Sarah and me at Szechuan West (L) and Champion House (R) in Ann Arbor.
I love tiki bars. Here are a few that I've been to. Some of these have tikis but no tiki drinks, others have tiki drinks but no tikis. And some have both, making them "real" tiki bars. My favorite is the Mai-Kai.
Please read my license notice before copying my photos.
Sarah and me at Szechuan West (L) and Champion House (R) in Ann Arbor.
Exotic drinks at Gourmet Garden in Ann Arbor.
Pool bar at Weber's.
Chin's, Livonia.
Chin Tiki, Detroit.
Defunct unknown Detroit tiki bar, now a church.
Tiki McDonald's, Ludington.
"Tiki Video Nightclub" at the Stearns Motor Inn, Ludington (don't bother visiting).
Mai-Kai in Fort Lauderdale.
Disney's Polynesian Resort.
Tikis for sale outside Tampa.
Kona Kai.
Tonga Room, San Francisco.
Trad'r Sam (L) and Tiki Bob's (R, defunct), San Francisco.
Hawaii West, San Francisco.
Coconut Willie's, San Jose.
Sarah at Ocean's 11 in Austin.
Casio wrist camera photos of
Hula Hut, Austin.
Floridita bar, Havana, Cuba.
Not a tiki bar, but great rum drinks.
Bora Bora in Venice, Italy.
Sarah and me at one of our tiki parties.
Our basement bar. Not very tiki but the drinks are good.
A few of our tiki mugs.
My son's bedroom.
The Book of Puka-Puka.
Other tiki bar news:
Here is my own "every day" mai tai recipe. There is nothing special about this, it's just how I make it when I'm too lazy to squeeze limes or make bar syrup and too cheap to use premium liquor. Purists will be horrified that I don't always squeeze limes but I don't care, I like it this way.
1 oz each white and añejo rums
½ oz each orgeat and Sangster's Wild Orange liqueur
2-3 oz lemon/limeade
The Sangster's can be a little hard to find. When I don't have it on hand I usually just use generic triple sec, Bols or similar. Cointreau is very good but a bit expensive.
Whatever you do, don't uses Rose's. It has its place but not in a Mai Tai. "Sour mix" or anything else out of a gun is also a very bad idea. I buy real orgeat from France. It's way better than Collins and doesn't cost much more.
When I want a special mai tai, I use Saint James, Appleton 12 year, Cointreau, and fresh squeezed limes.
This is a drink with as many recipes as there are bartenders. I like to use Havana Club when it's available. For the dark Jamaican I always use Meyers's.
1¼ oz each white rum, orange juice, and lemonade
½ oz grenadine
½ oz dark Jamaican rum floated on top
Not really a tiki drink but it does have rum in it. I'm not going to repeat the recipe but I want to make two comments about the mint. One, you should crush the stem, not the leaves. Put the leaves in for garnish. Two, there are a couple dozen species of mint and they all taste different. If you just go to the store and buy mint, they'll give you mentha spicata (spearmint). It's ok but not ideal. In Cuba they use mentha nemorosa, also called large apple mint, foxtail mint, woolly mint or (no surprise) Cuban mint. I can't find that here in Michigan but I've been growing my own mentha suaveolens (apple mint), which is similar.
The definitive guides are by Edward Hamilton and out of print. I'd like to find a good white rum but none seem to be available here in liquor controlled Michigan. Bacardi is filtered to the point of not tasting like rum, and Havana Club, which is the best I've tasted, is unavailable. I often use Flor de Caña or Cruzan.
The Brugal rum bottling plant in Puerto Plata, my own Brugal supply, and
four of my favorite rums.
