How do you celebrate someone’s birthday? You take them up to Canada to The Shameful Tiki Room! It was Samantha’s big day, I tagged along, and Samantha’s husband Jason Craig wrote about it…
As I’ve meandered my way down the Tiki rabbit hole over the last several years, I’ve made myself a sort of bucket list of places to get to eventually. Several are the long-standing Tiki palaces like the Mai Kai or the Tonga Room, and venerable locations like the Tiki Ti. Those are the sort of places that the history of American Polynesian Pop fantasy were built on, and some of the few you can still experience today. Others are the places that have formed the foundation of our modern Tiki revival. Places that pay loving homage to the rich mid-century history of Tiki, while not relying so much on nostalgia, but on amazing cocktails and hospitality, in an exotic and socially conducive setting, bringing new people into the wonderful world of Tiki. The Shameful Tiki Room in Vancouver British Columbia Canada is one such place. The Shameful Tiki Room recently celebrated its 5-year anniversary, and has developed a well-earned, stellar reputation in the Tiki and craft cocktail communities.
I say this to explain that I’d looked forward to visiting the Shameful Tiki Room for the last couple of years, but had never committed to it, worrying that my expectations would exceed my experience. There is also the whole matter of going to an unfamiliar city and crossing an international border, so I’d been hesitant to make the trip, despite living only a few short hours away. But what is Tiki without a little adventure?
As luck, or fortuitous Tiki kismet, would have it, a few weeks ago we were at the Devil’s Reef in Tacoma WA, enjoying a night out with our local Tiki ohana, when my wife, the lovely Samantha Craig, informed me that she’d been talking with our friend Ray Wyland about wanting to do something for her birthday weekend and that they’d concocted an overnight to Vancouver BC to check out the Shameful Tiki.
Ray knows Tiki and has been visiting Vancouver for about a decade, with many trips to the Shameful Tiki Room over the years they’ve been open. Aside from being a good friend, you couldn’t ask for a better Tiki guide and ambassador than Ray Wyland, so I put my concerns aside and prepared to Tiki it up North of the border!
A few weeks later, the 3 of us were outside the Shameful Tiki Room on a Saturday late afternoon, sun shining brightly at 4:45 PM, waiting for the door to open…
The outside of the Shameful Tiki Room is simply decorated, with tan backgrounds covering the windows entirely, their logo and name on the largest window, and the name, address, and that they’re open “5 TO LATE EVERY NIGHT” on the door. There is no indication, except for that whimsical logo to indicate the lush, darkly imaginative interior.
15 minutes later the door was opened and we were greeted, along with several others waiting behind us. After the unseasonable brightness of the Vancouver afternoon, the interior beyond the small, curtained foyer was cave-like, encouraging our transition away from the day and inward towards a night among friends on a tropical island somewhere in the South Pacific. Thanks to Ray, we had choice seats at the bar, along with Brian, his wife Bernie, and the Traveling Penguin…
Our eyes adjusted as we moved from the entrance towards the L-shaped bar to the back, through a narrow room of tables and chairs, becoming aware of the Polynesian décor festooned around us. The walls were fully adorned in bamboo, tapa cloth and matting, and hung with masks, war clubs and other traditional Tiki elements, along with photos, menus, album covers and other bits of intriguing memorabilia. The meager lighting glowed reluctantly from colored bulbs in large glass fishing floats and fish traps suspended from the shadowed ceiling. There is a small stage area in the front of the room, by the entrance, with a large fugu (pufferfish) hanging above and a large wall cabinet of Tiki mugs behind it…
The bar area is covered by thatch and bamboo, with predominantly red lighting, and 2 small screens were playing an endless loop of the black and white original “Night of the Living Dead”. Statuary and tropical greenery are on shelves and filling alcoves, nooks, and support beams. Everywhere you look there is something new to see! Everything though, looks like it has always been there, and that it is where it belongs. It is no small thing to make a fantasy environment feel so natural and organic, rather than contrived.
Both bartenders were friendly and helpful, and we immediately had waters and drink menus. The drink menu is an excellent selection of both classic and original Tiki drinks, from the irresistible Zombie to the enticing Day of the Dead…
I began with my traditional 1st hoist of a Navy Grog, while my lovely Samantha and Ray both went for the Day of the Dead, “A complex house original with multiple juices and rums, coconut, bitters, Pernod, soda and secret spices. Not for the faint of heart!” as the menu advises…
The sounds of exotica music played at a conversation-facilitating volume, and specific sound and lighting effects of storms, chanting, and volcanoes played out whenever a bowl drink was delivered with accompanying ritual. From the bar, the Shameful Tiki Room wrapped around us like a long Polynesian island hut, on some bygone date of a lost calendar, in the small hours of the evening, with a sense of mystery and danger afoot in the unseen jungles and waters beyond the walls. Yes, my first cocktail was that good!
The place was full not long after opening and stayed that way the rest of the night. No one milling about, but rarely did we see an open booth or chair. We proceeded with more rounds of cocktails…
Samantha had a Pain Killer…
And I moved on to a Jet Pilot…
The “Hart of Gold” (another Shameful original)…
And a Zombie (the 1934 Don Beach recipe!)…
I remember Ray enjoying a Frankie’s Special, with a wonderful ginger taste to it. All of the drinks were exceptional, balanced, and well garnished. Though quick and efficient, the bartenders never looked rushed while slinging complicated and meticulously crafted cocktails to a packed room. A perfect night for us was just another Saturday for them.
Conversation ebbed and flowed back and forth as we shared cocktails and food options, like Tiki Nuts, Tropical Nachos, Samosas, Tuna Sliders, and a Green Curry dish. My lovely Samantha enjoyed her birthday adventure, and even donned my fez! The Traveling Penguin came out for pictures. Shameless bathroom selfies were taken…
Everyone got outside their daily lives for a few hours and we were transported to an idealized world of exotic cocktails, unusual foods and fanciful décor, despite the bustling modern city held at bay by the Shameful Tiki Room around us.
As the evening wound down, I closed out with a Tropical Itch, a tasty sipper of citrus and Havana Club rum, traditionally served, as it should be, with a full sized backscratcher in it. The thought of getting that cocktail had delighted me since reading of it years ago in a Jeff “Beachbum” Berry book, imagining being a 1950’s tourist telling all his friends about how he got that odd looking backscratcher in his cocktail on vacation in a far away tropical destination. I hope to place mine on the wall or maybe behind the bar in my future home Tiki lounge, for the very same purpose.
For casual and comfortable Tiki escapism, with the perfect cocktails and environment, if there is a better place to get away to than Vancouver BC’s Shameful Tiki Room, I hope I find it someday! They have another location in Toronto Canada too, and that is how my bucket list keeps growing.
– Jason Craig
Tonight we shall rise up from the ashes of our mundane existence!
…For tonight we shall TIKI!
Here is the Shameful Tiki Room’s website
And Facebook Page