Tiki Bars 2018

I visited 34 tiki bars in 2018, up from 25 in 2017. It’s helpful that 14 of these are in pretty easy driving distance, and very much a blessing that there are so many great tiki bars in the greater Bay Area (there are even a few good ones, like the Tonga Room, that I didn’t visit in 2018).

At Trader Vic's in Emeryville for Real Mai Tai Day
At Trader Vic's in Emeryville for Real Mai Tai Day

The most-visited tiki bar was The Kon-Tiki in Oakland, the bar that’s most convenient to travel to (thank you 12th Street BART Station). I am not sure I’ll be able to get to 34 again in 2019 but I still enjoy visiting new tiki bars and “crossing them off the list”.

Tiki Bars 2018
Jan 19 Damon’s (1)
Feb 13 The Kon-Tiki (2)
Feb 18 Forbidden Island (3)
Feb 18 Trader Vic’s Emeryville (4)
Feb 19 Tiki Tom’s (5)
Mar 3 Devil’s Reef (6)
Mar 3 Tacoma Cabana (7)
Mar 19 Pagan Idol (8)
April 1 Tambu Lounge (9)
April 1 Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto (10)
April 4 Tiki Room Restaurant and Bar (11)
April 4 Tiki Tolteca (12)
April 5 Beachbum Berry’s Latitude 29 (13)
April 21 Billy’s at the Beach (14)
April 21 Purple Orchid Tiki Lounge (15)
April 22 High Roller Tiki Lounge (16)
May 20 Hula’s Island Grill and Tiki Bar (Santa Cruz) (17)
May 20 The Reef Bar / Pono’s Hawaiian Grill (18)
May 26 Jungle Bird (19)
June 30 Smuggler’s Cove (20)
July 15 The Alibi (21)
July 15 Hale Pele (22)
July 17 Navy Strength (23)
July 22 Luau Lounge (24)
July 25 Last Rites (25)
July 28 Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar (26)
August 4 Hula Hoops (27)
August 25 Tiki Pete’s (28)
November 10 Hukilau (29)
November 17 Hula’s Island Grill and Tiki Room (Monterey) (30)
December 17 The Zombie Village (31)
December 29 Tiki-Ko (32)
December 31 Jan & Dean’s Tiki Lounge (33)
December 31 The Royal Hawaiian (34)

2017 Tiki Bar Visits

I visited 25 tiki bars in 2017, which is a mix of luck and effort. I was fortunate to visit some new cities, where I was able to visit some great tiki bars. In particular, the tiki bars in San Diego and Portland were highlights. Some bars below I was able to visit several times.

Surprises? Tiki-Ko in Bakersfield is amazing and well worth going out of your way to visit. I had suuuuuper high expectations for False Idol and Hale Pale and in both cases all the expectations were exceeded. Superb places!

The Jungle Bird in Sacramento
The Jungle Bird in Sacramento
  1. Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto (Orlando)
  2. Trader Vic’s Emeryville
  3. Smuggler’s Cove (SF)
  4. Forbidden Island (Alameda)
  5. Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar (Anaheim)
  6. The Jungle Bird (Sacramento)
  7. Longitude (Oakland, RIP)
  8. Kona Club (Oakland)
  9. Pagan Idol (SF)
  10. Hukilau (San Jose)
  11. Cat Eye Club (San Diego)
  12. Bali Hai Restaurant (San Diego)
  13. False Idol (San Diego)
  14. Trad’r Sam (SF)
  15. The Alibi (Portland)
  16. Hale Pele (Portland)
  17. The Shameful Tiki Room (Vancouver, B.C.)
  18. Tiki-Ko (Bakersfield)
  19. Bamboo Hut (SF)
  20. The Royal Hawaiian (Laguna Beach)
  21. Aku Aku (Orlando)
  22. Hula’s Island Grill and Tiki Room (Santa Cruz)
  23. The Kon-Tiki (Oakland)
  24. The Tonga Room (SF)
  25. Luau Lounge (SF)

Thanks to Julie Crossman who was my partner in crime for most of these visits.

Also thanks to Jim and Richelle for the fun SF Tiki Bar Crawl on the hottest day in San Francisco history. It was too hot but still lots of fun. We visited three bars in one night (Smuggler’s Cove, Bamboo Hut, and Pagan Idol).

Tiki Bar Visits – Updated

Here’s the latest from my Critiki profile. I’ve been fortunate this year to visit to some more local tiki places, and filled in some visits from previous years. I also visited tiki bars in Portland and Vancouver on our recent vacation.

tiki-updated

The great thing about Critiki is that you can rate the bars on various categories including drink quality, drink variety, decor, music, and more. Here are my top 10 rated tiki bars, with my personal rating on scale of 10.

  1. Smuggler’s Cove (San Francisco) 9.6
  2. Trader Vic’s (Emeryville) 9.5
  3. Hale Pele (Portland) 9.4
  4. Forbidden Island (Alameda) 9.3
  5. Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar (Disneyland) 9.3
  6. La Mariana Sailing Club (Honolulu) 8.9
  7. False Idol (San Diego) 8.8
  8. Tiki-Ti (Los Angeles) 8.8
  9. Hula’s Island Grill and Tiki Room (Santa Cruz) 8.5
  10. Tonga Room (San Francisco) 8.5

Tiki Bar Visits

The world’s best website for Tiki Bars is Criktiki and they’ve added a new feature that shows you all the tiki places you’ve visited (which includes tiki-themed hotels, retail establishments, and museums). This is my map, from visits in last ten years. This has grown a lot in the past year or so, as I’ve had the pleasure of visiting some great establishments outside of the SF Bay Area.

tiki

My Personal Top 10 Tiki Bars and Ratings

Smuggler’s Cove
San Francisco, CA 9.6

Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar
Anaheim, CA 9.3

Trader Vic’s
Emeryville, CA 9.3

Forbidden Island Tiki Lounge
Alameda, CA 9.2

La Mariana Sailing Club
Honolulu, HI 8.9

Tiki-Ti
Los Angeles, CA 8.8

Hula’s Island Grill & Tiki Room
Santa Cruz, CA 8.5

Tonga Room
San Francisco, CA 8.5

Don the Beachcomber
Huntington Beach, CA 8.4

Damon’s
Glendale, CA 8.3

Fearless Oscar Picks 2017

Update: only got 14 right this year (correct pick in bold) – my worst year ever. Though, considering that I saw the guys from La La Land accept Best Picture can I at least get partial credit?

It’s a sweep mostly for La La Land, which I thought was amazing (better than Lion and Hidden Figures, the two other Best Picture nominees I’ve actually seen). Picking Denzel Washington over Casey Affleck in what is surely a close race.

Best Picture
La La Land

Directing
Damien Chazelle, La La Land

Actor in a Leading Role
Denzel Washington, Fences

Actress in a Leading Role
Emma Stone, La La Land

Actress in a Supporting Role
Viola Davis, Fences

Actor in a Supporting Role
Mahershala Ali, Moonlight

Adapted Screenplay
Moonlight, Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney

Original Screenplay
La La Land, Damien Chazelle

Animated Feature Film
Zootopia

Foreign Language Film
A Man Called Ove (Sweden)

Documentary Feature
O.J.: Made in America

Cinematography
La La Land, Linus Sandgren

Film Editing
La La Land, Tom Cross

Production Design
La La Land, Davis Wasco and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco

Costume Design
Jackie, Madeline Fontaine

Makeup and Hairstyling
Star Trek Beyond, Joel Harlow and Richard Alonzo

Original Score
La La Land, Justin Hurwitz

Original Song
“City of Stars,” La La Land, music by Justin Hurwitz, lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

Sound Editing
Hacksaw Ridge, Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright

Sound Mixing
La La Land, Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee, and Steve A. Morrow

Visual Effects
The Jungle Book, Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones, and Dan Lemmon

Animated Short Film
Piper

Live Action Short Film
Ennemis Interieurs

Documentary Short Subject
The White Helmets

Most Played Songs of 2015

As part of an annual tradition here are my most listened to songs of 2015, based on play data from iTunes. In contrast to 2013 and 2014, the gender representation has basically flipped as the top of my charts feature female artists or female-fronted bands in nearly every top slot.

Charli XCX’s excellent Sucker album was a holdover from late 2014, but her new track “Mow That Lawn” that debuted at Positivus and was a staple of her live shows was my favorite track of the year. I also enjoyed new albums from Metric, Madonna, and a long-awaited comeback from the original lineup of Veruca Salt. And credit for UK post-punk revival band Editors for adding a bit of testosterone this year.

In total I listed to 2829 songs, up from 2669 last year.

Name Artist Album Plays
Mow That Lawn Charli XCX Live At Positivus Festival 2015 59
Nuclear Seasons Charli XCX You’re the One – EP 53
Famous Charli XCX Sucker 49
SuperLove Charli XCX SuperLove – Single 42
Nuclear Seasons (Live) Charli XCX The Blind Club 35
Cool for the Summer Demi Lovato Cool for the Summer – Single 33
Forgiveness Editors In Dream 32
The Museum of Broken Relationships Veruca Salt The Museum of Broken Relationships – Single 32
Breaking Up Charli XCX Sucker 31
Break The Rules Charli XCX Sucker 30
The Shade Metric Pagans in Vegas 30
The Fatal Gift Metric Single 30
Empty Bottle Veruca Salt Ghost Notes 30
Sucker Charli XCX Sucker 29
Gold Coins Charli XCX Sucker 29
Body Of My Own Charli XCX Sucker 29
Alternative: Forgiveness Editors In Dream 28
Rebel Heart Madonna Rebel Heart 28
It’s Holy Veruca Salt It’s Holy – Single 28
London Queen Charli XCX Sucker 27
No Harm Editors In Dream 26
The Face, Pt. I Metric Pagans in Vegas 26
The Gospel According to Saint Me Veruca Salt Ghost Notes 26
I Want Candy (Live) Charli XCX Transmitter 25
Ocean of Night Editors In Dream 25
Alternative: No Harm Editors In Dream 25
Fortunes Metric Pagans in Vegas 25
Cascades Metric Pagans in Vegas 25
Office Towers Escalate Metric Pagans in Vegas 25
Laughing in the Sugar Bowl Veruca Salt Ghost Notes 25
The Museum of Broken Relationships Veruca Salt Ghost Notes 25
Break the Rules (Live) Charli XCX Live At I Heart Radio 24
Hanging Around Charli XCX Sucker 24
Devil Pray Madonna Rebel Heart 24
The Governess Metric Pagans in Vegas 24
Nuclear Seasons (Live) Charli XCX iTunes Festival: London 2012 – EP 23
The Lebanon The Human League The Very Best Of The Human League 23
Love You Less Veruca Salt Ghost Notes 23
Boom Clap (Live) Charli XCX Transmitter 22
Ghosttown Madonna Rebel Heart 22
The Forbidden Zone Oingo Boingo Oingo Boingo Demo EP 22
Lost To Me Veruca Salt Ghost Notes 22
Alternica Veruca Salt Ghost Notes 22

AT&T Park

I saw two SF Giants games at AT&T Park this weekend, though I only paid for one. I flew home from Chicago on Friday night and arrived at the stadium to have a hot dog from a street vendor and to watch the game from the free viewing section in right field. Julie and Quinn were at the game and I thought about trying to get in, but it was cold and they wanted to leave anyway.

The next day we went to a game starting at 6:05 and got to see sundown around the stadium. It made the pretty ballpark even more picturesque.

cenaom6ukamvy93-large

Spring Training 2015

Julie and I spent the weekend in Phoenix a couple weekends ago to see the SF Giants at Spring Training. We attended a very relaxed game at Surprise, AZ, the home of the Texas Rangers (and KC Royals). The next day we went to the SF Giants home in Scottsdale, AZ. We liked Old Town Scottsdale but it was warmer and less shady so we didn’t love the in-game experience. Overall, we had a great time attending Spring Training.

Giraffe Encounter at Safari West

For Easter we traveled to the Santa Rosa area for a little mini trip. On Sunday we played around in the pool at the hotel, where I had a fun time filming Quinn.

On Monday, we went to Safari West for an early tour of the animal park. We got to sit on the top of the truck for the first portion of the tour, where we had an up close and personal encounter with a giraffe. Up. Close. And. Personal.