Hiya!

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.

Cheers,

Kev

Hiya!

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).

Cheers,
Kev

Hiya,

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!

This Friday we will be starting our weekly Friday afternoon Sausage Sizzle! It’s a very simple concept – drop by for a drink (at happy hour prices!) between 5 – 7pm on a Friday afternoon, and we will reward you with a freshly sizzled sausage! We might even throw in some bread and tomato sauce! Ain’t that generous? Sadly we won’t have any “Purplo’s” available even though they ARE the honey Cocktail Sausage (it’s amazing what you find on Google Image Search these days).

The address again for those of you who might have missed it up there in the page banner is 327 Swan Street, Richmond. Look for our snazzy new Matusalem cafe screens!

Hope to see you all there!

Cheers,

Kev.

Hey Tiki-philes!

Next weekend we will have a great band playing. They call themselves the “Surf Bossa Band” an apt name which more or less describes their style of music. Expect some heavenly lounge music from these folk coupled with our exquisite Cocktails surrounded by the island inspired decor of a by-gone era of decadence.

Much fun will be had by all!

There will be a reasonable cover charge of $8 for the night, and expect the band to kick-off somewhere in the vicinity of 9pm.

Cheers!

Kev

Please note: Bossa Nova Beer will not be served on the night – it’s just a cool picture. How rad would it be if we could get Bossa Nova beer?

Aloha!

We wanted to bring your attention to a great little art show that is opening here in Melbourne that is being run by “friend of the bar” and Tiki enthusiast Rohan Pugh. The show is called “Kustom Island” and will feature the works of Tiki Artist THOR (one of our favourites at the Tiki Bar – that’s his work at the bottom of this post), Ian McCausland (known for designing psychedelic festival and tour posters for rock acts such as the Rolling Stones and The Who), pinstriper Doug Dorr, and Stephen Prictor (a local Saint Kilda artist and darling of the local pub music scene).

It looks like a doozy of a show and it will run for a fortnight.

Where: Kuston Lane Gallery 8 Lutton Lane Hawthorn.

When: Opening Sunday May 4 (May the fourth be with you!) til Sunday May 18.

For further info email fauxpainteffects@bigpond.com.

Cheers,

Kev

Hey Guys,

I was just poking around on my good mate van’s flickr stream and found a pretty nice photo of the illuminated signs above the door to the Tiki Bar.  This may assist you in finding the bar at night.

Hi all,

Just a quick note to let you all know that the best damn Tiki Bar in Australia is having its grand reopening this Saturday following our annual renovation!

MARVEL… At just how orange the stairs to the toilet really are!

DELIGHT… In the exquisite craftsmanship of our newly thatched kitchen hut!

WONDER… When the front door will finally be complete!

Be sure to come down this Australia Day – Saturday 26th from 6pm onwards. Happy Hour 6-7pm – $10 Cocktails!

Cheers, Kev.

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

Renovation work on the Tiki Bar rolls on!

The stairs to the toilet (bathroom for American readers with sensitive ears) are now for the most part complete! They have gone from… whatever the hell colour they were before … to a beautiful bright orange – I hesitate to call it “Jetstar Orange”.

This photo demonstrates the new hue of the staircase:

In this photo, you can see an excellent handpainted mural which currently lives on the stairs:

You really must visit and see the splendor of the new toilet for yourself. There has been talk of a grand opening, which will most likely include an original sonnet to the staircase composed especially for the event. Not to be missed!

As a reward for reading to the end of this post, here is a photo of our resident dish-pig helping out with the painting. Note, this is the outfit he normally wears when washing dishes – it’s necessary for the alcohol fumes and citrus acid

Cheers,

Kev