Smoking drink at Hawaika in Valencia,
photo by Abha Malpani
A post on Gridskipper this morning by Abha Malpani has alerted me to a Spanish tiki bar I had not heard of before: Hawaika. For some reason, tiki kept going strong during the ’80s and ’90s, when tiki places were closing left and right here in the states. There are enough tiki bars in Spain that there is a local tiki mug manufacturer; Spanish tiki mugs are often complex and finely painted affairs, and are highly coveted by collectors. Today, Spain sports no fewer than 10 tiki bars, and an entire Polynesian-themed land in the Port Aventura amusement park. This is particularly impressive when you consider that Spain is about the same size as the state of Texas, which has pretty much bupkis in the tiki department (though that will thankfully change soon when Trader Vic’s opens again in Dallas in the coming months).
I’ve added Hawaika to Critiki, but I couldn’t find much information out there about it, which surprises me… does anyone out there know anything about this place?
- Hawaika, Valencia [Critiki]
- Hola Aloha! Valencia’s Tiki Bar [Gridskipper]
