Experience the Ultimate Tiki Social at Omni Hotels & Resorts
Join us at the Tiki Social pop-up at the San Diego Omni Hotel
The Tiki Social, a unique collaboration between renowned tiki expert Jeff «Beachbum» Berry and Omni Hotels & Resorts, offers a one-of-a-kind vacation experience. Berry helped design the exclusive drink and food menu, including special tiki glasses. This immersive event will be available through Labor Day 2025, providing a tropical escape at select Omni locations nationwide.
Tiki Bar Culture Makes a Comeback
This summer, the mysterious and vibrant tiki bar culture is back in full force. Guests can enjoy thatched bars, wooden carvings, aloha shirts, and tropical cocktails at Omni Hotels & Resorts across the country, from New York to Florida to San Diego.
In June, the Omni San Diego at the Ballpark launched its summer pop-up, complete with a poolside DJ and a Polynesian fire dancer. Bartenders, clad in Hawaiian shirts, serve island-inspired drinks like “Mai Tai Have Another” and “The Tropical Tease,” crafted by Jeff Berry himself. The event also features pupus (Hawaiian appetizers), and there are fun, non-alcoholic options like the Designated Diver and Dry Tai for those who prefer a mocktail.
Tiki Social Experience at Omni Hotels
Many Omni Hotels offer a selection of Tiki Social cocktails at their lobby bars. Eleven locations provide the full immersive Tiki Social experience, including an eight-drink menu. This event is only available until Labor Day 2025, so don’t miss out on the fun!
Here’s a list of participating locations:
— Omni Amelia Island Resort & Spa (Fernandina Beach, FL)
— Omni Atlanta Hotel at Centennial Park (Atlanta, GA)
— Omni Berkshire Place (New York, NY)
— Omni La Costa Resort & Spa (Carlsbad, CA)
— Omni Las Colinas Hotel (Irving, TX)
— Omni Fort Worth Hotel (Fort Worth, TX)
— Omni Orlando Resort at Champions Gate (Orlando, FL)
— Omni PGA Frisco Resort & Spa (Frisco, TX)
— Omni Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa (Rancho Mirage, CA)
— Omni San Diego Hotel (San Diego, CA)
— Omni Viking Lakes Hotel (Minneapolis, MN)
A Brief History of Tiki Bars
The Tiki bar culture dates back nearly a century, with its origins in the early 1930s. Hollywood’s fascination with Polynesian islands fueled the trend, helped along by the 1920s ukulele craze and movies like King Kong (1933). The Tiki bar as we know it was introduced by Don the Beachcomber (Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt) and Trader Vic (Victor Bergeron), who opened iconic bars in California in the 1930s. Their establishments became legendary, attracting Hollywood stars and inspiring hundreds of copycats across the country.
Trader Vic’s even claims to have invented the Mai Tai, now a global tiki bar staple. Tiki bars enjoyed popularity throughout the 1940s and 1950s, fueled by Hollywood shows and the growing tourism to Hawaii.
Book your Tiki Social experience now and indulge in the best tropical cocktails, vibrant music, and unforgettable ambiance at Omni Hotels & Resorts.
The bar and floral display at Tiki Social at the San Diego Omni Hotel. The tiki-themed drinks, food and ambiance will be available at many Omni hotels through Labor Day 2025.
Still, every bar fad has its shelf life. The swinging Sixties, the hedonistic 70s, and the dress for success 1980’s had no time for Tiki.
When I visited North Hollywood’s Tonga Hut last Saint Patrick’s Day, the Tiki-themed room was surprisingly packed with festive drinkers. “What’s the connection between St. Paddy’s day and a tiki bar,” I asked a bartender. “Alcohol!,” he chortled.
But now revivalist Jeff “Beachbum” Berry is helping the Omni chain bring back Tiki’s temptations. Berry is the author of seven books on vintage tropical drinks with titles like “Potions of the Caribbean” and “Sipping Safari.” But as he notes, “You can’t copyright a recipe.”
What’s the appeal of Tiki bars, like the revival at the Omni? “Maybe you can’t afford a trip to the tropics but you could afford a drink or two. The worse things got, the more people needed a tiki vacation,” says Berry.
“In World War II the Tiki clubs were mobbed. After WWII, we had the atomic bomb, duck and cover drills, McCarthyism, the Bomb, and the Red Scare,” he adds. “That’s why Tiki lasted from the Depression to Disco. But it became uncool, it was what your parents did while you were smoking pot.”
Tiki began making a comeback in the 1990’s with the craft cocktail movement, says Berry, who in person is somewhat reminiscent of Colonel Sanders in Hawaiian shirt and straw hat. “People rediscovered this at the thrift stores, the aloha shirts, the mugs with restaurants on them. But young bartenders thought tiki drinks were part of the problem, that they were syrupy, cruise ship drinks.”
The lounge behind the Tiki bar at the San Diego Omni. The Tiki Social is a summer pop-up experience at many Omni hotels across the U.S. in 2025.
So the “Beachbum,” an ex-journalist, used his research skills to track down the surviving bartenders who knew how to make the real thing. Don the Beachcomber was apparently so paranoid about his recipes that he put some of them in code.
A common question about tiki culture is whether it is cultural appreciation or cultural appropriation. According to Berry, “The correct term would be misappropriate. The bones in the nose, cartoon-izing a war god like Ku, the othering or sexualization of island women—that’s a line you shouldn’t cross. Current Tiki bar culture is respectful.”
Berry became interested in Tiki when his parent took him to a Chinese restaurant with the memorabilia of its Tiki lounge past. “It had a tropical Disneyland vibe. By the 1980’s I learned that if I wanted to have these drinks I’d have to figure out how to make them myself.”
Eventually Berry’s hobby became his profession. “I aged out of the film business—my second act happened to coincide with the cocktail revival.”
Invited to a cocktail festival in New Orleans, he found the locals friendly and warm. He ultimatelymoved to the city and opened a bar and restaurant, Beachbum Berry’s Latitude 29 in the French Quarter. “I serve Donn Beach’s original Zombie,” Berry says, “But I’m too old and too slow to be behind the bar.
“For Omni it helps draw people to their bars and to the hotel,” Berry says “I helped create the drinks and the menu, made suggestions on the décor, consulted and make appearances. I would show them what works or what is no longer respectable. For example, you’ll see a lot of abstract patterns, rather than people.”
So the next time you visit an Omni, pack that Tiki shirt or Hawaiian skirt.
«At Omni, we know that guests seek connection to something more than just a room key. That’s why we introduced activations like Tiki Social, a vibrant Tiki-inspired cocktail experience where guests can gather to celebrate the spirit of summer,” says Michael Innocentin, Chief Marketing Officer at Omni Hotels & Resorts. “Unique offerings like Tiki Social feed the demand for joyful moments and differentiated immersive experiences. The response from guests has been overwhelmingly positive, and we’ve seen firsthand how these activations foster brand affinity and guest loyalty.»