Hula's Modern Tiki - Phoenix

 Friday, February 2, 2024

Dale and I are in Phoenix to visit family so we took the opportunity to revisit Hula's Modern Tiki at the 7th Street location in Phoenix. 

Listened to Mondo Exotica from the Ultra Lounge on the drive in.

It took some effort to get there as we headed into town during rush hour. However, it turned out to be well worth the wait. I got a kick out of this picture hanging in the restaurant. It looks like the cover of a Pink Martini album cover. 

                     

Tiki drinks are only $8.00 each during happy hour. I started with the Blood Orange Martini which I've had before and is one of my favorites. According to the menu it contains vodka, blood orange liqueur, orange, lime, and cranberry juices. Not over sweet and the blood oranges provide a nice sharpness which gives it a great bite. Dale went with a house red wine during our time here. 

                    

Appetizers only 8 bucks as well. We had the Crispy Fish Bites. So delicious. We both loved 'em. 

                     

For my second drink I went with the Tiki Bastard. This one has gin, bourbon, pomegranate syrup, lime juice, and cock 'n bull ginger brew. Very unique. 

                      

For my third drink I had the Hula's Blue Hawaiian. This contains coconut rum, vodka, sweet & sour, blue curacao, coconut, and pineapple. A little sweeter than the other two but not overly so and the sweetness works well with the coconut flavors. 

                     

For dinner we each had Caesar salads. Dale got his with tuna but I had mine with shrimp. Again, delicious. 

                      

Our bartender took really good care of us. 

The place was lively and had great energy. 

Our drive back to Peoria was a bit quicker than our journey into town. 

Lit up a stogie once we got home. 

Fun outing today. Dale and I both had a great time. 

The Big Kahuna Bash 2021 - Drinks and Dinner

Saturday, July 31, 2021

Dale and I attended the 3rd annual Big Kahuna Bash at Grumpy's Bar & Grill in Roseville. 

We arrived around 5 p.m. and immediately sat down to get some drinks and dinner. Dale ordered beer while I got the Big Kahuna cocktail which is listed first on the above tiki drink menu. 

It was quite delicious. 

The Hawaiian influenced food menu items are shown above. 

For dinner Dale order a plant based hamburger and I got the Maui Dogs which were topped with cilantro lime aioli, mango salsa, avocado and chopped cilantro. They were delicious. I upgraded from chips to tater tots.

For our second round of cocktails Dale got another beer and I went with the Grumpy's Island Time cocktail. Another awesome drink!

Quarantiki - Big Kahuna Bash 2020

Saturday, July 25, 2020

Big Kahuna Bash today at Grumpy’s in Roseville! Dale and I had a LOT of fun. This is the second year for the event which we attended last year as well. Grumpy’s chef added a few Polynesian-style entrees to the menu for the event. I went with the pork sliders. Dale ordered a Cobb salad from the regular menu. 

Tiki drinks were provided by a the Tilted Tiki, a metro area tiki bar. I started with one called the Tilted Tiki’s Big Kahuna which consisted of dark rum, citrus, and honey in addition to some other things. 

My second was called The Surfin’ Bird which contained dark rum, herbs, fresh pineapple, and lime juice also in addition to a few other things. The name of the drink refers to the title of the most popular song by the Minneapolis garage band and surf legends, The Trashmen. Dale drank beer. 

Tony Andreason, the lead guitarist of The Trashmen played along with another Minneapolis surf band, The Surf Dawgs, and it was all two tons of fun. Mr. Andreason did the vocals for Surfin’ Bird and I’m sure he must have been the original vocalist on the song because he sounded EXACTLY like the recorded version. The band was obviously having a great time playing especially the petit female drummer who was playing behind the guitarists. Her constant smile was infectious. Sadly she’s obscured by shadows in the above photo. 

The event included a marketplace which is where I purchased the Marquesan tiki shown above. I hung it up on the wall of our porch as soon as we returned home. The name of the seller is Dave who runs Lake Tiki Woodcrafts. He’s also the carver. In addition I  bought a print of a design of the Creature from the Black Lagoon by the one and only Kymm! Bang. It was fun actually meet both artists. 

Big Kahuna Bash at Grumpy's in Roseville

Saturday, July 27, 2019

This afternoon Dale and I checked out the Big Kahuna Bash at Grumpy's in Roseville. We had quite a great time. We started out with dinner in the restaurant. 

Dale started with a beer.

The Tilted Tiki in Stillwater did the tiki drinks for the event. I started with The Surfin' Bird which the menu described as: "A wave of exotic flavors in dark rum, herbs, fresh pineapple and lime juices. Named after the Minnesota Surf Legends - The Trashmen!" Very tasty.

For my second drink I went with the Big Kahuna which the menu described as: "The big, bold tiki favorite. A tasty blend of rum, citrus, honey and passion fruit!" A little too sweet for my taste. Odd because the Tilted Tiki's drinks are generally really well made and NOT over-sweet. I'm wondering if they did them in large batches just for this event. 

There was also a Mai-Tai on the tiki drink menu which I didn't have a chance to try. For dinner Dale had the Impossible Burger which was actually meatless. He loved it and said it would  have otherwise fooled him! I went with the Bangkok Chicken Sammy. It was a chicken sandwich with BBQ sauce and pineapple. Very yummy. Shag walked by our booth as we were eating and I said hello. 

Hot Pastrami

After dinner we had a chance to walk around and check things out. We listened to the band Hot Pastrami play. They were quite fun.

Works by Shag on display upstairs at Grumpy's

Shag was the host of the whole event and had an art show going on upstairs. 

Out side we found the vendor's booths so I had a chance to shop for souvenirs. Dale caught me looking around The Black Lagoon's Room's booth in the above photo.

After my shopping I took this photo of Dale with some images by Shag in the patio windows. He mentioned to me a few different times during our visit what a good time he was having. I'm glad!

I brought home some souvenirs including a pint glass and also two enamel pins by Artis Pete Klockau of Milwaukee, Wisconsin whom I follow on Instagram as The  Black Lagoon Room. The pin on the right is also shown below. 

This pin was designed exclusively for The Big Kahuna Bash and only 100 were made!

I also picked up a couple of posters. One looks just like the image above but without the date across it. 

I also picked up this poster as well. 

The folks from The Black Lagoon Room. Such friendly folks! Photo not mine but from Instagram.

The Black Lagoon Room's wares. Photo also from Instagram.

Lucky Cricket 1 for 2019 - Jet Pilot & Lychee Coconut Bowl

Sunday, February 17, 2019

Lunch was a whole bunch of awesome. We had the Szechuan wontons to start (not pictured). Dale had the Hunan Chicken Salad (background) and I had the Kung Pao Shrimp Bowl (foreground). All of it was delicious. 

My second drink was the classic Jet Pilot. Dessert was the Lychee Coconut Bowl. It was too divine for words and, sadly, I didn't get a photo. 

I'd never seen a lychee before. Dale and I noticed what looked like oversized peeled grapes in the dessert. We assumed those were the lychee and our server confirmed that they indeed were just that. I've encountered tiki cocktails which have lychee juice in them but have never tried the fruit itself. 

Birthday Week - Exotik-A-GoGo

Friday, August 17, 2018

Can't believe I started my birthday week celebration a week ago. When Dale got home from work today I asked him if he was interested in going to Psycho Suzi's to hear Exotik-A-GoGo play. He was into it! So, after getting Athena fed and walked we headed Nordeast and got a table with a window onto the patio. Our server told us the band would be playing on the patio rather than upstairs. Shortly thereafter I  saw the band setting up outside. The began playing promptly at 6:30 and you could hear the music inside as the doors were open to the outdoor area. They played most of the songs from their new album Vibralicous! 

I drank Crummy Scoundrels and Dale had beer. 

We shared the poutine tots to start and then we each had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. All quite delicious.

After dinner we headed out to the patio and sat down to listen to the band for awhile. They were great. 

After a bit, the band went on break so Dale and I headed down to the Psycho Suzi's dock. You wouldn't know it from the pictures below but the skies are actually cloud-free. The whiteness is the haze of the wildfires out in California. They are particularly bad this year. 

We headed back to the restaurant to check out the gift shop. I wasn't planning on it but I ended up going home with one big ol' tiki mug. The fellow in the gift shop pointed out that the one I got was one made especially for Psycho Suzi's. I photographed it upon our arrival back home.

As we headed back to the car I noticed someone had set up a little tiki house on one of the retainers for the gardens in the parking lot. Cute.

Awesome evening, Dale. Thanks for indulging me!

A few more photos from the evening: