Time to Tiki!

Urbanization created a need for an oasis from the overbearing pace of contemporary city life.

Since the end of World War II, American GI's brought back an appropriation of the exotic islands of Polynesia to the mainland United States in the form of kitsch tropical tiki bars and restaurants. The genre has been slowly fading from the American landscape since the 1950's and 1960's but a few still remain in cities scattered across the U.S. In the Bay Area alone, a few originals are still in operation as tiki bars. The city of San Francisco's North Beach area is the home of the infamous Bamboo Hut, and in the Financial District, The Tonga Room. A visit to these architectural icons will immediately transfix your sense of time into a completely different era or state of mind!