June 29, 2023
On my NYC-area bucket list was Cellar 335, a hip tiki bar and restaurant in downtown Jersey City, New Jersey. Tiki decor is just one part of why I seek tiki establishments. The design is an art, then comes the creative and fun libations… Elbows on the table, ready to Read more…
February 21, 2023
The Shady Dell Trailer Park in Bisbee, Arizona.
January 30, 2023
Well, January is over… and the short but mighty month of February ushers us close to spring like a time machine. Because it’s always gone in a flash. Before we dive in, some outtakes from January 2023’s archive in my three favorite boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, & Staten Island. Manhattan On Read more…
January 23, 2023
I have to go to all tiki bars… and I’ve been to a lot. Many of them historic landmarks in their own right: The Tonga Room in San Francisco, Frankie’s Tiki Room in Las Vegas, Kowloon in Massachusetts, Tiki Ti and Tonga Hut in Los Angeles, Foundation in Milwaukee (not Read more…
October 1, 2022
With an alluring and authentic vintage tiki kitsch, Jade Island is right up my alley. . . and perhaps the alleys of the many visitors also basking in tropical fun during our visit. As you step in you forget about it being in a strip mall next to the huge Read more…
July 28, 2022
You might have forgotten since I told you in 2018, but I have a thing for tiki bars. Real ones. Ones that opened long ago. There are two in Los Angeles and I was happy to have hit them both, along with a new one which, of course, was not Read more…
December 11, 2021
It’s my intention to visit all relevant tiki bars across the states… the vintage ones, born in the late 1950’s. With some stops nearby, I knew getting to Kowloon in Saugus, Massachusetts would be a priority. I didn’t know it’d be swarmed with partygoers, making it challenging to embrace the Read more…
October 9, 2021
Though the Upper West Side’s Tiki Chick isn’t my kind of tiki bar (“my” meaning grimy, with retro credibility, not on the Upper West Side, etc) it is a version of a tiki bar, a kind I just have to embrace given my coordinates. And they’ve got a vegan sandwich Read more…
July 5, 2021
A reigning Favorite Thing, I go nuts for tiki bars. Vintage decor, kitsch, seediness, decorative and impactful cocktails,,, and in the case of the legendary Frankie’s Tiki Room in Las Vegas–gambling, smoking, and lots of couples making out. Ah, a fantastic energy that is so nostalgic to me.
