Hi all,

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

Hi Tiki-sters!

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

Sorry about the late notice, but I must tell you about the amazing Cabaret show we are hosting tomorrow!

Tiki Lounge and Bar will be engulfed by the smokey, risque and exotic burlesque-inspired cabaret stylings of Mz Josephine Fisher (http://www.josephinefisher.com/) as accompanied by the laidback lounge/exotica sounds of the Kahuna Daddies.  We’ve been lucky enough to host the Kahuna Daddies before at our humble bar, and Mz Josephine’s reputation preceeds her… just look at her website and try to tell me that this doesn’t sound compelling:

“Mz Josephine’s tendency to reveal more than absolutely necessary has made her a popular entertainer with her customers. Regaling them with saucy songs, anecdotes, dildo dancing, striptease, fabulist story telling and tales of love gone kinky. Mz Josephine was invented to explore the politics of pleasure and to encourage her audiences to be curious about their own.”

We’d love to see you there!  Show should kick off around 9:30pm.  No cover charge! (woo!)

Cheers,

Tiki Lounge and Bar

In the lead-up to producing the new Cocktail menu we have been trying our hand at creating some new and exciting signature drinks. During the course of this whirlwind of creativity an uneasy realisation has dawned upon us… we tend to invent mostly pink drinks. Of our six most recent inventions, 5 drinks have been some sort of rosy shade of pink. This is not to say that the drinks are particularly feminine. Lord no! One of them is called a Skull and Crossbones for heaven’s sake! It may have something to do with the ingredients that have been finding their way into the bar, or it may have something to do with an unconscious desire to match the predominantly red decor of the bar, but the frightening truth is there for all to see; pink drinks are definitely on the rise in the land of Tiki Lounge and Bar…

One drink that we’re particularly proud of at the moment is called the “Bruce Mangosteen” which has as its primary ingredient mangosteen juice and is named after “the Boss” himself. Mangosteen is one of these fancy and exotic Asian fruits from around Malaysia which is becoming very popular as a health drink. By all reports mangosteen fruit is packed with antioxidents. Personally I don’t have a problem with oxidents and I believe it is a worrying trend that people are focussing so much ill feeling towards oxidents, but being anti-oxident appears to be the will of the people, and who am I to stand against popular opinion?

The Bruce Mangosteen is a pretty complex drink and we’re quite proud of it. It’s certainly a “different” flavour, which brings together the vaguely medicinal taste of the mangosteen with a nice floral London Dry Gin, a citrus and ginger liqueur made with an agricole rhum from Reunion Island, and a dash of aromatic maraschino liqueur garnished with dried juniper berries.

Unfortunately the Bruce Mangosteen is only going to be available for a limited time, once we’re out of Mangosteen Juice it’s gone. Until then the drink will definitely be available so please be sure to drop in and ask for one! You won’t be disappointed, and you’ll also be doing your bit to drive out the undesirable oxident element in the community!

Cheers,

Kev