Tiki has long been a beloved sub-genre of American culture, revered by those who love retro, irony, carved wooden heads, eccentric glassware and powerful, fruity drinks. All these things come together at the tiki hourse of worship: The tiki bar. Yet tiki bars are few and far between, with many having been torn down or stripped of their grandeur--only a few beloved relics like San Francisco's Tonga Room, Los Angeles' Tiki Ti and Tuscon's Kon Tiki remain.
But there's a new tiki in a town that rides its own undercurrent of retro and irony. Las Vegas now hosts the planet's only 24-hour tiki bar: Frankie's Tiki Room, which offically opens today, December 4.
Frankie's is a lovingly crafted example of authentic tiki style, with woven palm thatching, carved wooden chairs and blowfish lamps, along with one-of-a-kind art and design by tiki titan Bosko and space-age bachelor pad painter Shag, among others.
But, of course, no tiki bar is a true tiki bar without an extensive selection of fruity, sugary, unexpectedly powerful drinks. The menu at Frankie's Tiki Hut goes all out, offering classic rum-and-pineapple tropical beverages like the Mai Tai and the Zombie made with original Don the Beachcomber recipes. There is also an abundance of specially-created cocktails like the Mojito-esque Bearded Clam, the clover-and-hazelnut spiced Jonas Grumby and the Bombora Blast, which combines 151-proof rum with guava-flavored energy drink. The menu categorizes drinks, with a rating of two to five skulls indicating strength, from pleasant libation to lethal concotion. Given the deceptively sweet nature of tiki drinks, it's a big help.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-04-2008 @ 11:50AM
Kitt said...
Tiki + Vegas sounds like a match made in heaven. But surely it's been done before?
If you're in the Bay Area, check out the most awesome (and only) tiki bar in Alameda, Forbidden Island:
http://www.forbiddenislandalameda.com/
Kitt
http://www.kittalog.com
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12-05-2008 @ 12:01AM
ladyscorpio77x said...
Vegas used to have an amazing tiki bar at the Stardust. Then there was the lamented Venus cocktail lounge at the Venetian, a palace of original tiki art to the nth degree, which the casino killed to put a Vivid Video nightclub with holographic porn stars (which lasted for an even shorter length of time). Planet Hollywood opened a Trader Vic's with a single tiki head in it. So, while Vegas and tiki is a perfect match, somehow the relationship never seems to last. But I think it will be otherwise this time...
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