Tiki bar

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For the Tiki Bar TV podcast, see Tiki Bar TV.

A Tiki Bar is an exotic–themed drinking establishment that serves fancy cocktails, especially rum-based mixed drinks such as the mai tai or the Zombie cocktail. Tiki bars are often defined by their Tiki culture décor which can include "Tiki god" masks and carvings; tapa cloth and tropical fabrics; torches, woven fish traps, and glass floats; Hula girl and palm tree motifs. Beverages are usually served in fanciful ceramic vessels (referred to as "tiki mugs") often garnished with paper cocktail umbrellas, live flowers or plastic animals.

Muted colors, natural exotic materials, real and/or artificial plants and low-wattage lighting add to the exotic ambiance of a tiki bar. Many feature indoor fountains, bamboo fixtures, beach flotsam, woven grass wall-coverings, and panoramic South Pacific murals. Some tiki bars have an entertainment stage for live exotica bands or Polynesian dance floor shows.

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[edit] History

The first tiki bar was named Don the Beachcomber, created in Los Angeles in 1933 by Ernest Gantt (aka Donn Beach). The bar served a wide variety of exotic rum drinks (including the popular Sumatra Kula and Zombie cocktail) and Cantonese dishes, and hosted many artifacts which Gantt had found and picked up on a youthful jaunt through tropical locales. When Gannt was sent to World War II, Don the Beachcomber flourished under his ex-wife's management, turning into a chain with 16 restaurants.

When Gannt returned from the war, he moved to Hawaii and created Waikiki Beach, one of the two canonical bars that frame the tiki bar experience. The bar was drenched in South Pacific ambience, decked in palm trees, tiki masks on the walls, a garden hose that showered a gentle rain on the roof and a myna bird that was trained to shout "Give me a beer, stupid!" The bar was on the beach, lit by tiki torches outside which gave it some of its primitive ambience.

The other canonical bar is called Trader Vic's, and became a prime example of a tiki bar as well, with many of the same accoutrements.

The original Tiki bars flourished for about 30 years, and then fell out of vogue.

[edit] Culture

As of the 1990's, the Tiki culture was unearthed and given a new incarnation, based less on the original tiki culture and more on the kitsch that defined the bars themselves.

[edit] Drinks

Creative rum drinks from the South Pacific are another important facet of the Tiki bar. The secrecy surrounding drinks in the early Tiki bar days rocketed into heights of paranoia, including the removal of labels from the drink bottles. Trader Vic's and Waikiki Beach have an ongoing feud over who first created the world-famous mai tai.

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