When you have a friend come into Seattle from the East Coast and he likes Tiki bars, there is one place you have to take him. Sadly, that place is not in Seattle but in Tacoma! It’s the Tacoma Cabana, to be exact. Tacoma is about 45 minutes south of Seattle (with no traffic). For a bar to worth such a drive, it must be good!
Continue reading “Tiki Field Report #2 Tacoma Cabana, Tacoma, WA 2/19/16”
So right off the bat, I know that an Italian soda isn’t really a Tiki drink. However, depending on what syrup you use, it totally could be! There isn’t any alcohol in an Italian soda, so this would be great for non-drinkers or even kids. This is a really simple drink to make and it tastes better than you can imagine! Let’s begin…
I live in Seattle. I love my city. There are tons of things to do. There are more than enough restaurants, bars, coffee shops, places to buy cupcakes (I love cupcakes!), etc. But sadly, Seattle is lacking one important thing: a really great Tiki bar!
Sure, there is The Lava Lounge in Belltown, but it’s not really a Tiki bar in a traditional sense. I’d go there to hear some punk rock and drink a couple PBRs! I wouldn’t go to hear exotica or to order a Mai Tai, though.
There is Hula Hula, which actually is the first Tiki bar I ever visited. It started my love affair with Tiki! (I will be doing a review of Hula Hula really soon.) At first, Hula Hula had it all going on. It had a very large menu of drinks, plenty of surf music, and awesome decor. But over time, Hula Hula started putting up large screen TVs and eventually it became more of a karaoke bar. Don’t get me wrong, I have spent some time on Hula Hula’s stage singing my favorite tunes from the ’80s while I had a few cocktails in me. But I digress…
So I started searching online for Tiki bars outside Seattle. I found one here and there, but the “Tiki bars” I discovered were pretty lame. Throw the word Tiki in front of a guy’s name. Put up a Tiki head somewhere. Throw up some bamboo, offer some “blue” cocktails, and there you go: a “Tiki” bar!
Then I came across Tacoma Cabana.
Continue reading “Tiki Bar Review #2 Tacoma Cabana, Tacoma, WA”
Hey gang!
Social media can be a very powerful tool to help get your message out there. I’m really excited about my Tiki culture blog and I want to get the message out to as many people as I can! This post is just to let you all know that there are two other ways you can embrace the Tiki lifestyle with me.
One is Facebook.
The other is Instagram.
Both are called TikiwithRay just like the blog page. Feel free to comment, throw some ideas out, or just say hello! -Ray
I have a confession to make.
I wasn’t a good boy over the holidays. It seemed like I was going to one party after another between Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year’s Eve. Needless to say, I put on a couple pounds. As I type this, I’m on a diet—A low-carb diet, to be exact. That means no bread, no pasta, and no sugar. Wait! Does that means I can’t enjoy a Tiki cocktail? Most Tiki cocktails include various syrups and juices! But have no fear! I have a recipe for a low-carb Mai Tai!
This is the first of what I hope to be many Tiki Field Reports. What is a Tiki Field Report you might ask? A Tiki Field Report is going to be a review of a particular day visiting a Tiki bar. It will include pictures and information on who came along, what did they drank, what they thought, who was bartending, etc. I would like to get my friends involved with this blog and I think this is a good way of doing that. A Tiki Field Report is not going to be the same as an official Tiki bar review. A Tiki bar review will be just about the bar, giving an overview of what the place is like, how the drinks are, what kind of music they play, the bar’s history, and so on.
First Field Report, The North Shore Lagoon in Bothell, WA.
Let’s begin…
Continue reading “Tiki Field Report #1 North Shore Lagoon, Bothell, WA 2/17/2016”
Back in the early fall of 2015, my very good friends Christina, Tom, and I were sitting around thinking about having a Christmas party. The question was, what type of Christmas party to have? I had an idea and I’m pretty sure you all can guess what it was: a Tiki Christmas party!
Hey gang! This is my first Tiki bar review and I figured I wanted to keep it sort of local. I live in Seattle. Bothell is about 25 minutes away (with no traffic). In Bothell is a Tiki bar called North Shore Lagoon. Before I begin with the review of the Tiki bar itself, I need to give a little background about the North Shore Lagoon.
The North Shore Lagoon is part of the McMenamins Anderson School. If you’re not familiar with McMenamins, they are a bar and restaurant chain that buys and restores old, classic, historical buildings and turns them into pubs, restaurants, movie theaters, and hotels. The cool thing is they maintain the integrity the of the buildings they acquire. They have places all over the Pacific Northest including Portland, Centraila, McMinnville, Mill Creek, and now Bothell.
What McMenamins did with the Anderson School is completely turn the entire school—which is several buildings—into a large entertainment complex. There’s a fine dinning restaurant, a pub, a movie theater, a convention center, a hotel, and last but not least, a Tiki bar, which of course is the North Shore Lagoon.
Continue reading “Tiki Bar Review #1 North Shore Lagoon, Bothell, WA”
Hello! My name is Ray Wyland. I live in Seattle, WA. Welcome to my Tiki blog!
I’ll be talking about Tiki culture and music, Tiki drinks, and doing Tiki bar reviews. Really, I’ll be covering pretty much anything dealing with the Tiki lifestyle.
Bars, bars, and more bars…
There are so many types of bars. Let’s name a few, shall we? There are dive bars, sports bars, Irish pubs, English pubs, craft cocktail lounges, breweries, and so on and so on. When you’re heading out to a bar, you’re going out to have a good time and enjoy a drink or two. Maybe sometimes you want to have a little escape. With a Tiki bar, the escape is paramount. A good Tiki bar should create a mood—a relaxing mood. When you step into a Tiki bar, the outside world doesn’t exist anymore. The combination of a Tiki cocktail (which usually has two or more shots of alcohol!) with the decor and music creates a unique tone. It’s a tone and feeling that can only be achieved at a Tiki bar, at least for me. To be honest, I rarely even get anything to drink when I’m with friends at any other type of bar.
Of course, all Tiki Bars are not created equal. Some Tiki bars got it dialed in! Others, not so much. This blog is my journey of going to and checking out Tiki bars anywhere and everywhere! I plan on posting pictures, talking to the owners, and giving my take on each Tiki bar I visit.
This blog is going to be about more than Tiki bars and drinks, though. I’ll discuss music, clothing, actual cocktail recipes, lifestyle and more. I hope you all enjoy this blog! -Ray
