The First Tiki Bar

When thinking of a summertime cocktail, the mental images of a tiki mug, or a bright and colorful drink with a small umbrella are never far from the imagination. Tiki drinks have become synonymous with warm summer weather, sunny days, and beachside venues. 

Though tiki culture found its spark of popularity in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, it would actually find its beginnings in 1934, Hollywood, California. There is where you would've found a bar and restaurant by the name of "Don the Beachcomber," which is unanimously considered to be the birthplace of tiki culture. The mastermind behind Don the Beachcomber, and in turn tiki culture as a whole, was a man named Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt. He would later change his name to Donn Beach.

Donn Beach was a businessman with flair, who loved to travel the sea. He had a taste for adventure as well as the exotic. Donn devolved his love for travel as a young man, finding himself in the Caribbean as well as the South Pacific. He was captivated by the beauty of the islands, the mystique of different cultures, the different sights, smells, and flavors.

In 1933, the Prohibition era was ending in the United States, and Donn Beach saw an opportunity. Rum increased in popularity during the Prohibition. Being that it was imported, it was often a much higher quality spirit compared to the questionable whiskey and gin being produced in the States at the time. However, with the Prohibition ending, people were leaving rum and flocking back to old favorites. Donn Beach would see this surplus of rum, with a hole in the market, and add a heavy dose of Hollywood flair. His bar and restaurant would be an exotic escape from reality, a romanticized vision of island culture. It is there where he would create many of the classic tiki drinks that are still so common today.

Written by John Gilmour