J()by Bednar

I've been asked many times about my fascination with the Tiki sub-culture.  It's a bit hard to quantify exactly why I'm so fascinated by it, but there are a few aspects...  

First, the Tiki bar itself was from a time when bars created cocktails, rather than stock up on someone else's merchandise.  Yes, I don't mean they had stills out back, I am aware all bars sell someone else's products, but the Tiki bar was about the created cocktail and environment of escapism, not, "Hey, I'll have a Bud Lite!"  These were bars who's purpose was to create alchemical concoctions.  Go into most bars today and try ordering a Zombie or even a Mai Tai and unless it's a beer they have on tap, chances are they are lost or hand you some sugar syrup crap drink.  It's a lost art and in my opinion, a lost tradition and the real purpose of a bar.  Today, bars are a watered down shadow of what they once were.  I'll pay over $10 for a great Tiki cocktail... but $9 for a Gin and Tonic?!  The dive bars that maintain $3-4 prices are more reasonable... but the mass chains that over charge and under deliver are an abomination.  

Second, Tiki is the only time when a single cocktail was cherished so much that it was an art form in itself and deemed of such worth that a single and unique mug was created to serve that one cocktail in.  Many bars back in the day would server over 50 cocktails, each with their own glass or mug.  Imagine the cost and supplies needed just to pay tribute.  THAT was dedication.  Like sushi, the presentation of the cocktail was as important as the cocktail itself.  Everything about Tiki was a show... and you were a voyager on an exotic journey.

The history of the Tiki bar starts with a man named Ernest Raymond Beaumont-Gantt who was, as the rumor went, a bootlegger who opened a tiny 25 seat bar in 1934, near the corner of Hollywood Blvd and McCadden Place.  Nobody knew much about the real Ernest, and that's just how he liked it.  He legally changed his name to Donn Beach and quickly made a name for himself with the Hollywood crowd inventing amazing cocktails like the Zombie.  In 1937, he built Don the Beachcomber, a Polynesian themed escapist wonderland.  Not that anyone knew much about the islands, but Donn had collected numerous artifacts on his own personal voyages (which had been used in numerous movies by Hollywood patrons familiar with his collection), and created a view of the pagan islands that lured Americans in.  After WWII, a passion for the exotic continued and the Tiki theme, also known as Polynesian Pop, exploded.  Everything became decorated with bamboo, large wood carvings and volumes of rum pouring from volcanoes.  It was an interesting time in American culture where Tiki Americana embraced a culture that was almost completely made up, though like a TV movie, "based on real events".  In many ways, or rather in all ways, Tiki is an insult to the cultures they are based on.  Go America!

That would be another reason I enjoy it so much.  Reckless over-indulgence and insult to truth for the sake of entertainment and a swank vibe.  Rockin' that fez, with cocktail in hand, sunglasses on in a dark room and listening to jazzy exotica music... ah!  Nothing more relaxing.