Here at Daytona Tiki Finder we define a Tiki Bar as any beachside bar that includes some combination the elements listed below and is within walking distance of the Worlds Most Famous Beach, is open to the public and allows a thirsty beach goer to walk up and have a tropical drink or a cold beer.
Wikipedia defines a Tiki Bar as: A Tiki Bar is an exotic?themed drinking establishment that serves fancy cocktails, especially rum-based mixed drinks such as the Mai Tai or the Zombie Cocktail. Tiki bars are often defined by their Tiki culture d?cor which can include "Tiki God" masks and carvings; tapa cloth and tropical fabrics; torches, woven fish traps, and glass floats; hula girls and palm tree motifs. Beverages are usually served in fanciful ceramic vessels (referred to as "tiki mugs") often garnished with paper cocktail umbrellas, live flowers or plastic animals.
Muted colors, natural exotic materials, real and/or artificial plants and low-wattage lighting add to the exotic ambiance of a tiki bar. Many feature indoor fountains, bamboo fixtures, beach flotsam, woven grass wall-coverings, and panoramic South Pacific murals.
The first Tiki Bar was named Don the Beachcomber,
created in Los Angeles in 1933 by Ernest Gantt (aka Donn Beach). The bar served a wide variety of exotic rum drinks (including the popular Sumatra Kula and Zombie Cocktail) and Cantonese dishes, and hosted many artifacts which Gantt had found and picked up on a youthful jaunt through tropical locales. When Gannt was sent to World War II, Don the Beachcomber flourished under his ex-wife's management, turning into a chain with 16 restaurants.
When Gantt returned from the war, he moved to Hawaii and created Waikiki Beach, one of the two canonical bars that frame the Tiki Bar experience. The bar was drenched in South Pacific ambience, decked in palm trees, tiki masks on the walls, a garden hose that showered a gentle rain on the roof and a myna bird that was trained to shout "Give me a beer, stupid!" The bar was on the beach, lit by tiki torches outside which gave it some of its primitive ambience.
These days a Tiki Bar is based less on the original Tiki culture and more on the kitsch that defined the bars themselves.
Gantt had found and picked up on a youthful jaunt through tropical locales. When Gannt was sent to World War II, Don the Beachcomber flourished under his ex-wife's management, turning into a chain with 16 restaurants.