I haven’t experienced déjà vu in a long time but I did at Red Rum …
Bellingham is a college town about an hour and half north of Seattle. Bellingham isn’t huge, but it has a really vibrant downtown, with tons of cool restaurants and bars.
Now Bellingham has its own tiki bar, it’s called Red Rum …
The owners Aaron Roeder and Andy Kawamoto did a great job with the place.
And of course Aaron is the drummer for The Mono Men!
Bamboo covers the walls …
Pucker fish hang from the ceiling …
The bar has diner style chairs …
There are several huts that line the wall …
And tikis are scattered throughout …
All under the glow of green and red, hence the name Red Rum I suppose?
Red Rum serves a full menu of great food and tiki drinks …
I recommend the empanadillas and the coconut prawns.
Here’s some of the drinks my friends and I had …
Here’s Amber sipping on a Chi Chi …
Amber also ordered a Chief Lapu Lapu…
Here is Vanessa’s Coconaut …
And she also ordered a Chi Chi…
Jason hoisted a Captain’s Grog …
And Travis went with a Fog Cutter …
And of course we all had a round of Mai-Tais …
Red Rum’s drinks are solid, good, just really good tiki drinks! Red Rum’s cocktails take me back to the days when I first started drinking at tiki bars.
But something about Red Rum made me feel even more nostalgic … the music!
We all know that music is very important when it comes to creating a great tiki experience. The music of choice is usually exotica or surf. Red Rum’s playlist was a little different. A majority of the music being played was 50’s rock n roll and rockabilly. To be more specific, Songs The Cramps Taught Us …
If you’re familiar with the band The Cramps, you know that they “borrowed” a majority of their musical style, riffs and lyrics from old rock n roll bands. Songs The Cramps Taught Us is a collection of these songs. Throughout the night these great tunes, along with various surf, garage, lounge, and bossa nova tracks, were the soundtrack, and I loved it!
So … The entire time I visited Red Rum, I had a feeling of déjà vu. The place felt familiar to me, not because Red Rum is similar to another tiki bar, but because it brought me back to the 90’s.
Red Rum reminds me of a tiki bar that I could have discovered back in the 90’s when retro culture was starting to become popular. I remember when the swing and lounge scenes were starting to grow and the second wave of tiki was just starting to happen. The combination of the décor, drinks, and music at Red Rum makes me feel like I’m back in the 90’s in a great way!
Red Rum is a tiki time machine!
Thank you Travis for all the pictures used for this post.
Give Red Rum a like on Facebook.
great- just when i’m taking a tiki-time-out to lose weight they open a fab tiki bar just south of here! can’t wait to go!!
xo🌸🌴🍹
Nice review thanks. They don’t have a website so this is how the official info page for this place, and only place I could peek at the menu lol
Thank you! I try to give my readers a good view of what the room looks like! Red Rum is a great place, go if you can!