Good friend of the bar and international cocktail evangelist Angus Winchester recently presented a talk at Tales of the Cocktail and the Museum of the American Cocktail concerning the list of bars that one should see before kicking the bucket.
The list was about 71 strong and can be found on the New York Times website. We were delighted and humbled to see that good old Tiki Lounge and Bar was one of five Australian Bars that made it on to the list. We’re in some great company sitting alongside Melbourne cocktail institutions 1806 and Der Raum.
My day job has recently taken me out into the wilderness that is Ballarat (about 1.5 hours out of Melbourne for any visitors who might read this). On one of my jaunts to check out the local lunching establishments I found myself drawn to a very colourful looking cafe, complete with a row of pink flamingos out the front. Upon peering through the window I KNEW I had to stop in to investigate.
The Krooze in Cafe is on Main Road in Ballarat right near the University and IBM’s fancy new data centre. It’s filled to the brim with absolutly wonderful 50s retro diner-style furniture, and the colours are garish (in a good way) with pinups and 50’s throwback posters in every direction. There is a distinct Tiki flavour to the place too – a good sized bamboo shrine to the Tiki Gods grabs your attention as soon as you enter which is adorned with orignal exotica albums – Martin Denny and Les Baxter are on proud display.
The people here are salt-of-the-earth friendly kinda folk – while I was there I spent some time chatting with one of the owners, Alan, about Tiki, hotrodding, burlesque and pin-ups (part of your complete breakfast of retro-cool pop culture!). This place should definitely form a key part of any road trip for retro/tiki/hotrod types venturing out into the wilds of Victoria. It’s a place where you can curl up and relax with a retro book or magazine under a beautiful SHAG print on some incredibly comfortable 50s couches and sip away on a coffee or hot chocolate with some nice, tasty and honest diner-style food. This place is definitely worth a bit of a look-in.
Sorry about the late notice, but I must tell you about the amazing Cabaret show we are hosting tomorrow!
Tiki Lounge and Bar will be engulfed by the smokey, risque and exotic burlesque-inspired cabaret stylings of Mz Josephine Fisher (http://www.josephinefisher.com/) as accompanied by the laidback lounge/exotica sounds of the Kahuna Daddies. We’ve been lucky enough to host the Kahuna Daddies before at our humble bar, and Mz Josephine’s reputation preceeds her… just look at her website and try to tell me that this doesn’t sound compelling:
“Mz Josephine’s tendency to reveal more than absolutely necessary has made her a popular entertainer with her customers. Regaling them with saucy songs, anecdotes, dildo dancing, striptease, fabulist story telling and tales of love gone kinky. Mz Josephine was invented to explore the politics of pleasure and to encourage her audiences to be curious about their own.”
We’d love to see you there! Show should kick off around 9:30pm. No cover charge! (woo!)
So Kevin Rudd has kindly given you a bunch of money, and you’ve got a few mates that need a “perk up” in these troubling economic times. Why not be a hero and shout them to a night at the Tiki Bar? To take advantage of celebrate the Australian Government’s stimulus package, Tiki Lounge and Bar is offering some special function/party packages for 20-30 people.
Package 1 – A Good Start to the Night – $600 – 20 people
This package gets you two “punch size” versions of some of our premium cocktails – An oversized version of our Pirate’s Grog recipe which we call “Davy Jones’ Locker” and is served out of a Treasure Chest, and another drink which is our version of a Pearl Diver Punch which is served out of a giant clam-shell. These two punches will give you and 20 of your closest friends about 2 drinks each.
Package 2 – Settle in for a Comfortable Evening – $900 – 30 people
This package is suited to groups of around 30 people and gets you about 2 serves of punch each (as in package 1) as well as a spread of food – gourmet Pizzas and toasted sandwiches, Esquidillas (tasty little avocado, tomato and cheese-filled tortilla snacks) and a tropical fruit platter.
If you have more specific needs please feel free to get in touch to discuss options. Tiki Lounge and Bar is a great venue for parties, birthdays, corporate function, product launches and so on. If you want to offer a little bit of “something different” for your friends, colleagues or clients then Tiki Lounge and Bar is the place to do it! We also have access to a range of different entertainment options from bands to cabaret performances. Give us a call (9428 4336) or email (info@tikiloungeandbar.com) to discuss your needs.
Well that snuck up on us! The Melbourne Zombie Shuffle is on again for 2009. For those who aren’t aware of this annual event, it’s basically an excuse for Zombie Afficionados to don Zombie costumes and terrorise the good peoples of Melbourne in a good old-fashioned flash mob. The shuffle kicks off this year at 1pm on Saturday May 9th starting at Carlton Gardens
The Facebook group for the Shuffle can be found here.
As strong supporters of Zombie rights, the Tiki Bar will be offering Zombie related cultural entertainment all night (movies on the projector, maybe some Resident Evil or Left 4 Dead… depends on whether Kev is up for donating his Xbox for the evening…). We’ll offering drink specials on the night ($4 off Zombie cocktails) to those who attend as Zombies (more out of fear than anything else), so please feel free to dress up!
Just a quick note to let y’all know that the bar will be closed this weekend due to the ANZAC day public holiday along with licensing hoo-haa.
To make up for that, please accept these YouTube videos of the recent Mondo-a-Go-Go event held at the Tiki Bar as a gesture of thanks for your continued support.
I’ve recently come across a new website devoted to the history and culture of Olde Melbourne Towne called “Macabre Melbourne“.
As the title might suggest, Macabre Melbourne is peppered with a collection of writings about Melbourne’s dark past. Melb0urne is a proud city that embraces all aspects of its personality – be they lofty successes of humanity or less savoury aspects of the soul. Where else do you find such a collection of bars that will happily brag of being housed in an ex-brothel or sweatshop? Macabre Melbourne not only explores the historical aspects of Melbourne, but draws a clear connection between these colourful events, places and people and how they influence the city in the modern day. The site also contains reviews of Bars, Restaurants and venues of cultural significance in and around the city (not our bar yet, but we’ve certainly invited the good people of Macabre Melbourne to drop in coz we like their style).
If you want to feel connected to the lifeblood of the city in which you live, you can do a lot worse than tapping the vein that is www.macabremelbourne.com.
Cheers,
Kev.
* I took the photo somewhere in Lonsdale Street. Let it not be said that Melbourne is not photogenic.
Once again the Great Instrumental Asylum will be descending upon Tiki Lounge and Bar to spread their surf guitar driven gospel to the cocktail-drinking congregation in Richmond on Saturday April 18th.
Doors open at 6 – musos start when they’re good and ready!
$8 cc at Tiki Lounge and Bar – 327 Swan Street, Richmond.
Those crazies from Tiki Robot are holding another amazing 60’s themed Mondo-a-Go-Go evening at Tiki Lounge and Bar this Saturday night (April 4th)! Be on hand for all the beats, boots and ‘bots (robots that is) starting from around 8pm!
Here’s the low-down:
Mondo-a-Go-Go is on again at the Tiki Lounge and Bar, 327 Swan Street Richmond 8pm $8 – Amazing visuals, Yuri the Robot, Bagadelic DJ, Cage Dancers and the best music to Go-Go by. Oh and fabulous cocktails in the amazing experience that is the Tiki Bar and Lounge.
So Kevin Rudd has kindly given you a bunch of money, and you’ve got a few mates that need a “perk up” in these troubling economic times. Why not be a hero and shout them to a night at the Tiki Bar? To 
lde Melbourne Towne called “
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