Mergener said in an e-mail that Lost River name has no "relation/connection/inspiration" from Lost Lake, that it was a reference to a creek at a cemetery in Detroit and also a Ryan Gosling film by the same name. It's a really flexible kind of genre, and I love that," Kwiatkowski said. Locations can range from the elaborate ambiance like Lost Lake in Chicago, "which is one of the greatest tiki bars in the country right now," to Cane and Table in New Orleans, a "stripped-down, kind of felt like a bar in the Bermudas. It's easy to have drinks that are too sweet, too boozy." "I wanted to do a tiki bar in Detroit for a while," he said. The bar's ambiance is relaxed from outside, it looks like an average local dive - but the interior includes a thatched roof over the bar, with leis draped on bar stools and drinks sometimes set on fire. The most popular drink at Mutiny Bar, the Painkiller includes Brugal Anejo rum, Malibu rum, coconut, orange, lime and pineapple for $9. If you taste a Painkiller, that's f****** great." "Tiki is like, the most accessible form of mixology," he said. Dave Kwiatkowski, a partner of its parent company that owns several bars and restaurants in the city, owns the Mutiny Bar.Ī wide variety of people can enjoy tiki drinks, as there's less of an acquired taste involved than with harsher or more-bitter, less-fruity craft cocktails. The Sugar House, one of Detroit's premier craft-cocktail bars, opened in 2011 in Corktown and offers a spectrum of often-imaginative cocktails made with high-quality spirits and ingredients. "People are willing to spend more on the rums, liqueurs and extracts and all of that," Chin said. The wave of tiki bars already hitting cities such as Chicago and New York City arrived recently in Detroit amid high enthusiasm for craft cocktails. But until recently, tiki beverage appearances were mostly restricted to eclectic menus or occasional pop-up events. As many as four tiki bars operated during or near the 1960s in Detroit. The themed, upscale tropical restaurants opened near the end of America's postwar obsession with Polynesian culture that began with the Broadway musical (1949) and film version (1958) of "South Pacific," based on James Michener's 1948 novel "Tales of the South Pacific," according to a previous report in the Free Press. The theme restaurant on West Grand Boulevard and Cass Avenue cost about $2.25 million, which today would be $16.8 million. There was even a barbecue available for "a luau, a clambake or a Texas barbecue," according to an August 1967 article. Mauna Loa's two floors combined to accommodate a total of 750 people, with two kitchens: one serving Asian cuisine, the other American. Elaborately carved posts, a war canoe, shields and other Polynesian art objects add atmosphere," according to the article. "The main floor resembles a native village in the islands with thatched roofs, walkways, bridges and streams. The article cited the interior designer, calling it "one of the two most elaborate Polynesian-type restaurants in the country." Detroit waterfalls, luausīurning tiki torches in the late 1960s greeted people entering Mauna Loa, a short-lived restaurant in Detroit's New Center that included three waterfalls and several pools, with one deep enough for performers to dive into and "retrieve pearl-bearing oysters," according to a March 1967 story in the Free Press. Serving only drinks for now, both bars are the first of their kind, in years, to open in Detroit. Tucked along a strip of mostly blank storefronts, Lost River will accommodate about 80 people, offering a place for "fun, funky cocktails," said co-owner Matt Mergener, 33.Ībout a 14-mile drive away in southwest Detroit, Mutiny Bar has been serving tiki drinks since November at 4654 Vernor Highway. There's a wood-carved tiki figure from a decades-old United Airlines promotion, and the bar is covered in coins - a reminder of the Detroit's grandiose Polynesian-restaurant past. "We want to transport you when it's snowy and rainy and gray," co-owner Karen Green, 33, said recently at the bar on 15421 Mack, across the street from the Grosse Pointe Park border.Ī hand-painted wall mural of colorful flowers covers the east interior wall, near a bar lined with ceramic mugs in the shapes of parrots, an elephant and an octopus. The city gets its second tiki bar in about six months when Lost River is to open this May along Mack Avenue on the east side. Watch Video: Watch the painting of Lost River tiki bar mural in DetroitĪ boozy tide of Painkillers, Mai Tais and other tropical, fruity cocktails with little umbrellas is washing into Detroit.
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