Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Tiki without kitch is a south seas religion. Kitch is the essence of Tiki on the mainland. It's a bamboo hut or a nautical inspired space with all sorts of pacific flotsam, from glass balls to puffer fish, outriggers, rice hull separators, fish traps, rope, and of course, tikis. It's in perpetual twilight. There's a waterfall (you call it a water feature) Preferably, but in the older places not so often (they're usually in need of business) with island music. Reggae, the carribbean is out. Not Tiki. Margaritaville is not Tiki. Political correctness is out. Tiki and Kitch are inseparable. Hence the demise of recent attempts at Trader Vics: Tiki plus good taste equals boring. Sadly, aside from venues like Forbidden Island, most places are "tiki on the walls", some palm weave and bamboo nailed to a wall, and album covers, or menus, and tiki mugs all about. Most tiki today is driven by a dedicated, even obsessed group of thirty somethings, and isn't spreading quite as quickly, nor as imaginatively, as it did after the war. To make matters worse, most of the tikis themselves are carved as insipid, drooling nitwits, with idiot grins, as someone has decided that the originals (made to scare away evil spirits and what not) are too, what, scary? I grew up with the original tiki bars, and watched them fail. I was optimistic for this revival, but not so much any more. It was a great phase in America's entertainment evolution, but society has evolved beyond Tiki, to what I'm not quite sure, or thrilled about, but it's passed.