out of all the bar movements in history, I think Tiki is my favorite. The drinks are almost all great to me, and its history is absolutely hilarious.
in 1933, a soon to be ww2 veterant named Earnest Gantt, a man obsessed with hawaii and island aesthetics, legally changed his name to Donn Beach and opened up a bar in Hollywood called "Don's Beachcomber"
His drink menu was almost exclusively rum cocktails, and as this was coming shortly out of prohibition, he served food that customers thought were exotic treats but were nothing more than fancied up cantonese dishes he called "south seas island food"
it's actually believed currently that the first pu pu platter was served at a Don's Beachcomber
Eventually after WW2 he divorced his minnesotan wife, who was given control of the Don's Beachcomber franchise. As part of a settlement, Beach was forbidden from opening another Don's Beachcomber in the US so he moved to Hawaii and continued opening up tiki bars in Waikiki
He continued to have varying success with these bars, until he retired, married a third time, built a houseboat that got destroyed in french polynesia, then eventually died of liver cancer on June 4, 1989. 33 days later I was born.