What does shoveling horse manure have to do with Tiki?
Keep reading to find out…
What is the tiki scene like where you live?
Ron- Unfortunately we only have one established tiki bar in our area, Toratiki, torotiki.ca and that bar has only been open for about a year and a half. We are “forced” lol, to travel between The Enchanted Tiki Lounge” Jim & Mary Ellen’s home bar and our own “Lower Lanai Tiki Hut”! We also belong to the local chapter of the Pharaohs Car Club and we have a few members there that enjoy the “Tiki Lifestyle” as well and are currently working on their own home bars.
What brought you into the tiki lifestyle and how long has it been part of your life?
Ron- Well that happens to be an interesting story! I first started going to Hawaii in 74’ when I was 14 years old with my cousin and my uncle. My uncle coached our basketball team back then and that year we needed to purchase new uniforms, so he suggested, because he owned a couple of horses, that we should bag up the manure and sell them for .50 cents a bag on the roadside to make money to buy the uniforms. So, every night we would do 50-60 bags up and place them out so people could buy them for their gardens. Well this was a roaring success and within a month we had enough for the uniforms, but we kept at it and after about 4 months we had made over $2400. In 73’-74’ the television show Hawaii-50 was hugely popular, we watched it all the time. My uncle suggested we use the rest of the money and the three of us go to Honolulu for a week! Well that trip was life changing for me! Hawaiian culture was so magical to a kid from Victoria. Back in those days the International Market Place was truly that, full of Polynesian artists and carvers from all over the South Pacific. There was one carver there in particular who I could watch for hours just sitting on the floor of his stall carving tiki idols while holding them between his feet. Every year that I was there I would bring back one of his carvings. This first impression of Hawaii was so awesome for all of us that we continued every year between 74’ – 80’ to bag up horse manure every Spring and Summer and return to Honolulu in the Winter, and that’s no horse shit!
Can you give a little history of how it all came together?
Ron- I had collected Tiki for many years, Victoria is a hotbed for Hawaiian souvenirs. People from the West Coast of Canada, Victoria/Vancouver, have traditionally holidayed in either Hawaii or California, more specifically Disneyland. So Hawaiiana, not sure if that is a word, can be found quite regularly in many of the local thrift shops and I have ventured into many of them for years and years. In the past, my collections have been strictly relegated to my home office so back in 2019 I had decided to thin out my collection a little bit and my sister Deneen and I rented a table in one of the local Vintage Fairs. I had taken some tiki mugs, tiki idols and tiki shirts that day and low and behold along came this guy who was interested in “all of it”! That was the day I first met Jim Sloan, aka “Tiki Jim” aka “Jimmy Martini”. He asked me if I had more so the next day I brought in a few more items and he took all of those! We decided to exchange contact information so we could let each other know when we came across more Tiki stuff and if I didn’t want them maybe he would be interested in it? Since then we have developed a great friendship with just a little bit of good natured ribbing thrown in!
After that weekend, I was feeling a little nostalgic for the items I had sold Jim and was actually going through a little bit of “Tiki Withdrawal”. After that experience, I realized still that I really loved collecting tiki and I got right back into it. Then along came COVID!! During that downtime, I was approached about buying a small warehouse full of used bamboo furniture, it was enough to fill our garage!! It was at that point I told my wife Lori that we were now “all in” and we were going to turn our entire basement, foosball area and media room into a home tiki bar and the Lower Lanai Tiki Hut was created.
Any story behind the name of your bar?
Ron- The Lower Lanai Tiki Hut
We have a very large patio/lanai out back of our place that is just 8 steps up from our tiki bar/basement area. Lower Lanai just kind of made sense??
What is your favorite Tiki drink?
Ron- I think my favorite tiki drink is the 44 Mai Tai. There are many other versions of the Mai Tai but the 44 seems as pure a tiki drink as they come. I always order this one when I go into a tiki bar for the first time because if they can’t get this drink right, then we probably can’t trust them to make any other one right?
What is your favorite Tiki bar? Not including your own!
Ron- Oh, tough one! We were recently in Hawaii with Jim and Mary Ellen and we went to the La Mariana Sailing Club just outside of Honolulu for the first time, lamarianasailingclub.com . It is a classic vintage style tiki bar with amazing ambiance in an incredible location, please check it out the next time you are in Hawaii, it’s awesome! But I think my all-time favorite would have to be The Alibi Tiki Lounge in Portland, . We were there back in October of 2019 with our friends who were visiting from Australia. I am a sucker for old school vintage tiki and the Alibi has all of that in spades. I can’t recommend that place enough!
Outside of great drinks, what do you think are essential elements in creating the perfect Tiki environment?
Ron- It all matters, but décor is definitely #1 and if its vintage décor, Witco or anything from Oceanic Arts then all the better! Drinks and service are #2 and music #3. The music really sets the mood, if it’s not the correct style of music it’s bad and if it’s too loud that’s worse!! People do like to carry on a conversation in a tiki bar and not have to yell at each other. If there is a #4 its temperature, it has to be warm, it’s hard to enjoy a beautiful day in paradise when it’s cold!!!
What does the future hold for you and your home tiki bar?
Hopefully more great times with good friends! Lori and I really like entertaining in our home tiki bar. Our old friends really like coming over to the Lower Lanai and the new friends we have made through Tiki are super special to us, just more of that please! Oh, and if I happen to have an opportunity to add to my “Tiki Collection”, all the better!!
