Tag: LosAngeles

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Lucky Tiki Still Going Strong in West Hollywood

We Lyfted over from Downtown and made it to our reservation at The Lucky Tiki in West Hollywood in the nick of time, just as our friends Alissa and Nav arrived to join us. With a small space and high demand it is nice to be able to score a reservation on a Saturday night. This was our first visit since New Year’s Eve and they’re still serving the same cocktail menu that has a little something for everyone.

I’ve been on record saying I don’t love the standard Mai Tai here, but the staff told me they were working on a new formula. Though the one I received wasn’t the final version thanks to Dave and crew I’m pleased to report it was a lot better. Meanwhile Mrs. Mai Tai got her favorite, the New York Sour riff called Elvis in Hawaii featuring peanut butter whiskey, creme de banana, and a cabernet float. Delicious. As first timers, Nav and Alissa enjoyed their drinks including the Grog, Mai Tai, and Daiquiri.

The “Ghost of Jim Morrison” was playing the part of trickster this evening, as the cocktail of the same name was quite delicious but also super potent – I’m sure the Doors frontman held his liquor better when the L.A. Woman album was recorded in the same building.

It seems like the patio section is a little bit more elaborately decorated since our last visit, and remains a fairly enclosed space where you can hear the music a little better and get a little bit more of that fresh Los Angeles air. But we really like the dark and traditional tiki environment inside where everything is a bit of a higher energy yet still relaxing. The Lucky Tiki concept has been so popular there are plans for a second location which we are eagerly awaiting.

Mai Tai
with GM David Ray
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Eye Candy at Clifton’s Pacific Seas

Pacific Seas is the exotic travel and South Seas themed bar inside Clifton’s Republic in downtown Los Angeles, but since it is only open on weekends and has an up and down return from COVID it has been many years from our last visit. We made sure to visit on this trip, securing a reservation right at opening at 6 pm Saturday.

None of the speakeasy or dress code rules of years past are enforced at opening, but we still wore aloha wear and joined the line to get in. We made our way upstairs, eventually finding the secret entrance and then exploring upstairs until we found the venue. The interior here is of the same quality as a Disney queue with so many items to look at and so many tikis too. Ambient music with an electronica lean was playing, a precursor to the club music that plays later in the evening.

We were seated on the floor at a table, rather than in the more decorated booths – a disappointment. But, our server was very friendly and efficient, working solo during the first hour across the entire floor. Also working solo was a young bartender who wasn’t exactly killing himself to work through orders so our drinks took some time to arrive.

The venue asks if you’re there for drinks only or for “drinks and snacks” – yet some of the menu items included a burger and the very large chicken sandwich that I had, so “snacks” is a weird label. The food here was pretty good and was delivered before our drinks were.

It appears all the cocktails are batched, which meant that Mrs. Mai Tai got the last Jet Pilot during service even though it was only just after opening, so one wonders if they’re batched only on Fridays. The Himalayan Mai Tai includes some mango liqueur but is actually a pretty good Mai Tai since it includes overproof Jamaican rum and Copalli rum. However, the Saturn did not taste like any Saturn I’ve ever tried. So the cocktails were hit and miss, and going off menu seems very risky.

Mai Tai

Still, the eye candy in here is amazing and Clifton’s Pacific Seas is a must-visit for any tikiphile. We really enjoyed the energy and overall our food and service were pretty good. We hear the people watching can be good later when it is a nightclub vibe, if that’s your thing.

Saturn
Jet Pilot
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The Rum Curious Summit

The purpose of our trip to SoCal was largely to attend the inaugural Rum Curious Summit in Long Beach, the brainchild of self-proclaimed Rum Champion Bryan Inman along with partners Ari Ralston and Shane Conrad. The event was held in the event space at Altar Society Brewing in downtown and was a massive success with over 500 attendees and dozens of rum producers and brands.

A main floor included rum tastings with over 100 expressions of rum, plus many tables offered the rum in a cocktail format. We were particularly impressed by the Pearl Diver from House of Bamboo’s Shelley Bowers in partnership with Tanduay rum who also filled up a goodie bag for VIP ticket holders.

Among the noteworthy rums, Holmes Cay is an independent bottler and always has interesting and rare expressions, Privateer had some rums that were new to me, and new independent bottler Mainland Rum showed off their range of cask strength releases from a wide array of American distillers.

Upstairs from the main floor there were several seminars available to attendees, including an interesting and thought provoking session about tiki by Doc Parks and a fab introduction to rum from Bryan Inman who demonstrated the diversity of rum with five tasting samples and some facts about production.

As a brand new event there were a few growing pains, including a check in system that was over-engineered. But by and large there were very few issues that weren’t directly related to the popularity of the event – a good problem – and we’d be remiss without acknowledging the exemplary work of the staff and volunteers to help guests make the most of their experience. It sounds like there are plans to expand Rum Curious Summits to other cities and if so it will be something to watch closely. Cheers.

Shannon Mustipher /
Privateer Rum
Doc Parks
Shelly Bowers
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Future Trader Vic’s West Hollywood Location

Some photos of the future West Hollywood location of Trader Vic’s, slated to open toward the end of the year or thereafter. The venue is located at the corner of Santa Monica Blvd and N Doheny Drive, across the street from the border of Beverly Hills.

These photos were taken just before New Year’s, and as you can see there is plenty of work needed. There are so many people who are looking forward to the return of a full blown Trader Vic’s location in Southern California for the first time since 2017. We’ll hopefully learn more soon.

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Rum Curious Summit 2025

I’m really excited to share I’ll be heading down to Long Beach for the Rum Curious Summit on Memorial Day. The event is a “rum fest” with over 20 rum brands plus cocktails, where attendees can experience and learn about over 80 different expressions. This is a medium sized event where you’ll have plenty of opportunity to learn about rum and learn from the various rum producers and brands.

I’m very interested to attend the educational seminars from luminaries including Tiki: Modern Tropical Cocktails author Shannon Mustipher, Doc Parks of Zombie Village fame, and self-proclaimed Rum Champion Bryan Inman who is also organizing the event. I’ve tried a lot of rums over the past few years but I always learn something new when experts such as these are providing context to the material. I’ve attended several seminars from Mustipher and Inman and they do a great job presenting material that’s interesting to both novices and experienced spirits consumers. While I haven’t attended any seminars from Doc Parks, I’ve seen his magic from across the bar so I have high expectations. #docparksismyhomeboy

The Rum Curious Summit will be held in downtown Long Beach at Altar Society Brewing, across the street from Secret Tiki Island, and ought to be a lot of fun. Tickets are available now, but don’t delay in securing your spot as there is a limited availability. We’ll see you in Long Beach on Memorial Day.

Shannon Mustipher
Doc Parks
Bryan Inman
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The Kahunas Tiki

We revisit Dec 30 when we visited tiki bars in the valley that we’ve never visited before. Intriguing to me due to their sushi offerings, we visited Kahuna Tiki and Kahuna Tiki Tu. Both are from the same team but there are significant differences in the restaurant type and cocktails.

Kahuna Tiki is in the NoHo Arts District not far from Tiki No and features a large outdoor space anchored by a very mature tree, water features, booth and gathering spaces, an outdoor bar, and a small indoor sushi bar with seating. It was cold so we ate inside the sushi bar. There are tiki nods throughout, though somewhat “tiki lite” in terms of density and quality. We loved our sushi and fried rice.

Kahuna Tiki Tu is a newer location connected to the Mikado Hotel and sandwiched by Riverside Drive and the 101 freeway. There’s a vast main dining area with Japanese touches, plus a large Moai to complement the “accent tikis” sprinkled throughout. There is a dark tiki bar off to the side, more traditionally decorated aside from the gigantic TV. There are few bar seats and some tables in the middle but we chose a bamboo booth. Food menu looked essentially similar to the sister location, though we were told some things are unique in each location. A patio overlooks the hotel pool and some decor elements borrow from Disney and other genres (yes. pirates).

Where the two Kahunas differ are the cocktails, since Kahuna Tiki has only a beer/wine license. As such they can’t use spirits but presumably more than enough of something to suit. I had the Majestic Mai Tai that was a fruit-forward refresher and Mrs. Mai Tai had the cherry-forward Stupid Cupid that uses a Red Vine as a straw. Both were fine, but things made more sense after we learned about their restrictions.

There are no such restrictions at Kahuna Tiku Tu, though their 1944 Mai Tai uses Planteray 5 and since they didn’t have an acceptable sub I went with it to some regret. Mrs. Mai Tai’s Headhunter Martini was a lot better, featuring vodka and banana/cinnamon notes that were really tasty.

Headhunter Martini

We enjoyed the visits including some easter eggs that Arnelle gave us at the first location before venturing to the second. We hear good things from locals that the service here is usually great, so if you like sushi these locations demand some tiki attention.

Kahuna Tiki

Kahuna Tiki Tu

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Cozy Checklist Night at Tiki No

We had a fab time checking off a few “first visit” tiki bars up in the San Fernando Valley before New Year’s. Tiki No was said to be more of a dive bar in North Hollywood (the “No” in Tiki No) but we arrived shortly after opening on Monday to find that it was couples night as everyone in the venue was paired.

I was so pleased to see an elaborate bamboo palace inside with some nice booths, plus a seating area parallel to the long thatch-covered bar. It was cold but we admired the small patio as well. Lighting is very cohesive and while the tikis are off the shelf I did admire the collection.

We tried and liked two cocktails, including their juicy Mai Tai that includes some pineapple juice in modest amounts plus Appleton rum and Cachaca that I didn’t really get major notes from but overall felt balanced pretty good. Mrs. Mai Tai was impressed by her flaming Toasted Marshmallow that included rum, vodka, Licor 43, spices, and apple juice. This cocktail had a great visual interest and the taste was pretty good too. We spotted a few nice rums but a lot of the back bar was filled with rums I don’t normally see there (I see you, Captain and Kraken). I’d come back for more drinks on future visits to LA.

The music at Tiki No deserves special mention since the music spanned many popular genres (though not surf or exotica, sadly). It was like all of Spotify was on shuffle as we heard these artist in consecutive order:

  • Hip Hop song (didn’t catch the artist)
  • The Cure
  • Motörhead
  • Cher
  • Delta Spirit
  • Miami Sound Machine
  • No Doubt
  • Sixpence None the Richer
  • Foreigner

Quite the collection, including This is Spinal Tap on the TV. Not really my preference for a tiki bar and I’d prefer pre-80s, but all in all not terrible. We enjoyed our short visit, though not as much as the couple in the booth next to us who were getting very… cozy.