Tiki
- Jeff Berry is the author of Beachbum Berry’s Grog Log, which US News & World Report dubbed “the island bar bible.” The Bum’s subsequent books on vintage tropical drinks and cuisine, Intoxica! and Taboo Table, have made him the toast of the global tiki bar revival. In 2005, the Museum Of The American Cocktail elected the Bum to its Advisory Board; in 2006, Los Angeles magazine included him in its Best Of L.A. issue.
- The Tiki syrup line of Blair Reynolds, owner of Portland’s Hale Pele (House of Pele) Tiki Bar.
- Nicknamed by a local Southern California surf band for his onstage and on-bar antics, Crazy AL has been carving tiki imagery since 1990. His “Polynesian Pop”-inspired sculpture can be found from Hawaii to New York, and he’s one of the most sought after carvers in the biz. Known for his authentic and imaginative style, Crazy AL’s been at the forefront of the Neo-Tiki revival, which has vastly grown in the last ten years.
- Critiki is a reference resource for the collecting, travelling or researching tikiphile, with information on over 500 locations, and as many pictures.
- The exterior is easy to pass by, but inside this building is a classic tiki style establishment with lots of bamboo and beautiful murals of pretty polynesian women. They also have great steaks. Definitely worth sampling.
- A classically trained chef makes tasty Tiki inspired food!
- Don and Trader Vic basically set the bar (pun intended) for what Tiki bars should be. They picked the decor and invented the cocktails and their legacy lives on. This is the biggest and most impressive Tiki Restaurant/Bar in all of Southern California. Go here for a total immersion in Tiki! This place is huge, with tropical fountains, bamboo everywhere, carved Tikis looming in every corner, and a staff that knows how to mix drinks. I suggest you have a rum barrel to begin with. MMMM-mmm– GOOD!
- Based in Ohio, the mission of the Fraternal Order of Moai is to serve as the premier fraternal organization and social network for all men and women interested in tiki culture and the Polynesian pop era.
- Gecko’z South Sea arts had started in 1998 by Oahu carver and sculptor Gecko. Born and raised in the islands, he also lived in southern California for about 10 years off and on. Gecko started carving wood tikis in Polynesian designs from Marquesas, Tahiti, Rapa Nui, New Zealand and Hawaii. Since then he has transferd his creativity into a incredible ceramic art career creating some of the Hawaiian islands craziest glaze techniques. Gecko has designed and sculpted some highly sought after collectible limited edition tiki mugs, Polynesian design vessels and custom one of a kind ceramics proudly made in Hawaii since 2004. His work has been published in various books and magazines from Japan to the mainland USA. His studio is located in beautiful Makakilo.
- Located on NE Broadway, in the former space of Thatch Tiki Bar, Hale Pele offers a list of classic exotic cocktails made with the finest ingredients and craft methods, as well as a list of “New Wave Tropicals”, featuring modern spirits & liqueurs. Paired with these world class drinks is a robust food menu featuring tasty meat skewers, guava jam on Hawaiian bread, and sesame seasoned edamame for starters. The owner, Blair Reynolds, is the founder of locally made B.G.Reynolds’ Hand-Crafted Syrups, and is a frequent lecturer at Tales of the Cocktail, Portland Cocktail Camp, and the Great American Distillers Festival. He’s also an all around great guy.
- Heather Watts illuminates a dark paradise that twists the imagination. Unified by threads of humor, faith and fatalism, her work explores the inviolable relationships between complimentary opposites: life, death, fantasy and reality. Tikis figure in much of her work.
- This is the biggest overall polynesian pop directory out there. It has categorized lists of almost everything. They bill themselves as, “a personal Rapa Nui (Easter Island) on the vast digital Pacific.”
- Mission Tiki, a tiki-themed drive-in, is the recently remodelled version of a drive-in that opened in 1956. Tiki Diablo (Danny Gallardo) created the decorations and it looks fantastic. It combines two of StarvingWriter’s favorite things…film and Tiki!
- Based in Portland, Oregon, Munktiki is a manufacturer of high-end Tiki Mugs and other oddities.
- This place is a giant warehouse dedicated to tiki decoration. Bob and Leroy have been running this business for 50 years and are tiki carvers extraordinaire. You can also rent decorations and tiki poles for your backyard luaus.
- This site offers a way to display your tiki mug collection online. View the collections of others or look up individual mugs and average E-bay auction prices. Additionally, I have the honor of being site administrator for Ooga-Mooga, which means I try to keep templates updated for new mugs, and generally do the day-to-day gardening around the site. For questions about the architecture of the site or membership payments, you still need to talk to Humuhumu. My personal collection is listed under Trader Tom.
- Check out my playlists, especially the one on writing which has several screenwriting focused interviews.
- Today, when exotica gets discussed, it’s invariably the music of Les Baxter, Yma Sumac, Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman that is invoked. These are figurehead artists of the ’50s and ’60s space-age generation: Baxter the magus of lush jungle tone poems, Lyman and Denny the cool-toned Polynesian jazz exponents, Sumac the mysterious, ululating chanteuse of the Andes. Among them, hit singles like “Quiet Village,” “Taboo” and “Virgin of the Sun God” exemplified the post-War exotica phenomenon, the matching albums and album covers – lurid displays of color and flesh – encapsulating a dark continent fantasia that wound its way to millions of Middle American console turntables. There was nothing remotely authentic about Les Baxter’s The Ritual of the Savage or Martin Denny’s Afro-Desia. Exotica was a piquant, sometimes indiscriminate, potpourri of influences, themes, and motifs, and none of it ultimately diverged much from Western popular forms. In most cases – Sumac perhaps being the exception – the artists’ connections to the faraway lands they paid homage to were marginal. In summoning its desert oases or tiki-besotted, bare-breasted paradises, exotica was nothing if not imaginative, though. Set against tableaux of lush strings, punctuated by bird calls, made to shimmer and dance with Afro-Cuban percussion, vibraphones, and mad jungle flutes, it was music manufactured to take the suburban classes to five o’clock dreamland. Eradicated by the Beatles and the rise of rock, rendered moribund, if not somehow unsavory, by the political and social awareness of the ’60s, exotica was forgotten in subsequent decades. It took a post-modern generation of record collectors, hipsters, and cultural cognoscenti to seize upon exotica in the 1980s and ’90s, subordinating Cold War-era paradise garden fantasies to a broader, revised nostalgia for the post-War decades.
- Tiki for your iPod. Exotica, Polynesian & Lounge music. Featuring rare and vintage recordings from yesterday and today. Join your host, DigiTiki, as the record lazily spins on the phonograph and we sip mai tais in our own private palm tree oasis.
- The Tikiyaki Orchestra is a musical experience unlike any other today. Utilizing a unique combination of sounds…smooth, mellow vibraphone, twanging, reverb-drenched surf guitar, pulsating theater organ, lilting Hawaiian steel guitar, bongos, congas, and an arsenal of exotic percussion from around the world, all set against the sounds of the ocean and jungle. The Tikiyaki Orchestra transports the audience to a place and time when Cantonese food was “exotic cuisine” and people escaped the mundane with the aid of strong, sweet rum-based cocktails served in tiki mugs with little colorful umbrellas.
- The Tonga Hut is a North Hollywood neighborhood bar that holds the distinction of being L.A.’s oldest Tiki bar still in operation. The Tonga Hut first opened its doors in 1958 by brothers Ace & Ed Libby. Today much of the original decor still remains, including bamboo, pecky cedar walls, a kidney-shaped drop ceiling, fountains, and Tikis. Enter the dimly-lit Tonga Hut, settle into a booth or sidle up to the bar and enjoy an exotic cocktail that will bring you back to an era long gone. This is the closest Tiki Bar to the StarvingWriter. Now, there is also a second Tonga Hut in Palm Springs as well.
- Tiki Caliente is an annual Tiki event based in Palm Springs, CA.
- Mahalo! This is a great place to search for events in your area or have discussions with other people interested in polynesian pop culture. The best resources for tiki enthusiasts on the Internet.
- Based in San Clemente, California, Tiki Farm is one of the leading makers of Tiki Mugs today.
- Tiki Oasis is the largest and longest running Tiki Event on planet earth. A family produced event by Otto and Baby Doe von Stroheim of Tiki News Magazine, the Tiki Oasis is the Tiki community’s annual reunion! Guests have the opportunity to honor historic sites and celebrate all aspects of Tiki Style.
- Bosko is one of the most celebrated Tiki carvers and Tiki mug makers. His works are instantly recognizable, expertly crafted, and evince a deep appreciation for Tiki history.
- A highly regarded tiki bar in Los Angeles. Tiki-Ti has 86 tropical drinks to offer. The bartenders are true mixologists. The place is extremely tiny and can get pretty packed, but it’s worth it.
Wacko/Soap Plant/La Luz de Jesus Gallery
- This place is fantastic. It has a bookstore of unusual titles and caters to comic book culture, tiki, lowbrow and pop surrealist art. They have a selection of Tiki Farm mugs to purchase, often have gallery showings, and are just a short walk or drive from the Tiki-Ti Bar.