I like my tiki bars dark, really dark and so does Heathen John. John lives in Phoenix and when he decided to build his tiki bar, he wanted to keep it dark because most of the commercial tiki bars are too bright. John had a half acre of land with an old barn and a house on the property. John didn’t just build a tiki bar, he built a Heathen World. What is Heathen World? Keep reading…
What is the tiki scene like where you live?
Heathen John- I live in Phoenix Arizona. Arizona has a history of resorts and hot springs, some with tiki decor. Almost all of that original history is gone. The Undertow is a beautiful newer place and there are a couple others that are not as interesting. The newer places tend to be busy and pricey, so I’m more likely to go to Bikini Lounge, the only vintage tiki bar in town. It’s a dive bar as much as a tiki bar in a grimy old neighborhood popular with artists. I wouldn’t order a fancy drink there, but it’s comfortable and a good place for random conversations with people of all types.
What brought you into the tiki lifestyle and how long has it been part of your life?
Heathen John- I came to tiki culture via industrial music in the early 80s. I read that Throbbing Gristle were big fans of Martin Denny, and picked up some exotica albums at thrift stores. I was attracted to the music and album covers, and the dark, creepy bits of Tiki culture. I was a bartender in hotel lounges for a few years, and grew to appreciate drinks, bar glassware, and lounges in general. I didn’t walk into an actual tiki bar until moving to Phoenix in the mid 90s. Friends turned me on to lowbrow / pop surrealism art about then too, which often riffed on tiki themes, and went bizarre directions with it. That inspired me to be more creative with the aesthetic.
Can you give a little history of how it all came together?
Heathen John- My ex and I bought a half acre property with a rundown old house and barn near downtown Phoenix in 2001. I started mutating the barn into a bar right away, and ramped it up more after she and I split, and I bought her out to keep the place. The barn is amazing! Old wood, never painted, built around 1950 in the style of buildings from the early 1900s. I found a saloon-themed water bed at a Goodwill shortly after we bought the place, and created the bar from the frame and backboard. The room originally looked timeless, like it could have been from the 1800s. I couldn’t help but add more and more oddities and tiki things over time and it morphed into a creepy, tiki, oddity type of place. There have been some fantastic parties here. It feels like another time and place, not sure where and when, but not downtown Phoenix in the 21st century.
Any story behind the name of your bar?
Heathen John- I call the whole property Heathen World, and boringly call the bar “the bar”. My take on heathen is the unsaved, the outsiders, the heretics. We are all heathens many times over. Several religions spend time fretting over the heathens and trying to convert them (good luck with that!). The yard has an overgrown tiki botanical garden look with rusty art here and there, old shade trees, bamboo, grape vines, citrus trees, etc.
What is your favorite Tiki drink?
Heathen John- I’ll cheat and toss out a new and an old drink that are maybe more goth than tiki:
The historic drink is The Eagle Tail Maya, created by Aleister Crowley in the early 1900s. Equal parts brandy, kirsch, absinthe, a few drops of Tabasco, and syrup of ether (which I’ve never had). Shake with cracked ice and strain into a brandy snifter. It’s a hell of a drink! The spice goes right up your nose into your brain, and it seems to accentuate the alcohol. I’m very curious about the “syrup of ether”. It was historically used as an alcohol substitute in some places partially because the effects were strong, but short lived. I don’t know how to get it, and there are plenty of very good reasons to avoid consuming it.
The original drink: The Sophisticated Heathen: 1 part Green Chartreuse, 1 part Agwa, splash of absinthe, splash of ginger beer or mineral water. On the rocks. It’s fragrant, full of herbal flavors, not too sweet. a good sipping drink when talking in a bar.
What is your favorite Tiki bar? Not including your own!
Heathen John- Kon Tiki in Tucson is a wonderful place! It’s several decades old, junk and dust to be found if you look close, has a couple beautiful rooms with bamboo and decorations all over, friendly, good drinks at reasonable price. Evidently a huge snake used to live in the large dry aquarium behind the bar (it is Arizona, after all).
Outside of great drinks, what do you think are essential elements in creating the perfect Tiki environment?
Heathen John- Dark atmospheric lighting! Most commercial tiki bars are much brighter than my preference. Bamboo, wooden art, black velvet paintings, random things to catch your eye. Good comfortable booths that 5 or 6 people can squeeze into for a good session of drinking and laughter are a fantastic feature too.
What does the future hold for you and your home tiki bar?
Heathen John- I’m intrigued by the idea of creating an odd little fraternal order with the bar as its home base. Not sure if that will gel, but more parties for sure, perhaps more themed salon type of evenings. I slowly keep adding more unique and artistic things as I get better at creating them. I fabricated the fortune teller machine a few years ago and am itching to create another that is more creative, dark and tiki themed, and less of a Zoltar influence. The bar is a great room to record music in too. I want to do more of that in the future. I use it as a general-purpose art studio much of the time, and fabricate metal art on the porch. That will certainly continue.
Anything else you would like to add?
Heathen John- I created another tiki bar called Cantina Demonas a few years ago that ultimately went up in flames. I built a little hut using mostly old fencing and found wood, made a little tiki bar and a couple tables, made some stick figure demons out of old chairs and random wood, and attached them to the roof standing up.
It turned into a little community art project. Several friends painted on it and added more decorations. It was in my backyard for a few months, then at the end of one party we took it apart, loaded it on a trailer, took it to an event called Saguaro Man, rebuilt it, enjoyed it for a few days, then burned it! That was a ton of fun, and a beautiful fire. That whole project was so fun I want to do it again.
