New Zealand’s currency is beautifully designed and choc full of references to Maori culture.

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Bamboo is starting to come into favor with builders again—and not just for tiki bars. Bamboo floors are become more and more popular by the day and architects are relearning what “primitive” peoples have known all along: bamboo is an excellent material for building structures.

New Bamboo: Architecture and Design is a 208 page book documenting contemporary structures around the world
that use the Bambusa guadua species as a building material.

The book is apparently out of print and getting hard to find, and the price is rising accordingly.

Buy at Amazon.com

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Dan Goodsell, co-author of the Taschen book “Krazy Kids Food,” has scanned and published a vintage 1960’s brochure from Polynesian decor retailer Sea & Jungle Imports.

The store was located in Glendale, California and billed as the “Largest Polynesian Shop In the World.”

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If you ever find yourself in Albuquerque, stop by Burt’s Tiki Lounge before you accidentally miss the left turn.

Burt’s specializes in live music of just about any genre and has a nice selection of rum drinks, including a chi chi, black orchid, and mai tai. They never charge a cover.

313 Gold Avenue, SW • Albuquerque, NM • (505) 247-Burt

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Swallow New Zealand manufactures and sells rayon fabric and clothing based on traditional Maori and Hawaiian designs.

Fabric runs NZ$5.00 per meter, shirts start at NZ$15.00, dresses at NZ$20.00.

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This 10″ x 5″ x 5″ bamboo toilet paper holder is the perfect accent for someone who wants to own an enchanted tiki bathroom. At a glance, it might also be able to hold two bottles of rum.

$15.95

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It’s been close to a decade since I’ve been back to the Bahi Hut in Sarasota. I’d been an on-and-off customer while going to school at Ringling in the late ’80s and made occasional pilgrimages until the mid-’90s, but hadn’t been back since. One of the great things about the Bahi Hut is that there seems to be some kind of force field around the place, keeping it locked in time. Other than the clothes on the patrons, it’s pretty much the same year after year.

I finally got to return to the Bahi last Saturday after going to see Kathy Griffin at the Van Wezel (highly recommended) and par for the course, the place has changed very little. The drinks are still cheap ($5.00 for a Mai Tai or Sneaky Tiki) and extremely strong. The interior isn’t quite as tiki as one could hope — the area over the bar is built on an a-frame, one of the walls is covered in rock, but the other is a weird kind of driftwood paneling. There’s a Maori carving on the lava rock wall, but an abstract painting of leopards on the other. TVs over the bar were tuned to ESPN and heavy metal played over the stereo.

It isn’t the Mai Kai, but then it’s not supposed to be. The Bahi is exactly what is looks like—a funky local bar that is what it is. It’s the kind of honesty that you’ll never get from an Applebee’s, and as such, makes it well worth the visit.

Sadly, the bar seems to have finally run out of it perennial supply of cocktail napkins with a line drawing of the building on it. Fortunately, t-shirts with the art on it are still for sale!

4675 N Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, Florida. (941) 355-5141

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