All this talk of the current renovation has had me reminiscing about how the bar used to look.
When I first came on board as Bartender almost two years ago, the bar was quite modest. The decor was there, but we certainly had to do a lot of work to get the bar to be the functional high quality cocktail making machine it is now.
Just to put it in perspective, the piece in the first picture used to stand in front of the bottles and it is the bar upon which I used to make drinks.
It’s very cute and retro, and now has pride of place in our “bachelor pad” lounge area near the stairs, but not very functional for cocktails. The first Christmas I worked at Tiki, we closed for renovations, and designed and built the monster bar that now dominates the venue (seen below).
The bar is absolutely magnificent, and functions like a dream. We have two stations, various fridges and freezers, and an extensive list of interesting spirits to play with. The construction of the bar was a turning point for this humble venue, and I still love it to pieces. Dave and Di have done an amazing job of building this place from nothing into the tropical wonderland it is now, and I am grateful that they let me play behind the bar.
Cheers,
Kev
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January 16th, 2008 at 4:25 pm - Edit
Any plans to expand your opening hours once the renovation is complete? A lot of the local bartenders I’ve spoken with this week would love to stop by for a visit, but they’re all working on Friday and Saturday night.
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:51 am - Edit
We’re toying with the idea of having an industry night for the guys who haven’t been able to drop in. There’s a definite buzz about Tiki amongst the bartenders in this town – every bar seems to hold a Tiki party sooner or later – We’ll put a post up here and invite all and sundry if we have an early weeknight event.
At the moment there are some dance classes during most weeknights, so opening the bar might not work on these nights, but having an industry night is certainly something we’d love to do at some stage.
Kev