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

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!

Here are some scenes from last year’s shuffle…

Hi Tiki fans!

I thought now might be a good time to broadcast a timely reminder that Tiki Lounge and Bar now sports a brand new air-conditioner.  Come down and escape the brutal Melbourne heat and sip on ice-cold Mai Tais and Mojitos.  Alternatively try one of our “Cone of Silence” cocktails – complete with a straw encased completely in a cone of ice!

In searching for an image for this post I came across the one I used on a cool blog of retro stuff from Populuxe Books.  Check it out!

 Well Tiki-sters,

It’s come to the end of another great year for Tiki Lounge and Bar.  We’d like to thank you all for your support during the year, and invite you all to join us for an awesome 2009!   We’ll be shutting down for Christmas with our last night tonight (Dec 20th) and reopening again on January 9th.   In the new year expect some great new stuff from us – we’ve got loads of events in the pipeworks with our all new menu (which we will announce properly soon) and some great bands as well as more of the quirky cabaret you’ve come to expect from TikiLAB (someone at the bar may have even rediscovered the joy of firetwirling, so be forewarned!).

Things to look forward to in the new year include our new menu, a Bettie Page Tribute night some time in the early part of the new year (Rest in Peace) our great new air-conditioner (tropical drinks without the tropical climate), an excellent bar food menu currently being developed in the laboratory, and our new bar service night on a Thursday when we will be putting on some great events for locals and loyal regulars.

Of course we’ve had some great highlights from this year in no particular order:

Inviting a bunch of Zombies from the Melbourne Zombie Shuffle back to the bar for Cocktails and Brains

Filling the venue with Mini-skirted, knee-high-booted GoGo dancers in Cages for Mondo-a-Go-Go

The drink that “The Boss” would drink – our very own Bruce Mangosteen cocktail.

Our hilarious tribute to particle physics – the Large Hadron Colada

The schlock horror stylings of Cinema Exotica

All the great bands who played at TikiLAB throughout the year (special mention to Mariachi Los Romanticos for their efforts on Day of the Dead – both with the music they played and the lovely ladies they danced the night away with after their show!)

And who can forget Purplo’s (the honey cocktail sausage) and our short lived attempt at Cocktails and Snags.

If you have any photos of any misspent nights at the bar, please feel free to email them to photos@tikiloungeandbar.com and we’ll put them up in our gallery.

Once again we’ve all had a ball with all our customers this year and we hope to be able to see some old (and new) faces in the new year!

Merry Christmas,

The Crew at TikiLAB.

Image stolen from picture-book.com

Mexican Day of the Dead – Dia de los Muertos

This Saturday November 1st is the Mexican Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos).  Tiki Lounge and Bar has asked Melbourne’s Premier Mariachi Band “Mariachi los Romanticos” (www.mariachilosromanticos.com.au/) to help them celebrate this special day, along with our very own Cabaret tribute to this Mexican tradition.

Our Barstaff will be serving up classic Margaritas all night with fine premium Jose Cuervo Tequila and fresh lime juice, as well as the spicy tomato juice-based Mexican specialty Sangrita to be served with shots of aged 1800 Tequila at the bar.  We will also be serving a limited supply of Sol Cerveza (maybe even with a slice of lime if you ask very nicely).

Hope to see you all there!

Festivities begin around 8pm – get in quick to try our Sangrita…before the bar staff polish it all off!

Check out the following video of Mariachi Los Romanticos on “The Footy Show”!

Cheers,

Tiki Bar.

This weekend we will be renaming our Pina Colada cocktail to “Large Hadron Colada”.

If you have too many, your night may become a black hole.

For those who manage to drink their Large Hadron Colada at 99.99998% of the speed of light, the next on is on the house!

Please feel free to continue the bad physics jokes in the comments section…

UPDATE:

My mate Mike has better photoshop skills than me

..don’t ask about it!  You have been warned…

Hiya all!

I just had to share this t-shirt design which I found on threadless.com.  I thought it would be a good opportunity to introduce you to our most popular drink…

At the Tiki Bar we serve a famous Don the Beachcomber classic cocktail called a Zombie.  The Zombie is an excellent example of a cocktail made with lots of fresh juice and premium rums with a lot of complex flavours.  The recipe we use is considered by many experts in the field to be close to what Don’s original Zombie Cocktail would have been – with passionfruit, lime, lemon, angostura bitters and lots of big, bold rums.  We top ours off with a flaming passionfruit husk representing the “brains” of the Zombie, to which we add a magical voodoo powder made from Chicken bone and Human blood (no, really!   Trust me, I’m a bartender!).   The voodoo powder – sent to us by a witch-woman living on a small french colonial tropical island in the indian ocean called “Reunion Island” – is dropped into the live flame which throws up a tempest of sparks (often burning the hair off the poor bartender’s knuckles).

We are pleased to say that despite the “voodoo powder” this drink is vegan safe – the chicken was also vegan.

 UPDATE!  This shirt is now only available at redbubble.com.  See our followup post.

It’s the old “hold an event at the bar” trick!

Join us at the Tiki Bar this Saturday from 8pm onwards to celebrate the release of the new Get Smart movie! Take in a cabaret show whilst enjoying our new “Cone of Silence” cocktail – made with the most exotic and excellent 42 Below Feijoa Vodka, lime juice and Chartreuse.  Dress in “secret agent” costume or bring your Get Smart ticket stub for special offers throughout the night!  Email info@tikiloungeandbar.com for more info!  Steve Carrell or someone who may or may not look a little bit like him in certain light may be in attendance*!  We may or may not be playing old school Get Smart episodes which may or may not include favourite characters such as Hymie, Larabee, and Siegfried!

Be sure that you don’t “miss it by that much”.

Kev

*Tiki Lounge and Bar does not guarantee that someone who may or may not look a little bit like Steve Carrell in certain light will be attending the event.

Ice is back with a brand new invention!

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?).

Cheers,

Kev