The tiki-fied home of Joe (with his dancing macaw parrot, Sheena) and his wife, Nicole, even boasts branded party-ware: “We have our own glasses made up that say ‘Rhum Rhum Room‘ on them,” says Nicole. (Christian Johnston)
The tiki-fied home of Joe (with his dancing macaw parrot, Sheena) and his wife, Nicole, even boasts branded party-ware: “We have our own glasses made up that say ‘Rhum Rhum Room‘ on them,” says Nicole. (Christian Johnston)
This bitter, snowy winter has done the unthinkable: It’s turning even the most social of New Yorkers into homebodies. But how do you keep your spirits up when you’re stuck indoors? Turn your thoughts (and your décor) to the South Seas!
Over the past few years, tropical-themed tiki culture has taken off in the city, with new hot spots Lani Kai, the Hurricane Club and Painkiller popping up on the Manhattan scene. Tiki, with its roots in the ’40s and ’50s, appeals to the current nostalgia for the classics, says Michael Stillman, owner of Flatiron bar Riff Raff, which opened last month as the nightclub counterpart to the Hurricane Club.
“We wanted to do a modern version of [Polynesian restaurant chain] Trader Vic’s or a tiki palace,” he says. “It’s silly and has a sort of childlike enthusiasm.”
Now, thanks to the absurdly bad weather, a growing number of New Yorkers and Jerseyites are taking the tiki trend and importing it into their apartments. With a little mood lighting, some ceramic mugs, a couple of Elvis albums and a few tiki torches (decorative only!), you can turn your place into a Polynesian oasis. Just ask East Village resident Barry Kushelowitz, who boasts “the most tiki per square inch” in his 140-square-foot apartment. Or Nicole and Joe, whose Rhum Rhum Room is well-known among the tiki community (which gathers online at TikiCentral.com) for its real-fruit-juice rum drinks — and a dancing macaw named Sheena.
Oh, and an overactive radiator, that staple of NYC living, could actually come in handy in this respect. Just close the windows and break out the bathing suit!
* JOE AND NICOLE, West Village
“The Rhum Rhum Room is the most amazing tiki home bar I’ve seen in Manhattan — you really feel like you’re in the South Pacific,” says Brazilian documentarian Duda Leite, who chronicled the tiki scene in his film “Tikimentary.”
Indeed, Joe and Nicole — who have withheld their last names to keep their place under the radar — are famous in tiki circles for having the coolest pad around. “Between their birds, tiki decorations and hundreds of bottles of booze scattered all over the place, it’s the feeling of aloha,” says their pal, Kevin Dea. “They welcome all friends of friends.”
The couple, who decked out their living room in tiki regalia four years ago, aim to convince people that tiki cocktail culture is more than plastic umbrellas and grenadine. “You can make really good tiki drinks,” says Nicole, 41, a visual artist. “Not those sickly sweet drinks that might look fun but aren’t necessarily good.” Joe, a 43-year-old accountant, even makes his own homemade syrups to flavor the drinks.
Having a tiki palace makes winter more bearable, says Nicole. “We don’t like to go out much. We already have all the booze and everything here, and especially in the winter, you don’t have to go out — we have everybody come to us.”
* GINA HAASE Wallington, NJ
“It’s so nice, when you don’t feel like going out in the rain or the cold, to go up and sit in your tiki lounge,” says Gina Haase, an interior designer and illustrator.“It’s my own little personal paradise.”
Haase’s bar, dubbed The Blue Lory, takes up the whole third floor of her place — and putting it together was no small thing. “Collecting the flotsam and jetsam that makes up a tiki bar can take years,” says Haase, 43. “I’ve seen people go out and buy a whole bunch of stuff and throw it together in a week, but it’s probably been about 15 years of collecting items for me.”
Haase used to to scoop up kitschy tiki mugs at the Salvation Army, but “no one throws them away anymore because they’re cool now!” So she relies on eBay and garage sales.
The tiki hostess is a foodie and a cocktail aficionado; in addition to having a signature Blue Lory drink (gin and coconut), she’s lately been featuring a rum-and-lemon drink she came across in an old recipe book from Trader Vic’s.
Haase also has a “pretty extensive” collection of tiki-themed garb, including matching outfits for herself and her boyfriend, Jack Fetterman.
She and Fetterman, 56, are both into “exotica” music, so she’s got a deejay booth in the bar. When they’re not throwing their own private luaus, Haase and her man can be found at LES spot Painkiller on Tuesday nights, bringing their tropical tunes to the masses.
* BARRY KUSHELOWITZ East Village
Self-described renaissance man Barry Kushelowitz, who produces a tiki-themed podcast at ExoticaHour.com, became interested in the bygone era about 10 years ago, when he was walking on St. Marks Place and heard the sounds of Martin Denny’s album “Exotica” drifting from a store. He bought his first tikis and paintings at about the same time from the now-shuttered East Village vintage shop Love Saves the Day, and his passion snowballed from there.
His 140-square-foot apartment, which he’s dubbed Capt. Kush’s InterGalactic Tiki Hut (“Everyone’s called me Capt. Kush since I was a kid — too much ‘Star Trek’ as a young child!” he says), now sports “probably hundreds” of tiki-related items. The space is jampacked with tiki surf-men and torches, many of which are colored with DayGlo paint, as well as zebra lamps, black light beads and glow-in-the-dark stars on his ceiling. Japanese and Vietnamese silk lamps and paintings straight from Thailand round out the space.
“The point of tiki exotica is that they’re collected from different parts of the world,” he says.
Despite the fact that he has two additional storage rooms of tiki paraphernalia, he says the low rent on his place gives him no reason to move to a bigger home. But he does hope to open his own tiki haunt someday, because he believes true tiki bars that hearken back to the heyday of Trader Vic’s are few and far between.
“They brought a certain showmanship and innovation to it,” he says. “You have to have the look, music and drinks . . . and I see hardly any people that get all these elements.”
Get isle style
AS hostess of the Rhum Rhum Room in her West Village apartment, Nicole knows a thing or two about tiki décor, which she’s happy to share with aspiring Trader Vics. One major source of these island-themed goods is TikiFarm.com. Look for items like:
* Tiki mugs: “A lot of tiki restaurants sell them too, like Trader Vic’s and Don the Beachcomber [both online]. Or you can get vintage ones on eBay.”
* Thatching: “To put around the bar area, to get a thatched-roof look to it,” and bamboo furniture.
* Colored light bulbs and — if you’re really ambitious — dark wall paint. “A tiki bar should be dark and mysterious, where you feel like you don’t know where you are and you don’t know what time it is.”
* Nautical décor: “There’s a lot of crossover between nautical stuff and tiki,” Nicole says. “Portholes, netting — people use fishnets a lot.”
* Cocktail garnishes: Classically, this is the tiny drink umbrella. Nicole and her husband, Joe, also recommend using real flowers, especially orchids.
* Anything involving animal prints: “They’re very exotic, and always fun.”
* Velvet paintings: Preferably of Hawaiian dancing girls.
* OTHER ART: “Anything kitschy, midcentury modern.” Nicole suggests two current artists who use this style: Shag (shag.com) and Derek Yaniger (derekart.com).