Home Tiki Bar Spotlight #92 Tiki Encanto – East Texas

Deep in the heart of East Texas, you will find Eric AKA the RAD Man, and his wife Lisa AKA Leeza Rad’s home tiki bar. It’s called Tiki Encanto which means Enchanted Tiki in Spanish. When you live in a place where there’s no tiki, you bring you own, and that’s exactly what Eric and his wife did! They packed up their original tiki bar they built in California and moved it to East Texas. Here is RAD Man and Leeza Rad’s story …

What is the tiki scene like where you live?

We live in East Texas, so there is virtually zero history of Tiki due to Texas alcohol laws in the 1950s and 1960s which was the heyday of tiki in the US.  Today there are less than 10 real Tiki bars in all of Texas, but none closer than a two-hour drive to Dallas.  Having moved to Texas from California for retirement and cost of living reasons, we brought our love of tiki with us, and we built our own.

What brought you into the tiki lifestyle and how long has it been part of your life?

I grew up in the 1970s in California.  I recall going to many Tiki and tropical themed restaurants as a child, as well as Disneyland in the summer on vacation. One of those themed restaurants was Spanglers in Berkely which was not a Tiki Bar, but an incredible over the top nautical themed restaurant, and of course Trader Vic’s in San Francisco.   My wife and I have always been in the antique business and have sold a lot of Tiki items in our store.  Eventually we decided to change our 500-square foot California mission/wine room into a tiki room, it wasn’t too hard to make the transition since we already had an interesting theme going on.  I also work in the movie industry suppling props and as a buyer for various productions, so props and décor are second nature to me, while my wife being an antique and design expert also lends her expertise.  And Yes, I have met Sven Kirsten in Palm Springs!

Can you give a little history of how it all came together?

Our first Tiki bar in California all got packed up and transported to Texas when we moved.  Our original room was 500 Sq. Ft, and we had to downsize to our current 250 SF space, but that was actually a good thing, we sold off items which were not as nice, or duplicates, and were able to really focus on what matters.  Since we deal in antiques, we always are on the lookout for items to go in the tiki room. The room started its life as a large formal dining room with crystal chandeliers, mirrored walls and carpet. Even though a formal dining room is nice, as empty nesters we did not need that, what we needed was our tiki room. So out went the chandeliers, carpet and up went the sheetrock to seal off the windows, black paint covered everything to clean the pallet, electrical went in, flooring and then all the wood, LOTS of wood.  My wife was lucky enough to meet some flippers who were demolishing the interior of a 1920s house. Around 10 trips with a truck, the whole interior was ours. Almost everything in the room is built with wood at least a hundred years old. The general idea or concept of the room is somewhere in the South Pacific there is a trading post on an island, the trading post serves the local pre-WWII era community, it is made out of wood from wrecked ships, local bamboo, flotsam and jetsam, and anything brought in by the locals for trade, we trade cans of Spam to the locals for building material. The inspiration for our theme is pretty much Adventureland, and every WWII era movie about the Pacific.  We try to keep the era around the 1920s through 1950s, I suppose, we throw in a few Asian items as trade with Japan and China in the 1920s up until WWII was extremely important for pacific outposts. We do have tikis, and we do have a few Asian lamps. I feel that this overall Pacific Island/Asian theme works for the story and vibe we are trying to set. Our room had to have three main areas, so I fit it all in.  A lounge area to sit and serve as a secondary living room, a formal dining area separate from our main dining room, a bar, you can’t have a Tiki Bar without a bar, and last a forum to display our Tiki mug collection and our nautical antiques.

Any story behind the name of your bar?

Our bar is named Tiki Encanto, which Just means the Enchanted Tiki in Spanish, and since my wife is Spanish/ Italian/ Mexican it sounds good, and it’s something different but it really comes from an old California street sign that was on the wall from when our room was a wine room, the street was Encanto Court, this became Tiki Encanto.

What is your favorite Tiki drink?

The classic 1944 Mai Tai is my favorite, because I always try to teach my guests that the crap they just had down at the bar or restaurant is not a true Mai Tai.  I always try to tell the story and pass the word of what a Mai Tai is and isn’t.  However, I make some pretty unusual drinks for our guests, some don’t have names, most I could make a second time, let alone remember how to make them. I also serve Martinis in my bar. Why? Because Trader Vic recognized the importance of selling a good Martini.

What is your favorite Tiki bar? Not including your own!

Our favorite Tiki bar is Tiki Ti, because it bucks the trend of what Tiki is.  It’s quite different than the Smugglers Coves of this world.  It’s just a small bar old bar and it has so much stuff from so many years of operating, all crammed in there.  We really enjoyed going to Don’s before it closed.  We are West Coast Tiki goers, we have never been to some of the big east coast bars, except a bar in Detroit, so there might be something on our favorites list next year.

Outside of great drinks, what do you think are essential elements in creating the perfect Tiki environment? 

The music is so important.  We went to Bootlegger Tiki once in Palm Springs and they were playing Hip Hop, we walked right back out again.  Music sets the mood. Working in the movie industry that is my feeling towards movies as well, a sound track will make or break a movie for me. The next thing is the lighting.  Too much light ruins the mood, even a crappy bar can be hid with just the right amount of light.  NO TVs! I cannot stand TVs in a Tiki bar.  One of the biggest things I hated about Don’s was they had that football game going on the TV right above the bar. NO NO NO it’s about escapism, not watching the game! A good theme is very important.  The right amount of everything mixed in.  Some pacific island stuff, some nautical stuff, good authentic items too.  Our tiki room was made on a budget, but commercial restaurants and bars shouldn’t skimp.

What does the future hold for you and your home tiki bar?

Our Tiki room is never complete.  There will always be a better this or a better that.  I just put up some port and starboard lamps, next week I am going to re-design one of the walls because I just finished it to a point so we could entertain some guests, now I have to go back and fine tune some things.  Never know what incredible item needs a spot. We have over 300 mugs, and I already need more space for the future.

Anything else you would like to add?

A home Tiki bar is even more important these days as we are struggling to afford to travel with increased prices, COVID inspired a lot of people to build their own room to escape, I think it’s quite important that we all have a space to decompress.  I love the fact that there is so much wood in there that no one can get a cell signal or WIFI signal.  But it does hamper trying to play that Trader Sam’s music via blue tooth.  Build what you can afford, but make what you build priceless.