Tiki di Amore

We were tipped to this tiki bar attached to an Italian restaurant, Casa di Amore, in the Vegas suburbs. The restaurant is open on Monday but the Tiki di Amore patio is only open Fri-Sun, a detail not listed on their website (I missed the notice on their Instagram). But since we were in the mood for Italian food we stayed anyway and found two seats at the bar.

The place is old school Italian, complete with a singer who sang all the favorites including “That’s Amore” and “New York New York.” The food was pretty good too. Loved the meatballs and Mrs Mai Tai said the soup was great.

I tried the Mai Tai off the tiki menu, but it for sure didn’t contain the Martinique Rhum referenced, and I couldn’t get much Jamaican rum taste either. A very sweet Mai Tai.

Thankfully, the Manhattan was better. Seems like a classic cocktail kind of place. Staff was friendly and helpful.

The outdoor patio out back is nicely appointed and includes two Moai from the old Aku-Aku at the Stardust.

Island Time Floats Tiki Bar

Regular readers will know that I try to paint with a wide brush and give a lot of leeway regarding what is tiki. Even on the Las Vegas Strip. Call yourself tiki and do something nodding in the directions, then sure. I’ll call it a tiki bar.

Island Time Floats is not a tiki bar.

There weren’t any tikis whatsoever, nor any nods toward the genre. Heck, a Mai Tai wasn’t even on their cocktail menu.

Nonetheless the bartender was happy to make one upon my request, but it was made as expected.

  • Malibu Rum
  • Admiral Nelson Spiced rum
  • Pineapple Juice
  • Grenadine
  • Myers’s Dark Rum float

As these things go it wasn’t bad if you drink from top to bottom, but needless to say this isn’t on the Mai Tai recommendation list. Oh well.