Tiki Caliente 2019: The Reef Restaurant : Photo Blog

Located at the Caliente Tropics in Palm Springs is The Reef Tiki Bar  On a previous Palm Springs trip we had stopped at the Caliente Tropics The Reef was just being worked on.  We decided to come back to Tiki Caliente some time in the future.

 Early this year my wife was down in Palm Springs for my step daughters cheer comp and dropped in to check out The Reef.  While she was there we found out one of our favorite bands was going to be playing this year at Tiki Caliente.  Right then we decided to dip our toes in Tiki Caliente for the first time. 
I'll do a separate blog about the event itself,  but The Reef deserved its own little photo blog.

Love this sign listing the other local Tiki places.   
True Ohana spirit.

Cool artwork greets you as you enter.

The Reef has Tiki Mug Mondays. 

 If we lived in Palm Springs I could put my mug collection to good use.

Here are a couple of pictures inside the bar area.

Love the Shark

 A Leftover from May 4th ??? As a Star Wars fan I loved it.

I loved the decor.

We had a late lunch which was good and a couple of Tiki drinks before heading back to our Hotel to get ready for the fun.  

Even if you don't go to Tiki Caliente--definitely stop to check out the Caliente Tropics and The Reef the next time you are in Palm Springs.

 Here is the link to their website

https://www.thereefpalmsprings.com/

A Pineappleman Tiki Adventure: The Royal Hawaiian in Laguna Beach Farewell (A Photo Blog)

This wasn't supposed to be a Farewell blog about the Royal Hawaiian in Laguna Beach ---but it turns out it is. 

I noticed several weeks ago on The Best of Laguna Beach Facebook page an article titled Reviving the Royal Hawaiian?  

I didn't know it needed to be Revived.  In fact I thought that it had been revived quite nicely since it reopened back in 2015.  It had slowly introduced more Tiki over the past couple years.  When I came across the words that the new chef wants to "clean up the interior and make it a bit more modern"  my heart sank a little.   

A couple weeks after reading this I saw a post by Spike of The Hula Girls  on instagram see that post here.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtsOXl_AoBN/.  

His post pretty much confirmed my worries from the article I had read. Then I also read that Bamboo Ben had removed the place from his bio of places he worked on......another bad sign.   It sounds like the place is about to get less Tiki.   :(

The couple times we were able to visit over the past few years we loved it.  We enjoyed the food both times we went.   The avocado toast was amazing.   I also loved the amount of Tiki that had been added to the place.    If it had been closer to where we are located in the Long Beach/Seal Beach area we probably would have gone more often.   

I guess this is a little farewell photo blog to the Royal Hawaiian as it has been since it reopened in 2015.

Clean up the place???  The place looked great.

My one souvenir  from the place  the Royal Hawaiian Tiki Mug

Our little guy dressed all Tiki for lunch

The last time there I had the burger which was excellent.

The Display case with some Tiki treasures

Goodbye Royal Hawaiian!

Jan and Dean's Tiki Lounge in Huntington Beach

A Tiki Lounge with a  ocean view.  You really couldn’t ask for a better location for a Tiki Lounge.  On the second floor of the Ruby’s on the Huntington Beach pier now sits Jan and Dean’s Tiki Lounge.   

Now you can sit and watch the Sunset over the ocean while sipping a Tiki Cocktail. 

We didn’t eat there on this first trip since we had already enjoyed our anniversary dinner at Pacific City down the street.   We did enjoy a couple of the tiki cocktails so we could soak in the atmosphere.

Do like Pina Coladas?    I do

Dean's Dream 

The place looks amazing.   The amazing Bamboo Ben helped with the interiors so it feels absolutely Tiki.   

The art of the walls is mainly Jeff Granito (one you our new favorite Tiki artists.  His art is in full display on the big picture as you enter.   

 

and some Disneyland Tiki Shag art. 

 Also some Surf Music history covers the walls with Gold records from Jan and Dean.  









 I couldn’t have asked for a cooler look and location for a Tiki Bar.  The Tiki Lounge is kid friendly since it is actually still apart of Ruby’s.    That means you can take kids and even order off the Ruby’s menu.    There is also a little side menu of both Tiki food and Tiki drinks.  

Next time we go I'm getting the Blue Hawaiian Sliders

Our one suggestion involves the audio of the place.  Being a kid friendly Lounge the bar can be a little loud.  The environmental sound of jungle and birds was turned up louder than the music.   If they could just adjust the tiki and surf music volume up and the atmosphere audio down a little it would be even better.    Being a huge Disney fan I loved the random every 20 minutes or so Rainforest style Enchanted Tiki room music that briefly kicks in.