The fascinating story behind California’s mid-twentieth century obsession with all things Polynesian and Hawaiian. After World War II, suburbs proliferated around California cities as returning soldiers traded in their uniforms for business suits. After-hours leisure activities took on an island-themed sensuality that bloomed from a new fascination with Polynesia and Hawaii. Movies and television shows filmed in Malibu and Burbank urged viewers to escape everyday life with the likes of Elvis, Gidget, and Hawaiian Eye. Restaurants like Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic’s sprang up to answer the demand for wild cocktails and even wilder décor. A strange hodgepodge of idols, lush greenery and colorful drinks, Tiki beckoned men and women to lose themselves in exotic music and surf tunes. Take a trip back in time to the scene of Polynesian pop and three decades of palm trees, Mai Tais, and torches with this informal guide to the rise, fall, and resurgence of Tiki culture.

Martin and Rebecca Cate, founders and owners of Smuggler’s Cove (the most acclaimed tiki bar of the modern era) take you on a colorful journey into the lore and legend of tiki: its birth as an escapist fantasy for Depression-era Americans; how exotic cocktails were invented, stolen, and re-invented; Hollywood starlets and scandals; and tiki’s modern-day revival, in this James Beard Award-winning cocktail book. Featuring more than 100 delicious recipes (original and historic), plus a groundbreaking new approach to understanding rum, Smuggler’s Cove is the magnum opus of the contemporary tiki renaissance. Whether you’re looking for a new favorite cocktail, tips on how to trick out your home tiki grotto, help stocking your bar with great rums, or inspiration for your next tiki party, Smuggler’s Cove has everything you need to transform your world into a Polynesian Pop fantasia. Make yourself a Mai Tai, put your favorite exotica record on the hi-fi, and prepare to lose yourself in the fantastical world of tiki, one of the most alluring—and often misunderstood—movements in American cultural history.

South Sea Dreams around the cocktail bar - on the trail of the forgotten Tiki cult of the Fifties. One of the most bizarre chapters of American Pop Culture awaits rediscovery.

Polynesian Pop Icon: How Tiki became an American dream Urban islands and bamboo hideaways set the stage for a pop culture phenomenon like no other. In mid-century America, the imaginative appeal of Tiki penetrated fashion, music, eating, drinking, and architecture. Published in connection with an exhibition at the prestigious Mus�e du quai Branly in Paris, Tiki Pop traces the development of Tiki as romantic vision and cultural appropriation. Follow Tiki from James Cook's first Pacific Island expeditions, through Gauguin's exotic paintings, Hollywood jungle fantasies, and elaborate temples erected to celebrate Tiki as the god of recreation. With hundreds of previously unpublished images, Tiki the pop icon unfolds from its earliest, enthusiastic beginnings to its spectacular downfall in the dawning awareness of the Western world's colonial misdeeds. This book is the culmination of the extensive research of Sven Kirsten, urban archaeologist, Tiki sage, and author of earlier TASCHEN books, The Book of Tiki and Tiki Modern, which first recovered the figure of Tiki from obscurity. In his widely lauded graphic style, Kirsten places venerable ancient godheads next to their Polynesian pop counterparts, movie posters next to matchboxes, comic strips next to Robinson Crusoe illustrations. The result is at once a visual feast, a piece of cultural history, and a tribute to a very particular vision of paradise. Text in English, French, and German

The 2nd edition of Tiki Road Trip has been completely updated, expanded, and globalized. The best—and only—guide to Polynesian pop culture, written by Tiki expert and urban archaeologist James Teitelbaum, now contains even more listings and reviews of Tiki bars and Polynesian restaurants, even more photographs, and even more drink recipes. The International listings have been expanded as well, and the Hawaiian glossary is much more comprehensive. All in all, the second edition of Tiki Road Trip is a superior refinement of what was already an indispensable book for followers of the ever-growing Tiki movement. From Tiki godfathers Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic to classic Exotica favorites Martin Denny and Les Baxter to contemporary Tiki artists Shag and Bosko, this resource covers everything Tiki in prose that is witty, entertaining, and essential for anyone who has ever stepped up to a bar, glanced up at the pufferfish hanging from the ceiling, and ordered a Singapore Sling. In addition to the exhaustive listings, recipes for classic Tiki cocktails, a glossary of Tiki terms, and resources for buying Tiki goods and artifacts are also included. Reminiscences of famous points of interest that have closed are provided for the completist, for historical perspective, and for those seeking information on the current status of a favorite Tiki site which may have closed. So slip on your grass skirt or Aloha shirt, because Tiki Road Trip is going to take you on a tour of the Tiki universe that will make waves from the shores of Rapa Nui to the beaches of Oahu!

This edition of The Grog Log is NOT SPIRAL BOUND. Tiki bar mixology is a lost art--but the Grog Log rescues it. A twenty-page introduction traces the history of Polynesian Pop, then teaches you everything you need to know about how to make the Grog Log's eighty tropical drink recipies. Many of these recipies have never before been published anywhere--including vintage "lost" recipies by Don the Beachcomber, Trader Vic, and long-gone Polynesian restaurants from the island of Manhattan to the islands of Hawaii. Profusely illustrated with vintage tiki menu graphics from the '50 and '60s, with cover art by famed Exotica artist Bosko. Review SIPS - Trader Vic Drank Here By WILLIAM GRIMES As John Glenn was orbiting the earth for the first time, his fellow Americans were deep into the long-lived craze known as tiki. This gaudy life-style package -- a blend of Polynesian kitsch, fake island food and lethal rum drinks -- began in the late 1930's and early 40's with Los Angeles restaurants like Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic's, and gradually spread to the suburban patio before fizzling out in the early 1970's. It's back, of course. Jeff Berry and Annene Kaye, serious students of tiki, have compiled a serious tiki cocktail book, "Beachbum Berry's Grog Log." In 96 spiral-bound pages adorned with tiki illustrations, the authors have ranged far and wide to gather classic Polynesian fakes, like the Fog Cutter from Trader Vic's, the Missionary's Downfall from Don the Beachcomber and the Sidewinder's Fang from the Lanai Restaurant in San Mateo, Calif. They have even managed to unearth Manhattan tiki cocktails, like the Hawaiian Room, served at the old Hotel Lexington in the 1940's, and the Headhunter, served at the Hawaii Kai in the 1960's. The authors have also come up with their own tiki-inspired originals, like Hell in the Pacific (151-proof Demerara rum, lime juice, maraschino liqueur and grenadine), and the Waikikian (light Puerto Rican Rum, dark Jamaican rum, lemon juice, curaao and orgeat syrup). It's no longer possible to eat Tonga Tabu Native Drum Steak, which was a featured menu item at the now-defunct Islander in Beverly Hills ("from the ovens of the ancient goddess of Bora Bora, Pele, Mistress of Flame"), but you can shake up a Shark's Tooth or a Shrunken Skull. As Mr. Berry and Ms. Kaye see it, they are giving the country the perfect drink book for the age of malaise. "If we're going to feel like zombies," they write in their preface, "we may as well be drinking them." END -- Publisher Comments About the Author Jeff Berry is a learned fan of tropical drinks and is perhaps the foremost authority on the subject. He is also a screenwriter and filmaker.

Beginning in Tijuana during Prohibition, influenced by Hollywood studios, and continuing past its hosting of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet during WWII, San Diego became an incubator for the nation's obsession with all things Tiki. Hundreds of thousands of peoplepassed through San Diego's military bases, and many stayed to open up their own personal visions of a Polynesian island paradise. Over 70 nautical, island, Tiki and American-Chinese bars and restaurants are presented in this historical survey, with stories and recipes from the people who made them, hundreds of vintage photos, ephemera and graphic art, many never-before-published.