The first time I visited Duke and Lola’s home bar, it was a cigar lounge and whiskey bar called the Elephant Head Bar. It had a really great vibe, but I thought that as cool as the bar was, it would be so much cooler if it was a tiki bar! Well, they must have read my mind because that’s exactly what they did. In between filming videos for their BossaNova Life channel, they converted their home bar into a secret tiki escape called the Atomic Bikini Grotto! Here is their story …
What is the tiki scene like where you live?
The Tiki Scene in our immediate town is not bad for the size of the town. We have McMenamin’s first foray into tiki with the Kapu Hut. We also have a new tiki bar/sushi restaurant that just opened called Uki Uki. We are fortunate enough to be close to Portland and have both the Alibi and Hale Pele as our semi regular haunts.
What brought you into the ‘Tiki lifestyle” and how long has it been part of your life?
We have always had an appreciation for past decades, and a love for the exotic. We found ourselves traveling to San Francisco about nine years ago to check out some tiki bars. That was the beginning of an official love of tiki, and an awakening to the idea that there were others like us out there and in fact an entire community of other people who love tiki.
Can you give a little history of how it all came together?
We spent the first few years visiting any tiki bar we could find in our travels. We started looking for clothing and tiki heads to bring back to our home. At this time, there was no idea of our own home tiki bar. We were enjoying the scene and community without thinking that this is something we could bring into our own home. Slowly, as we met more people, we started realizing that creating a home tiki bar was a real, attainable goal.
We started collecting more and over the course of about three years, we put together a collection of items for our own home tiki bar. Add to that our fairly substantial collection of vintage tiki clothing and tiki is now part of our daily and weekly life; whether enjoying our own bar, or getting dressed to the nines and heading out on the town to a local tiki bar.
Any story behind the name of your bar?
We wanted a pop of color and painted our ceiling turquoise. That brought to mind an underwater theme and we felt that it had the feeling of a hidden grotto under the ocean. So, we put Grotto in the name. Since we love the Atomic Era, we wanted that reflected in the name. Then we came up with Bikini, and while we like the double meaning of it and how bikini brings to mind ladies in scant clothing, we are in fact referencing the Bikini Atoll where the atomic testing was done. We christened our bar the Atomic Bikini Grotto.
What is your favorite Tiki drink? Why?
Lola’s favorite drink is a Mai Tai, because it is just the best drink! It’s well known enough that you can find it at most bars and you generally know the quality of the bar with the quality of the Mai Tai. Duke’s is the Suffering Bastard, as he loves gin, bourbon and ginger.
What is your favorite Tiki bar? Not including your own!
That’s a hard one!!! Commercial tiki bars? It would be either Forbidden Island in Alameda (The larger version of Frankie’s in Vegas), or The Tonga Hut in North Hollywood. We love cozy, friendly hideaways more than the flashy … although Hale Pale in Portland and Golden Tiki in Vegas have been some amazing times for us as well. Home tiki bars that we have had the honor of visiting? It would probably be the Enchanted Jungle Lounge of Keith Hart.
Outside of great drinks, what do you think are essential elements in creating the perfect Tiki environment?
Lighting and music is a huge part of creating the atmosphere of escapism. A dark bar with the perfect mood lighting is essential. The music needs to be exotic and mentally whisk you away to another time and place. The third MUST have… hospitality. Our tiki bar will always be a place of welcome, friendship, and hospitality.
What does the future hold for you and your home tiki bar?
We are adding an entryway to the Atomic Bikini Grotto in the breezeway between our house and bar. After that, we will cover our 900 square-foot patio and continue the tiki theme there, with a more jungle feel to it.
I’d like to thank Sveinn Kjartansson for his pictures used for this post
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