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Tiki -Ti, Hollywood, CA (bar) |
weirduncletiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 26, 2002
Posts: 756
From: Grape Town, California
|  Posted: 2003-07-25 6:24 pm Permalink
Name:Tiki -Ti
Type:bar
Street:4427 Sunset Boulevard
City:Hollywood
State:CA
Zip:90027
country:USA
Phone:323-669-9381
Status:operational
Description:
This is a small and exquisite bar. Tiki-Ti (pronounced Tee-Kee Tee and not \"The\" Tiki-Ti) is a must for any adventurer on the tiki trail. The room is quite small and can feel full with only a couple dozen happy tipplers inside. For this reason, arriving early is a good idea in order to get a table or bar seat. The hours of operation are Wednesday through Saturday 6pm-1am and cash is the currency accepted here. Smoking is allowed. There is no food service, but the snack mix is A-#1 with perfect pretzel to Cheezit ratio. The music selection is wide and varied. On a rare occasion, exotica or Hawaiian music can be heard, but it's more likely that classic rock will be filling the place. Now that the warnings are out of the way, let's get to the good stuff. Any tiki lover will appreciate its dark mood lighting and vast amount of tiki memorabilia and any cocktail connoisseur will thrill to the superb quality and taste of the drinks.
I'll let a real historian comment on the importance and past of this legend, but I'll certainly speak of where my expertise lies and that's in judging drink quality. The cocktails at Tiki-Ti are closely guarded family secrets known only to Mike and Mike Jr. Buhen, son and grandson of founder Ray Buhen. There are close to a hundred drinks on the menu and I've tried just about all of them. Each is prepared without use of recipe with careful ease and with amazing consistency. These cocktail artisans create wonderfully balanced, layered and delicious drinks. Not one have I ever found to be sickly sweet or one dimensional or lacking the proper oomph. For a little raucous entertainment order a Blood and Sand or an Ooga Booga. The former is mixed and then topped with tequila as the whole bar joins in shouts of \"Toro, toro!\" while the latter is mixed with a chant of \"Ooga booga, ooga booga!\"
Another plus is the friendliness of the natives. Pleasant and genuine conversation can be struck up with just about anyone in Tiki-Ti and if you happen to be seated at the bar, Mike and Mike always seen glad to share stories of the place and meet new folks.
They can be found on the web at www.tiki-ti.com
Much enjoyment to be had here.
-Weird Uncle Tiki
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CruzinTiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 13, 2003
Posts: 215
From: Santa Cruz, CA
| Posted: 2003-07-27 1:25 pm Permalink
Thanks for the tip WeirdUncleTiki! I'm heading down to L.A. in a couple of weeks and I'll be sure to check it out.
_________________
All hail the freaky tiki!
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Kreaky Tiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 19, 2003
Posts: 182
From: Goleta the good land
| Posted: 2003-07-28 10:36 pm Permalink
Cruzin Tiki, check the schedule on their website first, they are closed for about a month starting yesterday. They do have the best drinks that I have ever had. I only wish that I lived closer, driving back to Goleta after having a "Ray's Mistake" and a "151 Swizzle" is probaly illegal.
Cheers,
KT
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twowheelin'tiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 28, 2002
Posts: 712
From: santa monica
| Posted: 2003-08-04 8:35 pm Permalink
Thats "the tiki-ti, a two wheeler production".Only Jeff Barry and Sven have drank more of their hooch than I.God I hope the 20th of august comes quickly!(when they re-open).Easily the best tasting drinks in so-cal.
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GinAtomic
Member
Joined: Aug 06, 2003
Posts: 8
From: The Atomic Lounge
| Posted: 2003-08-06 09:33 am Permalink
My husband and I had the pleasure of quenching our thirst at Tiki-Ti during a recent road trip to LA. We lucked into barside seats and got to watch the mighty mixmasters at work...a colorful and intoxicating display, indeed. Loved the tiki regalia teeming from every crevice, and the soothing background sounds of the "lava fountain" (resplendent with day-glo paint) -- though you do have to listen closely to hear it under the classic rock. Even the cocktail napkins are hip. Most definitely worth the wait in line.
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christiki295
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 09, 2003
Posts: 3621
From: LA-2547 mls east Hawaii &5500 Easter Is
| Posted: 2003-10-02 8:11 pm Permalink
Tiki Ti is justifiably the most beloved tiki bar in Los Angeles, although not the best.
Tiki-Ti has a great vibe based on it's customers spirit & intoxicated chants of "toro, toro, etc." Hawiiaiana abounds and it has a wide selection of excellent tiki cocktails.
The tiki quality is also apparent on its wonderful tiki facade, which is often a consulation prize because the bar does not keep the most dependable hours (I have learned the hard way to always check the website). Possibly this is one of the unfortunate drawbacks to its charm of being a family owned & operated establishment.
Tiki-Ti is also only one of 2 tiki bars in the City of Los Angeles (the other being the Tonga Room) and it is located (somewhat) in Hollywood, so it has a special socio-historical place in the city.
Nevertheless, Tiki-Ti, in my opinion, is overrated in relation to the constant ink it receives (references in Los Angeles magazine and the LA Times in the last 6 months).
It is tiny, like a South Pacific tiki hut, so one often spends the first half of the evening there waiting outside. The cocktails are expensive (although the rest of the city is quickly catching up).
The interior decor is not as attractive, or as tiki, as other local tiki bars - the actual tiki TIPSY factor is far too low. Not surprisingly, the BOT chose to photograph only the exterior of Tiki-Ti.
For all of it's short-commings, I, too, love Tiki-Ti and consider Tiki-Ti part of my tiki upbringing, as that I spent a considerable amount of time there in my mid-20s.
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OceaOtica
Grand Member (8 years) 
Joined: Sep 29, 2003
Posts: 869
From: la, home of Tiki Ti
| Posted: 2003-10-15 11:54 pm Permalink
simply, there ain't none better.
(i say thie because my description would be a disertation ten pages long)
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Atomicchick
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 08, 2003
Posts: 578
From: Southern California
| Posted: 2003-10-23 11:30 pm Permalink
Went to the Tiki Ti for the first (but not the last) time last weekend. The Mai Tai's are a bit pricey ($9) but you only need one. I could have swore I was drinking straight rum (151 perhaps?)
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DawnTiki
Grand Member (first year) 
Joined: Sep 01, 2002
Posts: 1674
From: next stop Hulaville!
| Posted: 2003-10-24 10:11 am Permalink
Uggg! Moved to the right thread!
[ This Message was edited by: DawnTiki on 2003-10-24 13:24 ]
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Bamboo Bob
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 26, 2003
Posts: 178
From: OCEANSIDE, CA
| Posted: 2003-12-09 07:03 am Permalink
I eagerly await my first visit to Tiki Ti scheduled Saturday January 3, 2004.
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Humuhumu
Grand Member (5 years) 
Joined: Aug 22, 2002
Posts: 3536
From: San Francisco
| Posted: 2004-10-07 1:01 pm Permalink
Tiki-Ti is the tiki bar nearest to my heart. Here's its page in Critiki:
Tiki-Ti in Critiki
Tikiphiles tend to gather there on Wednesdays, when the bar is less crowded. There's a thread in Tiki Events to discuss Wednesday get-togethers:
Wednesday Night at Tiki-Ti
Here are a few pictures I took at Tiki-Ti last night (with my new camera!):
The drink masters, Mike Buhen and Mike Buhen:
Blurs of mixing activity:
The must-have drink, Ray's Mistake:
Stuff behind and on top of the bar:
See that last one at full-size to catch all the detail: http://images7.fotki.com/v113/filePDG6/38f30/1/117859/1396410/IMG_0222.jpg
Regulars at the bar:
No tiki bar is quite complete without pufferfish:
And Tiki-Ti wouldn't be complete without its snack mix!:
If you can't pick a drink, the drink wheel can help:
_________________
Critiki - Hundreds of tiki bars, Polynesian restaurants, and other sites of interest to the tiki traveller, collector or urban archaeologist
[ This Message was edited by: Humuhumu on 2004-10-07 16:30 ]
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hala bullhiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 26, 2002
Posts: 570
From: champaign,illinois
| Posted: 2004-10-07 9:31 pm Permalink
great pics, got to experience the ti first hand last summer, so overwhelming for such a small place, amazing clutter i could look at for hours, and drinks that sent me to another world.....
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the drunken hat
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Dec 20, 2003
Posts: 331
From: Modesto, CA
| Posted: 2004-11-10 09:23 am Permalink
a cozy vintage tiki bar. the best drinks you'll ever have! a must visit if you are ever in the LA area!
hint: go early if you want to sit at the bar!
_________________
i ain't drunk.......i'm jus drankin. albert collins
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finkdaddy
Tiki Socialite
Joined: May 11, 2004
Posts: 2050
From: Wisconsin
| Posted: 2004-11-10 09:35 am Permalink
Great pictures! A place that cluttered only gets that way after years and years of good memories. I would love to have a place like that.
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TikiMaxton
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 556
From: Portland, OR
| Posted: 2004-11-10 10:42 am Permalink
Quote:
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On 2004-11-10 09:35, finkdaddy wrote:
Great pictures! A place that cluttered only gets that way after years and years of good memories. I would love to have a place like that.
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It's a shame that so much of the clutter a decoration is permanently discolored by tar and nicotine. My one complaint about Tiki Ti is their smoking policy. It's such a small place that you can't spend 5 minutes in there without your clothes smelling like an old ashtray. (Formerly) beautiful vintage tapa paper is nearly unrecognizable under 40 years of cigarette residue.
One of the many reasons we like to travel back to our home state is its enlightened attitude towards smoking (Oregon only banned smoking in restaurants a few years ago, and you'd be hard pressed to find more than a couple of smoke-free bars in Portland), and Tiki Ti loses many charm points in my book because it doesn't share that attitude.
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