3 days ago
Tiki Bars Take Over At Omni Hotels From California To New York
Jeff "Beachbum" Berry at the Tiki Social pop-up at the San Diego Omni Hotel. Berry collaborated on ... More the drink and food menu and helped provide collateral such as the glasses here. Omni Hotels & Resorts will be providing the Tiki Social bar theme through Labor Day 2025.
The mysterious cult of tiki bar culture has made a comeback this summer. The thatched bars, wooden carvings, foreboding figures, aloha shirts and mesmerizing tropical drinks are at bars across Omni Hotels & Resorts, from New York to Florida to San Diego.
In June, the Omni San Diego at the Ballpark kicked off their summer popup Tiki Social, complete with poolside DJ and a Polynesian fire dancer. The Hawaiian shirt-clad bartenders mixed island drinks like 'Mai Tai Have Another' and 'The Tropical Tease' designed by Tiki bar expert Jeff 'Beachbum' Berry.
Waitresses brought 'pupus' (Hawaiian for appetizers), all part of Omni's 'Tiki Social, Where Every Hour is Happy' program. Non-imbibers can get in on the fun, with non-alcoholic options like the 'Designated Diver' and the 'Dry Tai' available
Most Omnis will feature a selection of Tiki Social cocktails at their lobby bars, while eleven locations will offer the full immersive Tiki Social experience and eight-drink menu.
But hurry; the Omni's Tiki Social is only on through Labor Day.
The Tiki Social popups include Omni Amelia Island Resort & Spa (Fernandina Beach, FL), the Omni Atlanta Hotel at Centennial Park (Atlanta, GA), the Omni Berkshire Place (New York NY), Omni La Costa Resort & Spa (Carlsbad, CA),Omni Las Colinas Hotel (Irving, TX), Omni Fort Worth Hotel (Fort Worth, TX), Omni Orlando Resort at Champions Gate (Orlando, FL), Omni PGA Frisco Resort & Spa (Frisco, TX), Omni Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa (Rancho Mirage, CA), Omni San Diego Hotel (San Diego, CA), and Omni Viking Lakes Hotel (Minneapolis, MN).
A Polynesian fire dancer performed at the grand opening of Tiki Social at the San Diego Omni in ... More June, 2025.
The Tiki bar culture Omni is celebrating goes back nearly a hundred years. Tiki bars were dark, mysterious places, full of foreboding carved figures, umbrella drinks, and indoor waterfalls, often created by Hollywood art directors.
The country had already fallen in love with exotic Polynesia with the 1920's ukulele craze. Posters of cruises to tropical destinations on-board the great Pan Am Clipper flying boat, as well as 1933's King Kong and the movie journey to mysterious Skull Island just fed the Tiki flames.
The Tiki bar arrived on the scene in the early 1930's, driven by two men, Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt (aka Don the Beachcomber) and Victor Bergeron (aka Trader Vic). Don the Beachcomber opened in Hollywood, California, the day after Prohibition ended in 1933. Don learned about exotic rum drinks in the Caribbean, and Hollywood responded, with celebrities from the Marx Brothers to Howard Hughes packing the Polynesia tiki-themed club.
Trader Vic's opened in Oakland, California, in 1934. Victor Bergeron embraced and expanded upon the Tiki concept, adding flair to the drinks and atmosphere. His restaurants, including one at the Beverly Hills Hotel, became famous for the Mai Tai Bergeron claimed to have invented, a staple of Tiki bars worldwide.
The two Tiki pioneers are said to have spawned 150 copy cats around the country. Trader Vic's is still a going concern, with bars in Emeryville, Atlanta, Tokyo, and oddly, in many Middle Eastern countries.
Tiki bar culture roared through the 1940's and 1950's. Broadway shows and films like South Pacific, growing tourism to Hawaii, and perhaps memories of Pacific deployments fueled the Tiki bar cult.
The bar and floral display at Tiki Social at the San Diego Omni Hotel. The tiki-themed drinks, food ... More and ambiance will be available at many Omni hotels through Labor Day 2025.
Still, every bar fad has its shelf life. The swinging Sixties, the hedonistic 70s, and the dress for success 1980's had no time for Tiki.
When I visited North Hollywood's Tonga Hut last Saint Patrick's Day, the Tiki-themed room was surprisingly packed with festive drinkers. 'What's the connection between St. Paddy's day and a tiki bar,' I asked a bartender. 'Alcohol!,' he chortled.
But now revivalist Jeff 'Beachbum' Berry is helping the Omni chain bring back Tiki's temptations. Berry is the author of seven books on vintage tropical drinks with titles like 'Potions of the Caribbean' and 'Sipping Safari.' But as he notes, 'You can't copyright a recipe.'
What's the appeal of Tiki bars, like the revival at the Omni? 'Maybe you can't afford a trip to the tropics but you could afford a drink or two. The worse things got, the more people needed a tiki vacation,' says Berry.
'In World War II the Tiki clubs were mobbed. After WWII, we had the atomic bomb, duck and cover drills, McCarthyism, the Bomb, and the Red Scare,' he adds. 'That's why Tiki lasted from the Depression to Disco. But it became uncool, it was what your parents did while you were smoking pot.'
Tiki began making a comeback in the 1990's with the craft cocktail movement, says Berry, who in person is somewhat reminiscent of Colonel Sanders in Hawaiian shirt and straw hat. 'People rediscovered this at the thrift stores, the aloha shirts, the mugs with restaurants on them. But young bartenders thought tiki drinks were part of the problem, that they were syrupy, cruise ship drinks.'
The lounge behind the Tiki bar at the San Diego Omni. The Tiki Social is a summer pop-up experience ... More at many Omni hotels across the U.S. in 2025.
So the 'Beachbum,' an ex-journalist, used his research skills to track down the surviving bartenders who knew how to make the real thing. Don the Beachcomber was apparently so paranoid about his recipes that he put some of them in code.
A common question about tiki culture is whether it is cultural appreciation or cultural appropriation. According to Berry, 'The correct term would be misappropriate. The bones in the nose, cartoon-izing a war god like Ku, the othering or sexualization of island women—that's a line you shouldn't cross. Current Tiki bar culture is respectful.'
Berry became interested in Tiki when his parent took him to a Chinese restaurant with the memorabilia of its Tiki lounge past. 'It had a tropical Disneyland vibe. By the 1980's I learned that if I wanted to have these drinks I'd have to figure out how to make them myself.'
Eventually Berry's hobby became his profession. 'I aged out of the film business—my second act happened to coincide with the cocktail revival.'
Invited to a cocktail festival in New Orleans, he found the locals friendly and warm. He ultimatelymoved to the city and opened a bar and restaurant, Beachbum Berry's Latitude 29 in the French Quarter. 'I serve Donn Beach's original Zombie,' Berry says, 'But I'm too old and too slow to be behind the bar.
Hawaiian shave ice at the opening of Tiki Social at the San Diego Omni, June 2025.
'For Omni it helps draw people to their bars and to the hotel,' Berry says 'I helped create the drinks and the menu, made suggestions on the décor, consulted and make appearances. I would show them what works or what is no longer respectable. For example, you'll see a lot of abstract patterns, rather than people.'
So the next time you visit an Omni, pack that Tiki shirt or Hawaiian skirt.
"At Omni, we know that guests seek connection to something more than just a room key. That's why we introduced activations like Tiki Social, a vibrant Tiki-inspired cocktail experience where guests can gather to celebrate the spirit of summer,' says Michael Innocentin, Chief Marketing Officer at Omni Hotels & Resorts. 'Unique offerings like Tiki Social feed the demand for joyful moments and differentiated immersive experiences. The response from guests has been overwhelmingly positive, and we've seen firsthand how these activations foster brand affinity and guest loyalty."
