T.O. tiki bars are booming
Shameful Tiki Room is set to open just in time for longer nights and colder days
What winter? Sun-worshipping Torontonians can take shelter from looming flurries in the newest addition to the city’s tiki-bar trend, the Shameful Tiki Room (1378 Queen St. W.).
The local branch of the popular Vancouver cocktail parlour celebrates its opening weekend Nov.19 to 21 with nightly performances by Toronto surf band the Hang Ten Hangmen, who will be accompanied by a go-go dancer.
“We’re not talking about plastic cups and little monkey umbrella things that everybody sticks in the drinks, and everybody kind of laughs and says, ‘Let’s go somewhere better next time,’ ” says owner Rod Moore.
“This is a serious place with highproof, high-intensity cocktails, incredibly detailed and elaborate decor.”
Under thatch-roofed booths, patrons can satisfy their Polynesian palate with items such as crab ran- goon, downed with tropical throwback cocktails such as the Mai Tai, the Zombie and the Singapore Sling, all faithfully recreated from their original recipes.
For those who think they’ve tasted these much-maligned mixtures and are still holding the ensuing hangover against them, Moore assures us these are not your typical cruise-ship sips.
“That’s the furthest thing from a Mai Tai in the universe,” he says spitefully of all-inclusive-resortstyle takes on the emblematic tiki cocktail. “It’s a vat of orange juice and a bunch of white rum!”
The bar’s show-stopping refreshment is the Mystery Bowl, a concoction of unknown origin for two that comes with twin flaming limes. Every order is commemorated with the bang of a gong and a chorus of bartenders chanting, “MYS-ter-y BOWL!” In Vancouver, it’s the bar’s second-best seller after the Pain Killer (a citrus-enriched rum and coconut cocktail).
The Shameful Tiki Bar will be the latest place in Toronto to revive the tiki trend that reigned in North America from the 1930s through the ’60s. On the Danforth, the Shore Leave (1775 Danforth Ave.) opened its doors on Sunday, boasting hollowed-out pineapples topped with paper umbrellas on its Instagram account.
The less flamboyant Miss Thing’s (1279 Queen St. W.) opened last year with a Pan Asian and Polynesian menu featuring lobster bisque ramen and pineapple fried rice served on a half-pineapple.
The Asian-Caribbean restaurant Patois (794 Dundas St. W.) serves elaborate cocktails, including rum in skinned and hollowed-out coconuts and golden watermelon vodka punch in scooped-out melons.
Linwood Essentials (930 Queen St. W.) takes things less seriously: Besides its traditional tiki drinks, the off-menu item Matilda the Unholy One, a mix of chocolate and fruit flavours, is served in a tiki mug so creepy it could inspire an episode of Ancient Aliens.
And Linwood raises a glass to the hipster hype over tiki with the Artisinal Middle Finger, a mix of citrus juices, obscure liquors and the secret “Pabst Blue Ribbon syrup,” garnished with a pair of thick-rimmed glasses and an orange peel curled into a moustache.