Portland Tiki

The Legacy of the TikiThe history of the Tiki Bar is an essential part of American popular culture and spread out from California to include tiki bars over the globe. Once numbering in the thousands, and building in popularity from the 1930s, tiki bars had their heyday after WWII through the late 1960s. This was due in part to the nostalgia and new found tastes of returning servicemen from the South Pacific, a national craze for “Hawaiiana” culture after it became the 50th State in 1959, and the American love of all things boozey during that era of the martini lunch and standard pre-dinner cocktail hour. While some, like Trader Vic’s, served high end food in a tasteful and hushed atmosphere, many tiki bars were outrageous, wild, and vaguely sexy and naughty with their half naked hula girls and topless Polynesian lady paintings. They were also sometimes completely over the top with flaming torches in the parking lots, Vegas style theatrical floor shows, live parrots and other animals, and even giant smoking volcanoes. Some, like the still going strong Tonga Room in San Francisco, had elaborate fountains and fake lagoons with floating band stages, and regularly scheduled tropical “monsoon” rain storms. It is also widely thought that Tiki bars had such an appeal because they allowed an exotic, albeit safe and relatively affordable, few hours of escape from the button tight new suburban world for the dames and fellas of that otherwise outwardly conservative generation.
Thatch looks back and captures that earlier golden era of the Tiki bar before they became victims of changing tastes and lifestyles; before the alcoholics and down on their luck bar flies began to take them over in the 1970s; before the atmosphere was watered down by adding obnoxious Keno machines; or before a whole bunch of them turned into, gasp, sports bars. Sadly, by the 1990s, many of the original tiki bars had closed with a few strongholds such as the Alibi on N. Interstate or several Trader Vic’s locations still holding the torch. Thankfully, tiki bars are once again experiencing a renaissance, and as the diverse crowd at Thatch shows, this is with both young and old alike.
Tiki fanatics are roaming the internet, building elaborate private basement and backyard tiki habitats, forming local clubs, publishing books, and there are even several new Trader Vic’s opening up, including one that recently opened just outside of Seattle. Also, watch out for the 5th annual Portland Tiki Kon 2007 convention this summer, where Thatch will most certainly be at the center.
Thatch has the nostalgia, feel, and wonderful aesthetic appeal of the tiki bar down pat. Furthermore, Thatch is keeping the Tiki dream fresh by taking the time and care to honor this unique historical and cultural phenomenon through authentic décor, attention to detail, and some damn whopping good drinks. As the little birds in the Enchanted Tiki Room sing,

“In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki RoomAll the birds sing words and the flowers croonIn the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki RoomWelcome to our tropical hideaway, you lucky people you!”

Link to MenuAddress: 2733 NE Broadway, Portland, OR. 97232. Google MapPhone: (503) 281-8454Hours: 5pm to 2am daily. Happy Hour 5pm-6:30pm - $5 Mai Tai’s, dollar off well drinks($4)