The rebirth of tiki chic: Hong Kong’s best Polynesian-style bars
Created by ‘Don the Beachcomber’ in Los Angeles in 1933, tiki bars thrived until the 1970s, and have made a comeback over the past 10 years. We talk to the people behind Hong Kong’s four ‘modern tiki’ outlets
It’s hard to think of an example of kitsch with more staying power than “tiki” – a wholly inauthentic representation of the cultures of the Polynesian Islands, thrown together in California in the 1930s. The name derives from a Maori creation myth.
Tiki design themes remained fashionable right through the 1960s. Two notable examples of quiet good taste (I’m being ironic here) from the style’s heyday were the Jungle Room of Elvis Presley’s Graceland and the pool area of Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion.
However, most people got their taste for the look, and its associated sweet rum-based cocktails, in bars, restaurants and bowling alleys.
The Tiki themed bar and restaurant chains founded by Donn “Don the Beachcomber” Beach and Victor Jules “Trader Vic” Bergeron were particularly successful.
“Tiki declined a lot in the 1970s,” says Max Traverse, founder of two of Hong Kong’s four Tiki businesses, and the man responsible for introducing what he calls “modern tiki” or “tiki chic” to the town.
“The hotels got rid of their tiki bars. Only a few survived. Then it started to come back as ‘modern tiki’ in the late 1980s and 1990s.”
Trader Vic’s London operation at the Hilton Park Lane - open since 1963 – survived the cull, but Traverse says it was a nightclub in nearby Dover Street that opened in 2006 that really got the revival going in earnest.