Ok, now that we’ve got that out of our system, lets talk about ice (ice, baby – alright I’m done now).
Tiki Lounge and Bar has recently been experimenting with mankind’s greatest creation (after fire, wind and rain), ICE! We were of course inspired by the tireless research of the man without whom I believe this world would never have rediscovered the joy of a well crafted Tiki Cocktail – Jeff “Beachbum” Berry. Beachbum Berry wrote The Book on Tiki Cocktails (and then for good measure wrote another two, his latest masterwork being the thoroughly entertaining and informative Sippin’ Safari).
In Berry’s books he delves into old cocktail books and the hand-written records of past Tiki mixologists and emerges with wonderfully complex recipes containing secret ingredients and techniques that have been lost in the mists of time. One skill that has been forgotten since the fall of the great Tiki Temples is the manipulation of ice in creating impressive new ways to present drinks. Beachbum Berry’s work has encouraged us to work on recreating some of these effects – one of which is seen in our new Get Smart inspired Cocktail the “Cone of Silence” (pictured). Beachbum Berry has written some kind words about our humble ice sculpting effort over at his “Grog Blog” .
We salute you, Mr Berry! Your work has reinvigorated an entire genre of drinks and is continuing to show us that fun drinks can still be serious (or is it that serious drinks can still be fun?).
Our menu gnomes have been hard at work putting together our exciting new Cocktail Menu concept.
The new menu will be a beautifully illustrated A3 menu in the style of menu common in the middle of last century. Below is a sneak peek at one of the hand illustrated colour effigies of our wonderful tropical drinks. The drink in question is a Zombie :
Don the Beachcomber’s classic Zombie represents all that is great about Tiki Drinks – heaps of great Rum, fresh fruit juices, bold flavours and a bit of showmanship, our Zombie is good old-fashioned fun. Full of four premium Rums, lime, lemon, passionfruit and pineapple, our Zombie is brought to life with a bit of fire and some Voodoo magic… Don’t singe your eyebrows!
The superb illustration was done by friend-of-the-bar Fiona Palmer a gifted Melbourne illustrator and designer. The colouring was done by her partner Mike who is also an illustrator working in graphic design and is responsible for our great tribal tiki logo. The two of them have been dragged kicking and screaming into producing Tiki themed work for us against their will and have embraced the aesthetic with gusto.
Here is a great example of a vintage illustrated Tiki bar menu that I found on display in a Hawaiiana exhibit in Waikiki Beach. Our menu will be like that but better!
As Tiki Lounge and Bar’s Chief Bartender, I was recently invited to be interviewed by Koop Kooper, the “Lounge Lothario” on his excellent Cocktail Nation podcast. If you haven’t already checked out this great Australian podcast focussed on all things lounge, then get along to the website at cocktailnation.podomatic.com. We chatted about the ins and outs of Tiki cocktail making, Beachbum Berry’s wonderful book on Tiki drink history Sippin’ Safari, and our recent Cinema Exotica event.
A few weeks back Co-owner of Tiki Lounge and Bar, David Backler, appeared on Cocktail Nation. Be sure to check that one out too!
Last night’s Cinema Exotica was an unmitigated success! Many thanks to the Graveyard Tramp (check out his great blog) for delving into the archives and producing some great cinematic entertainment!
I’ve included a photo of our enthralled audience enjoying the b-grade horror feature “Homicidal”, but the barstaff’s vote for best part of the night goes to the incredibly classy and high-brow moving pictures of topless go-go dancers of the 1960s. Very artistic!
If you have photos of the event that you would like to share in our gallery please send them to photos@tikiloungeandbar.com.
We will be holding more of these nights in the near future – Keep your eyes on the event calendar.
We recently received an email in our photos@tikiloungeandbar.com mailbox containing 3 wonderful pictures of some paintings by Melbourne-based artist-on-the-rise Paul Hughes. Paul’s works are fantastically optimistic and nostalgic mixes of, as he says, “Sea faring,Surfing,Tiki Trading and Robot Art” – something like Shag meets the Brady Bunch. Below is one of my favourite pieces featuring a recurring robotic character with a nod to Gilligan’s Island and Lost in Space. Paul’s paintings have been shown at the Frankston Arts Centre, and he can be found lurking around Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/artofpaulhughes.
Thanks for sharing your art, Paul. Hope to see you round the bar some time!
Also, to anyone that has any photos of the bar that you’d like to share in our gallery, please email them to photos@tikiloungeandbar.com and we’ll see to it that they make it on to the gallery page.
We now have a flashy new Flickr album for photos of the bar! You can see the gallery in this here site at http://tikiloungeandbar.com/gallery (also from the “Gallery” link in the navigation bar up the top there) or find us on flickr.
One other thing that we’ve done is set up an email address that you can send your own photos to. If you send an email to photos@tikiloungeandbar.com with a photo attached, it will automatically be added to the Tiki Lounge and Bar album in flickr!
Please share photos of your Tiki Bar experience with us!
On Saturday 24th May, the Tiki Bar will once more be hosting “Cinema Exotica” – an evening of tacky horror and B-grade schlock films of the 20th century.
The feature film will be the 1961 William Castle film “Homicidal” and is going to be presented by friend-of-the-bar Graveyard Tramp one of Melbourne’s well-known experts in all things pulp and pop.
The unique feature of this Psycho-inspired film was a special “Fright Break”, where those who were too frightened to watch the horrific climax were allowed a few minutes to make their way to the Coward’s Corner to sit out the remainder of the film apart from the rest of the audience – no doubt to derision from their fellow film-goers.
The bar will be serving special “horror related” drinks with names like “Blood and Sand” and “Corpse Reviver #2″.
For those technologically inclined, below is a link to the event within Google Calendar (just so you don’t forget).
You may remember me talking about a podcast that I do called SOUSED. Well, earlier this year we shot a video for SOUSED showcasing a number of Melbourne’s prominent cocktail bartenders showing off the face they make when shaking a cocktail – popularly believed to be the face one makes when making love.
Anyway, I thought I’d include part one of the video here coz it features the wonderful Tiki Lounge and Bar! Enjoy!
In Berry’s books he delves into old cocktail books and the hand-written records of past Tiki mixologists and emerges with wonderfully complex recipes containing secret ingredients and techniques that have been lost in the mists of time. One skill that has been forgotten since the fall of the great Tiki Temples is the manipulation of ice in creating impressive new ways to present drinks. Beachbum Berry’s work has encouraged us to work on recreating some of these effects – one of which is seen in our new Get Smart inspired Cocktail the “Cone of Silence” (pictured). Beachbum Berry has written some kind words about our humble ice sculpting effort over at his “Grog Blog” .
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