It’s been said that good things come to those who wait.
In the case of The Exotica Suite – a home tiki bar in West Bloomfield, Michigan owned by Matt and Nui Totsky – that certainly rings true. Matt shares how their story of patience and perseverance finally paid off with the room of their dreams.
What brought you into the tiki lifestyle and how long has it been part of your life?
Matt- I can point to five pivotal moments in my tiki journey and it all started sometime in the mid-90s. The first moment was when I moved out of my parent’s house and got a place of my own. This was in the pre-eBay era and there were a lot of cool antique shops in the Detroit area. I would hang out at these places and really got into Mid-Century Modern style and furnishings. I started to fill my home with Heywood-Wakefield furniture, Majestic lamps, and Franciscan Atomic Starburst dinnerware. At some point, I learned that tiki and tiki bars were part of this scene too and became intrigued and started collecting tiki mugs.
The second moment was when Capitol Records released their Ultra-Lounge CD series in 1996. Each CD featured a specific lounge genre like exotica, space age bachelor pad music, mambo, Bossa Nova, spy tunes, and classic movie and TV themes. They had a sampler CD with faux leopard skin fur and a rubbery-plastic logo and I bought it just for the cool, retro packaging. The music sent me down a rabbit hole to seek out more lounge music and I bought all of the CDs in the Ultra Lounge series and became a fan of artists like Les Baxter, Martin Denny, and Esquivel and modern (at the time) groups like Combustible Edison and Tipsy. The exotica genre was whimsical, but some of it is also very cinematic and when I listened to it, I felt like I was being transported to a faraway place. This music would become the soundtrack for my tiki lifestyle.
The third pivotal moment was when I came across the book “Taboo: The Art of Tiki” by Martin McIntosh. The cover featured a painting by Mark Ryden that was also used on Capitol’s “The Exotic Sounds of Martin Denny” compilation. This book was packed with eye candy by lowbrow artists like Ryden, the Coop, the Pizz, Bosko, and Shag. The Shag pieces really connected with me and I became obsessed with his artwork. From there, I started collecting works by Shag and other artists from galleries like La Luz de Jesus in LA, the long-gone C-Pop Gallery in Detroit and Martin McIntosh’s gallery in Australia. It seemed like a twist of fate that my emerging interest in tiki happened at the same time as the tiki revival of the 1990s.
Can you give a little history of how it all came together?
Matt- I acquired most of my Heywood-Wakefield furniture from a dealer named Jim Toller. He was a lovely guy and had an amazing store called Springdale Furnishings on the west side of Michigan near the Indiana border. His space was located in a refurbished retro bowling alley and it was a treasure trove of MCM furnishings. I would drive over two and a half hours just to go there and one time, he had this amazing vintage rattan tiki bar with four stools. It was incredible and I had to get it. But I didn’t really have a place for it at the time, so it just sat in the living room and became nothing more than a conversation piece.
In 2006, I moved to Bangkok, Thailand and the bar went into storage. Aside from a Trader Vic’s, Bangkok doesn’t have a tiki scene, but you can buy some interesting things there. I eventually found a place that carved tiki statues and masks and acquired some of these items for the home bar that only existed in my mind. In 2008, I moved to London, and that was an incredible experience. I got a chance to visit the Trader Vic’s there too, but aside from the exotica music on my iPod, that time of my life was light on tiki.
I eventually moved back home to the Detroit area in 2013. My beloved tiki bar came out of storage, but once again, it was relegated to the family room and became a place to pile the mail and car keys on. Something just wasn’t right. It was such a beautiful piece, but wasn’t being utilized the way it was intended to.
I knew I wanted to have a home tiki bar, but I didn’t have a dedicated space for it. My home wasn’t big enough and the basement was claustrophobic and the ceilings down there were too low. I just had the bar (piece of furniture) in the family room, surrounded by the statues, Shag artwork and other items. I knew if I wanted a home bar, it would have to be an addition to my home, but at the time, I didn’t have the means to take on this kind of project.
What is the tiki scene like where you live?
Matt- Detroit has an incredible local tiki scene filled with amazing home bars and a bunch of talented local tiki artists, carvers, and lamp makers. But I didn’t know much about all this aside from occasional trips to Chin’s restaurant in nearby Livonia for dinner and their annual tiki bazaar and marketplace. Then in 2018, two bars – Mutiny and Lost River – popped up in Detroit. Finally, I had an outlet for my tiki lifestyle and started to go to both on a fairly regular basis. Of the two, Lost River was my fave even though they didn’t have any tikis in there. What they did have was a dark, immersive atmosphere; a friendly staff; and a killer drink menu. They also hosted live exotica music events featuring local artist Roland Remington and his xylophone. It was like a dream come true, but then Covid happened and it all stopped for a while.
When the pandemic started to wind down in 2021, we headed back to Lost River to catch Roland’s return set for my birthday weekend in November. While we were there that night, some stranger said “Does anyone here have a home tiki bar?” This was the fourth pivotal moment in my tiki adventure.
I raised my hand, thinking my amazing piece of furniture counted. I was then approached by two guys named Ed and Art, who told me about a Facebook page called Detroit Friends of Tiki and how they were trying to organize local home tiki bar tours. “Wait, there’s people with home tiki bars in the Detroit area?” I thought. “How did I not know this?” I joined the Facebook group and started to interact with the other members. Things were starting to fall into place.
Ed tried to get us to attend some of these home bar events, but it wasn’t working with our schedule and we were still a little worried about social distancing at the time. In April 2022, we were in Chicago and popped into Three Dots and a Dash. The drinks were good, but it was very loud and crowded and had kind of a club atmosphere. It was fun, but not my vibe. When we got back to the hotel, I texted Ed and asked him if he’d ever been to that place. He said he had a few years before and was going to be there the very next day. It turned out he was also in Chicago, and we made plans to meet up with him that Sunday for the Low Brow Aloha event at Hala Kahiki. We had a great time hanging out with Ed and I came home from that trip with some cool tiki swag.
Not soon thereafter, we found ourselves at Kraken’s Bay, Ed’s home bar. I was totally blown away with the cozy, immersive atmosphere, the attention to detail and the delicious drinks. At that fifth pivotal moment, I realized I had to do something like this at our place. I became laser-focused on this goal.
Even though we didn’t have a home bar, I agreed to host the next Detroit Friends of Tiki event. It was well attended and the crowd was super cool. They were complimentary of our MCM home, the artwork, my exotica record collection and the cocktails we’d batched up. From there, we started to prioritize the home tiki bar events and had a total blast at each and every one of them. We started making tons of new friends and by the fall of 2022, we had architectural plans for our dream bar.
Any story behind the name of your bar?
Matt- Most of the home bars we’ve been to have cool Hawaiian-sounding names or monikers that reflect a certain theme in the bar. I couldn’t think of a Hawaiian one that had any personal meaning and since the bar didn’t exist yet, we didn’t have the exact theme nailed down. I did know the music in the bar is very important to me. One of the records in my collection is called “The Exotica Suite,” which featured the exotic sounds of Martin Denny, performed by Si Zenter and his Orchestra, composed by Les Baxter. The album title clicked with me and I liked the word play that switched up a musical suite of instrumental compositions with a new room in my house that was dedicated to one particular purpose.
What is your favorite Tiki bar? Not including your own!
Matt- For commercial tiki bars, it’s hard to imagine there’s much out there that’s better than Max’s South Seas Hideaway in nearby Grand Rapids. That place is a world-class tiki temple. Some other faves include the Inferno Room in Indianapolis, Tiki Underground in Cuyahoga Falls, Foundation Bar in Milwaukee, and Inside Passage in Seattle. I also have a soft spot for Trader Vic’s in Bangkok. They have a serene setting on the river, an incredible PNG collection, and a killer Sunday brunch buffet.
But my absolute favorite tiki bar is whatever home bar we’ve had the privilege of getting an invitation to. We’re constantly floored by the creativity and welcoming spirit of these amazing home bar owners. It’s truly inspiring.
What is your favorite Tiki drink? Why?
Matt- I like a good Mai Tai and Zombie. Those are usually my go-to drinks when I’m at a new tiki bar. If the bar can get those classics right, chances are the rest of the menu will be pretty good too. Nui is a big fan of Dead Man’s Hand, which was an original drink at Lost River. Luckily, we managed to get the recipe for that one.
Outside of great drinks, what do you think are essential elements in creating the perfect Tiki environment?
Matt- A tiki bar should be an immersive experience, one that takes you away to another place that’s totally detached from reality. And like I’ve said before, the music is very important to me. I’ve been to many commercial tiki bars where the experience was ruined by loud, obnoxious, hip-hop, pop, and club music. That kind of music has its place, but not in a tiki bar. When that happens, I feel like the bar owners don’t really know what tiki is and are just trying to jump onto an existing fad. It doesn’t take too much effort to do the research and discover that exotica music (and related genres like surf, etc.) should be the soundtrack for any tiki experience.
What does the future hold for you and your home tiki bar?
Matt- Hopefully a lot of parties and high-octane tiki shenanigans! We broke ground on our new space in May, 2023 and it took a little more than a year for the construction and decorating to wrap up. We were so lucky that some of my Detroit Friends of Tiki (Art and Maria Bronson, Drew Sigler, Ed Schroeder, and Sean Stillwell) stepped up to help us with their unwavering dedication, great ideas, technical know-how, and power tools. We would not have been able to pull this off without their help. The final product has exceeded our wildest dreams and it was definitely worth the wait. The first toast at The Exotica Suite was in their honor. After that, we’ll be toasting everyone that walks through the door and hopefully someday that’ll be you Ray!
It looks FABULOUS! (And I don’t use the “F” word lightly!)