniture, and some tropical plants. A couple dozen individually framed Audubon style toucan nature prints adorn the wall alongside the stairs leading to the second floor.

Cocktails are served in a variety of glassware and tiki mugs.

The disco ball constellation room is upstairs. Nicky claims this inspiration came from the Tucana constellation in the southern hemisphere. But as tiki enthusiasts know, tiki has an uneasy relationship with disco...which marked the decline of the Golden Age of Tiki. Still, a dance floor in such a large open space seems like a natural move.