13 Terrific Tiki Bars in the Bay Area
"Ah, the Tonga Room: A vacation land in the basement of the Fairmont Hotel where, in 1945, a Metro Goldwyn Mayer set designer transformed an underused swimming pool into a lagoon (with a floating stage for bands and hourly “rainstorms”). It’s also a restaurant with a mix of Chinese and Hawaiian food that betrays the odd cultural conflations/general ignorance of the white American men who invented Tiki. But if you can stomach it all, the total effect is sort of marvelous. Anthony Bourdain once called it “the greatest place in the history of the world,” and it’s not clear how much he was kidding." - Caleb Pershan
