Post #135397 by Kono on Thu, Jan 13, 2005 5:32 PM

Mainstream, of course.

I was starting to lately get into the tiki doldrums, thinking my apartment looks stupid, why do I spend so much money on this stuff etc. Then I spent this past weekend at the Tonga Room and Trader Vics and my tiki batteries are recharged!

Will the tiki underground keep Trader Vics in business? I don't think so. The folks I saw buying the ten dollar drinks and thirty dollar entrees were not wearing aloha shirts or Kustom Kulture T-shirts, they were wearing some pretty fancy duds. And if there were a half dozen people there under 30 I'd be surprised. I couldn't get a table Saturday night because I didn't have a reservation and that was a nice thing to see.

Mainstream doesn't have to mean being popular with the college/MTV/Old Navy crowd. I'd like to see tiki become mainstream with its original demographic, adults who just want to get a little loose, get a little goofy and have a good time.

Even taking tiki out of the equation, it just seems like people don't get to know their neighbors and have neighborhood cook outs and parties like they did when I was a kid. People liked to entertain back then. Nowadays you go out for drinks with co-workers but barely know your neighbors. Where did that sense of community go? I think that whatever took it away is what took away the tiki bars, the teepee campgrounds and all the little roadside zoos and museums.

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