Floating tiki bars to cruise the three rivers

Local entrepreneurs predict ‘a perfect fit’

Tiki bar boats. Pittsburgh is getting tiki bar boats.

Dale McCue and two partners are launching a local franchise of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.based Cruisin’ Tikis, so that this May, you and five friends can be piloted around the three rivers while sitting on bamboo stools at a thatched-roof bamboo bar, sipping mai tais or rum runners or whatever fruity, umbrella’d poison you pick.

“It’s like a mini vacation on an island every time they go out,” founder Greg Darby said over the phone from one of his boats in Florida.

He built one of the floating bars a few years ago, thinking he’d just anchor it on shore, then decided to add an outboard motor and ran it on South Florida’s New River. Someone posted a video on Facebook that went viral. The local alt weekly called it “the most Florida thing ever.” His creation has become so popular that he is indeed glad his attorney persuaded him to patent it. Rather than just sell the boats, he’s franchising the concept.

Now you can book Cruisin’ Tikis at a dozen places ranging from the Bahamas to Key West to Sarasota-Bradenton, Fla., to

Wrightsville Beach, N.C., and — yeah — Pittsburgh. Even Buffalo has them, and Cleveland is going to.

The 15-foot-6-inch octagonal, outboard-powered craft meet all U.S. Coast Guard standards. So must each captain. (Mr. McCue is hiring.) They can go anywhere boats can go.

Customers will be able to book one for up to six people or go out with strangers. Mr. McCue will start with two boats, and they can be tied together for a bigger crowd. Each boat has a built-in wet bar complete with ice and bottled water. But customers must bring and serve their own alcoholic drinks and snacks.

There’s also a Bluetooth stereo system. And life jackets.

Mr. McCue and one partner, his fiancee Joa Campise, still are deciding whether to provide a blender or whether that might be too messy.

Cruising at 4 to 6 mph, the floating bars will tour parts of all three rivers around the Point for about two hours at a cost of about $400. Patrons will be able to arrange custom charters for everything from retirement parties to wedding proposals.

Mr. McCue, an avid boater who lives in Washington County and who previously worked in law enforcement, saw the concept online and thought, “This is a perfect, perfect fit for Pittsburgh.”

He said he is in talks with the city and the Sports & Exhibition Authority to be able to pick up and drop off customers somewhere along the North Shore, but he said the boats will be docked at Station Square. He is finalizing a partnership with a restaurant near PNC Park where customers could pick up food and six-packs to bring on board, he said. “We may even create a special ‘Tiki Boat’ menu that can be catered and waiting for them on the boat.”

If you still can’t believe tiki boats will be on the Monongahela, well, Pittsburgh already and memorably has been described and depicted as an “eccentric tiki mecca” in a November 2016 Punch magazinestory by New York City-based drinks writer Kara Newman and former Post-Gazette photographer Michael Henninger. While we’ve lost some of the places we had from the original waves of Polynesia’s popularity — such as the KonTiki Lounge and Restaurant that floated above the Ohio River in Avalon through the 1960s — we have a couple of new-school tiki landmarks on, well, land, including South Side’s Tiki Lounge and Squirrel Hill’s Hidden Harbor.

And we did briefly have an ice cream boat, before it was destroyed last year by flooding.

And there are other booze cruises on our rivers, including the Pittsburgh Luxury Cruises ones.

Not to mention all the private party boats during, say, the Kenny Chesney concert. Mr. Darby, a Chesney fan who wants to come up to our waters for that epic June 2 event, said two of his Cruisin’ Tikis should be ready to go for it.

Mr. McCue is hoping the boats are popular during other concerts and sporting events along the North Shore. He’s already amazed at how the local franchise is blowing up on social media.

“Pittsburgh’s going to love this.”

Learn more about Cruisin’ Tikis at cruisintikispittsburgh.com and cruisintikis.com or call 833744-8454.