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.
I’ve been talking recently to a wonderfully dark Vancouver-based artist named Megan Majewski. Her work is incredibly dark and at the same time is strangely cute, but gives you a chill in the same way that the works of Tim Burton and Jhonen Vasquez do.
Megan reports that Tiki is alive and well in Vancouver; in addition to her own interpretations of “horror/tiki”, the most excellent video podcast Tiki Bar TV is also filmed in Vancouver (I <3 Lala!). Megan’s painting work can be found along with her 3d animation and some other merchendise (including a Tiki T-shirt and Tiki buttons!) at www.deadkittie.com. Check it out! With any luck someone will pick up her work and exhibit it in Australia (Outre, Kustom Lane… I’m looking at you…)
The New York Times recently published an article about the reemergence of blenders in the modern Cocktail bar. The blender is something that still has a degree of stigma attached to it for many modern cocktail bartenders thanks to the frozen drink invasion of the 70s and 80s. The New York Times quotes two “friends-of-the-bar” in their article; Beachbum Berry, author of the wildly popular Sippin’ Safari, and Martin Cate, owner of the world leading Tiki bar Forbidden Island in lovely Alameda across the bay from San Francisco.
In an effort to find a fitting image for this post, I found this video by the unexpectedly entertaining Blendtec corporation - be sure to have a look at all their videos - they blend some crazy stuff.
Tiki has long been associated with the fine art of pinstriping. You need only walk into a gallery like Kustom Lane in Hawthorn to see the worlds of Tiki and pinstriping walking hand-in-hand. Poking around the internets recently I came across a most excellent flickr album with a wonderful example of Tiki artwork adorning some form of 4 wheeled transport at a car show. The detail is just amazing:
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.
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.
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