Get Morning Report and other email newsletters

Get Morning Report and other email newsletters

It’s a rum-fueled tropical escape perfect for this chilly winter.

As the modern tiki bar revival continues its colorful spread across the Bay Area, it brings bright cocktails and island vibes inspired by Donn Beach and Oakland’s own Victor Bergeron to pandemic patrons from San Jose to Oakland and Napa.

“Tiki is intended to be fun, and when it’s done right, the escapism feels authentic,” says Daniel “Doc” Parks, a Trader Vic’s alum who has led builds and designed cocktail programs for many of the Bay Area’s modern tiki bars. “And if there was ever a time that there was a collective need to escape, it’s now.”

What’s perhaps most inspiring about this recent wave of new tiki bars — including Dr. Funk, Wilfred’s Lounge and The Kon-Tiki Room — are the artisans, bartenders and dreamers who come together, again and again, to create singular interpretations of what Michael Thanos and Martin Cate started 15 years ago when they revived the genre with Alameda’s Forbidden Island.

While these newer destinations check the required boxes — ocean-themed decor, hand-carved statues, proper mai tais — they are innovating food and beverage programs to include modern ingredients from all ports of call. Candied salmon rangoons? Yes, please. Jamaican Zombie with mango and Scotch bonnet peppers? We’ll take two.

Here are five new Bay Area tiki bars you do not want to miss.

Restaurateur David Mulvehill and the rest of the folks behind downtown San Jose’s new tiki bar reached way back in history — decades before Trader Vic and Don the Beachcomber — for their rum-house inspiration. They found Dr. Bernard Funk, the German-born physician who attended to “Treasure Island” author Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa in the late 1800s and dabbled in bartending on the side, as one surely would when living in a humid paradise.

The good doctor’s mission gave noted tiki designer Notch Gonzalez license to add laboratory beakers, flasks and medical paraphernalia to the thatched roofing. Pufferfish lights made by a local artist hang overhead and a tiki carved by Gonzalez himself stands sentry at the door. On the patio, there is seating for 80.

Thailand-born Ken Wongdejanan, the bar manager of sister bars Five Points and O’Flaherty’s, created a menu of 20 cocktails, many evocative of other destinations. The Siren’s Shore ($15, a liquid riff on that Thai favorite, mango with sticky rice) blends Kesar mango, salted coconut and Amaro Montenegro. The Sunken Galleon ($15) brings together Jamaican rum, cognac, Oaxacan chocolate bitters and ginger.

Executive chef Matt Williams, formerly of Oak & Rye and The Bywater, is currently planning a global menu with Japanese, Mexican, Peruvian and Thai influences after launching with Golden Curry ($18.25), Coconut Shrimp ($15.75) and other small plates.

As for the eponymous cocktail, Wongdejanan makes his tall, potent version of the doctor’s elixir for treating heat exhaustion with two rums, pomegranate, citrus and the absinthe-like Herbsaint liqueur ($15, limit of two per customer). Does it work? Well, from Dr. Funk’s opening in mid-December through today, not a single customer at this San Pedro Square bar has complained of the blazing sun.

Details: Open daily, 4 p.m. to midnight Sunday-Thursday, till 2 a.m. Friday-Saturday. 29 N. San Pedro St., San Jose. www.drfunksj.com

Creating wine country’s first tiki experience was not something the Komeses of Napa Valley took lightly, especially given the family’s roots in Hawaii. For father-and-son duo John and Nat Komes, who own Flora Springs Winery, a proper tropical restaurant and bar had to pay homage to their uncle Wilfred, a spirited drifter who worked as a bartender in Honolulu during the 1940s and ’50s.

At Wilfred’s Lounge, which opened in November in downtown Napa, you can imagine Uncle Wilfred strumming his uke on the rooftop “poop deck,” which offers views of the Napa River. Downstairs on the patio, a giant tiki statue carved by famed tiki artist Billy Crud greets visitors. Inside, there’s an outrigger dangling from the ceiling and a bamboo-wrapped bar courtesy of “Bamboo” Ben Bassham.

To create the vibe and cocktails, the Komeses brought on Parks, the Trader Vic’s alum, who led the builds and served as general manager for San Francisco tiki bars Pagan Idol and Zombie Village. Look for 17 tropical cocktails, such as the Maximum Aloha ($15), a Parks creation made with strawberry-infused Philippine rum, overproof Jamaican rum, prickly pear, hibiscus and coconut-banana whip. Executive chef Max Ackerman’s standouts include rangoons made with candied salmon and baby back ribs coated in five-spice and hoisin barbecue sauce.

Details: Open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday at 967 First St., Napa; https://wilfredslounge.com

When Christ Aivaliotis was a bartender at Oakland’s Flora and adjoining Fauna bar, tiki expert Martin Cate regularly popped into the Uptown spot, showing Aivaliotis a few liquor-layering tricks. The young bartender was hooked. Fifteen years later, Aivaliotis now owns both spots, which he transformed in 2021 into Palmetto and its dark, nautical-themed The Kon-Tiki Room.

Think of it as “disembarking from a ship into a ramshackle seaside town where pirates do their business,” Aivaliotis says.

“The Room” is not his first tiki bar. Aivaliotis opened the larger, flagship Kon-Tiki — a full-on tiki escapist destination — in downtown Oakland back in 2016. The same top-notch creative team, including artist Woody Miller and beverage director Jeanie Grant, helped bring the more intimate Kon-Tiki Room to life. The  small menu features bites — think fish sticks with miso creme fraiche — for the theater-going crowd.

The focus, however, is on the 15 cocktails with a twist, like the gin-based Saturn with passion fruit and orgeat, or the Frozen Disco Banana, made with rum, banana, cinnamon and lime.

“That’s what’s really interesting right now,” Aivaliotis says. “A lot of people are realizing that tiki drinks are what’s really fun — to me they are more exciting than tiki decor, and that’s kind of a controversial opinion.”

Sensing a swinging ’60s in outer space theme? It’s coming this summer.

Details: The Kon-Tiki is open 4 to 11 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and until midnight Saturday at 347 14th St., Oakland. The Kon-Tiki Room’s hours are 5 to 11 p.m. Thursday-Saturday at 1900 Telegraph Ave., Oakland; www.thekon-tikioakland.com

Starry ceilings, private, thatched-roof huts and an underwater-like standing bar await at this second tiki spot from Future Bars, the team behind San Francisco’s Pagan Idol. Opened in 2019 in the Tenderloin, Zombie Village is an homage to Oakland yachtsman and restaurateur Skipper Kent, who ran his tiki bar of the same name across the street from the original Trader Vic’s on San Pablo Avenue from the 1940s to the 1960s.

While the bar’s design is rooted in the South Pacific, its cocktails take inspiration from all over, including the Caribbean, with creations such as a spicy, mango-driven Jamaican Zombie and the eye-catching Coco Pandan, made with coconut milk, white rum and a coconut lychee popsicle. Tiki artists, including Ivan Mora, “Crazy” Al Evans and Mikel “MP” Parton, created custom works for the wildly theatrical space, which includes a battling giant squid and the tallest tiki statues.

Details: Open 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday-Saturday and until midnight Wednesday, at 441 Jones St., San Francisco; www.thezombievillage.com.

Panko-battered Spam fries. A “Bamboo” Ben-built tiki hideaway. And the Lapu-Lapu, a dark rum cocktail named after the Filipino chief who killed Ferdinand Magellan.

Hula Hoops, a tiki-meets-sports bar tucked into the Westborough Square shopping center of South San Francisco, wasn’t inspired by any long-standing tiki traditions. Rather, it was owner and Filipina immigrant Sherry Chua’s way of honoring her late father, a restaurateur who loved the ocean and took her to the beaches of Batangas, outside Manila, throughout her childhood.

To that end, the former banker knows “tiki fanatics will probably hate” that Hula Hoops plays island reggae or has the TV on during Bay Area sports games. But, she says, the family-friendly restaurant and bar serves its community of predominantly Asian families very well. “Most of my customers don’t even know what tiki is,” Chua says. “Our servers educate them, and they love it. We want them to have fun here.”

Even those in the know are drawn to the intimate bamboo-laced hut in the back, which can be reserved for parties of six to eight and provides a perfect spot for sharing a Scorpion Bowl. Standout cocktail creations include the Coco Banana, a blended cocktail made with aged rum and topped with housemade passion fruit whip. And when it comes to the Filipino-centric menu, don’t miss the Ube Pancakes (yes, they’re open for brunch), Mochiko Fried Chicken Loco Moco or Spam Fries served in a repurposed Spam tin with dipping sauces.

Details: Open from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, 4 to 9:30 p.m. Thursday-Friday and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekends at 2278 Westborough Blvd., South San Francisco; www.myhulahoops.com.

Forbidden Island, Alameda: Opened in 2006 by brothers Michael and Mano Thanos, this spot blazed a trail for modern tiki bars in the Bay Area. Look for a tiki garden and bottled cocktails and rum pours for to-go and local delivery. 1304 Lincoln Ave., Alameda; www.forbiddenislandalameda.com

Tiki Tom’s, Walnut Creek: Look for a recently completed expert redesign plus island-inspired pupus and 20-plus drinks at this long-lived sports-meets-tiki bar in the suburbs. 1535 Olympic Blvd., Walnut Creek; https://tikitoms.co

Tiki Pete, San Jose: After a long pandemic-era shutdown, owners Pete and Rena Be have transitioned their Hawaiian fusion restaurant and bar into Tiki Pete, while their Da Kine brand becomes a catering company. It’s currently open two nights a week, Friday and Saturday, with more hours coming. 23 N. Market St., San Jose. https://tikipete.us/

Trader Vic’s, Emeryville: Head to this bayside location to soak up tiki history and pay your respects. Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron invented the mai tai in nearby Oakland in 1944. This is one of the few U.S. locations. www.tradervicsemeryville.comRelated Articles Restaurants, Food and Drink | A walking tour of San Francisco’s Barbary Coast Trail, from the man who designed it Restaurants, Food and Drink | New takes on four neo-classical cocktails Restaurants, Food and Drink | Letters: A big step | Paperless billing | Housing issue | Cheney stands ground | Unanswered questions | Getting it right

Trader Vic’s, Mineta San Jose Airport: Need a little something to calm your nerves before your flight? There’s now a Trader Vic’s restaurant, bar and outpost in Terminal B near Gate 22. www.flysanjose.com/restaurants

Smuggler’s Cove, San Francisco: After helping open Forbidden Island, tiki mixologist Martin Cate left to open this tiki oasis in 2009 in San Francisco’s Fillmore district. Considered an international destination for rum, with an award-winning cookbook and the largest selection of tiki drinks in the area. 650 Gough St., S.F. www.smugglerscovesf.com

The Tonga Room, San Francisco: Since 1945, locals and tourists interested in an island getaway have been venturing to the top of Nob Hill and through the stately doors of the Fairmont Hotel to this iconic tiki palace. Sit and sip near the lagoon as you wait for the indoor thunderstorm. 950 Mason St., San Francisco. www.fairmont-san-francisco.com/dine/tonga-room/

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

Get Morning Report and other email newsletters