Tommy Cooper says "get thee to a Fezzery!"

Pop on the hat with the tassel and come along for a night of mysterious fez-tivities and fez fun.

Sip on the delicious Desert Sand and Camel Hump cocktails and immerse yourself into a world of fez exotica.

8pm Friday 10th Fezbruary at Tiki Lounge and Bar, 327 Swan Street, Richmond.

For those looking for inspiration, what’s this?  Is that the entirety of the Laurel and Hardy Classic  ”Sons of the Desert” on YouTube?  Don’t mind if I do!!

For those not fortunate enough to own a fez of their own and looking for a source of fine, embroidered velvet Fezzes, might we recommend our favourite Fez Emporium, the one and only Fez-o-Rama?  Below are a couple of favourites from their range, but we highly recommend jumping on their site and browsing their wares.

One of our bartending alumni, is planning a Melbourne “Fez-up” on Friday the 25th of February (hereafter known as “Fez-bruary”).  For those not in the know, a Fez up is an informal gathering of individuals with a shared love of the wonderfully brim-less head wear named after the town of Fez in the Middle East.  We ask all Melbournian Fez Appreciators to dust off your tassles and make your way down to Tiki Lounge and Bar at 327 Swan Street, Richmond.  We plan on throwing up a video montage of Fezzes throughout the ages.

Fez-tivities kick off at 7pm on Friday 25th of Fez-bruary.  Don’t forget that it is Fez Friday (That’s #FezFriday on the Twitterz).

For those who have yet to own a Fez, our favourite purveyors of Fezzes are the good folks at www.fez-o-rama.com (the image in this post represents some of their work – the “Fez” Fez).

Hope to see you there!   If you’re planning to come along, be sure to give us a shout at www.twitter.com/tikibarmelb using the “#Fezbruary” hashtag (don’t forget to hit up the Fezmonger from Fez-o-Rama too!)

A good friend of the bar and local Tiki connoisseur known as the “Careless Navigator” is organising a get-together for Melbournian Tikiphiles and Polynesiacs at none other than our humble bar in Richmond. If you’re one of the Clan, we’d like to extend the invitation on Careless Navigator’s behalf to join these good folk for a Mai Tai or two!

The details are -
Time: 7pm onwards
Date: Saturday May 8th 2010
Attire: Beachcomber casual (aloha-wear optional)

Here’s a handy Facebook Event link!

The Navigator is one of Australia’s movers and shakers when it comes to Tiki Culture and runs a fantabulous Tiki website with an Australian flavour at www.carelessnavigator.com. One need only spend a few moments on his site to see CN’s hardcore Tiki credentials – He’s in with Tiki luminaries such as Marcus Thorn, Martin Cate, Our mate Koop Kooper from the Cocktail Nation Podcast, Beachbum Berry and the good folk from Tiki Farm. The site is full of awesome Tiki stuff and well worth a bookmark or RSS subscription!

Hope to see heaps of fellow Tiki tragics turn up – we know you’re out there…

Comic from the most excellent xkcd.com

Sexy huh?  hold’s something like 180 bottles and pleases the bar staff no-end.

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.

Be sure to check out the list!

Cheers,

Kev

Also, will duck hunt work on a projector?

Your help kindly appreciated.

Love,
Staff

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.

Cheers,

Kev