Why I love tiki bars and outrageous cocktails

I'm not sure why, but I'm a complete sucker for a tiki bar, where outrageous cocktails are served in dark rooms decorated with faux totems, shrunken heads, palm trees and waterfalls, and where one can be transported to a fantasy South Seas island for the cost of a drink and a pu pu platter.

This being the cocktail time of year, my thoughts often stray to the most lethal cocktail that has ever passed my lips, the Scorpion Bowl served at Trader Vic's in New York, a venerable tiki bar that once occupied the basement of the Plaza Hotel, now the Todd English Food Hall.

How I miss Trader Vic's, which was there for 25 years and closed in 1989 after the Plaza's then owner, Donald Trump, deemed it "tacky" (oh, what exquisite irony!). I've despised Trump ever since. Then again, the thatched-roof Trader Vic's was also one of Richard M. Nixon's favourite restaurants.

The Scorpion Bowl was indeed a bowl, not a glass, large enough for three huge gardenias to float on top of it. I think there were various rums in it. It was delivered with straws and was designed to be shared between three people. One night, high on the South Seas fantasy when it was freezing outside, I had three of them all to myself.

I was lucky to survive them. I mean this in all seriousness. I have never been drunk since and do not recommend it. Despite this, I am inordinately fond of cocktails with tropical flowers in them.

My love of tiki bars can be traced back to one in Melbourne that existed in the 1960s and '70s. I can't recall its name – perhaps the Tahiti Room – and it was in a basement on Bourke Street or Collins Street. There was a stream, fake palm trees and crocodiles in tanks, if my memory is correct. Perhaps someone in Melbourne can enlighten me.

You'll be able to order a Mai Tai or Zombie with a paper umbrella in a tiki bar in most of the world's groovy neighbourhoods, as it turns out, from California, where they began in the 1930s, to distinctly untropical places such as Berlin. In Australia, I've discovered The LuWOW in Fitzroy, White Lightning in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley, Tiki Tai Rooftop bar in Adelaide and the Hula Bula bar in Perth.

Internationally, there's Keko Moku in Manchester, The Zombie Hut in Brooklyn, Tahiti in Barcelona, Honi Honi in Hong Kong and Mahiki in London, where "treasure chest" shared cocktails can set you back  £20-£350.

The first tiki bar was Don the Beachcomber, which debuted in Los Angeles in 1933. The original Trader Vic's was opened by Victor Bergeron in Oakland, California in 1936, reflecting the new craze for leisure travel, especially to the South Pacific. It was one of the first successful themed restaurant chains, and now has branches throughout the world, including Munich, Mumbai and Dubai. There are still four in the USA.

As tiki bars go, Frank's Tiki Room in Las Vegas is one of the best, boasting lowbrow authenticity. The decor is by "Bamboo Ben", the grandson of legendary beachcomber Eli Hedley, who created Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room and Aku Aku at the Stardust, and the original carvings by Tiki Bosco, who carved totems at The Tropicana and Taboo Cove. You see, tiki bars have their own royalty and provenance.

The Sip 'n Dip Lounge in Great Falls, Montana, opened in 1962 at the height of the tiki craze and remains the same today. Women dressed as mermaids swim underwater in a glass-sided pool visible over the bar. Its Fish Bowl shared cocktail rivals the Scorpion, containing 1.9 litres of different liquors.

My favourite tiki bar is the Tonga Room in the basement of San Francisco's elegant Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill .  The bar has been there since 1945. What distinguishes this fabulous room from many also-ran tiki bars is the Olympic-sized pool in the centre, which holds a floating dance floor built from the timber of an old schooner.

On the hour, there's a dramatic thunderstorm, and rain pours down into the pool from the ceiling. No wonder they sell 3000 Mai Tais a month! I drank mine in a chilled ceramic coconut. If you're visiting San Fran, don't miss it.

Tiki bars create a world where being adrift on Gilligan's Island is possible for a few hours at least. What's not to love about that?

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