Mobile Tiki Week Expands For Year Four And Includes Tiki Cocktails, Food, and A Pub Crawl

    “Mobile Tiki Week”— a community-wide celebration of tiki culture and Polynesian pop through drinks and food at some of downtown Mobile’s best bars—had to take a year off in 2020 due to the COVID19 pandemic, but it’s back! This year promises to be the best yet with more venues than ever before. 

What/When/Where?

    In 2013 Tiki Week founder and then Haberdasher head-bartender Roy Clark (now general manager and still bartender), decided to culminate his recent obsession with tiki cocktails into a one-night-only party. That party then expanded into “Haberdasher Tiki Week” for 2014, then again in 2016 (2015 was skipped due the bar being closed for relocation). 2017 saw the first incarnation of Mobile Tiki Week featuring four bars/restaurants, five in 2018, seven for 2019 and now the most yet with NINE participating establishments. 

    Since starting Mobile Tiki Week, “Trader Roy” has attended the invite-only and bartender-focused Tiki by the Sea conference in Wildwood, NJ, a Tiki by the Sea Alumni conference in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and helped make thousands of drinks alongside some of tiki’s biggest names as a member of the bar team at the Hukilau, the “World’s Most Authentic Tiki Party,” also in Fort Lauderdale. He has appeared on the online educational platform, “Tuesday Tiki Talks,” and is currently developing a tiki-centric podcast with collaborator Ben Hoeb. 

    Participating venues are The Haberdasher, the Sidecar Lounge at the Noble South, POST Crafted Cocktails, Squid Ink Eclectic Eats and Drinks, Roosters Latin American Food, The Merry Widow, Alabama Music Box, Debris Poboys and Drinks and Braided River Brewing Co. Each establishment will be featuring original tiki drinks and tiki-themed foods (at venues with kitchens) all week long. Expect delicious libations, served with all the garnishment and fanfare that drinks of this ilk demand. 

NEW FOR 2021: 

• BRAIDED RIVER is Mobile Tiki Week’s first official brewery.*
• “TAKI (tacky) WEEK” at Alabama Music Box.*
• OLD FAMILIAR TATTOOS, downtown’s only tattoo shop, will be featuring $50-100 tiki flash designs Wednesday through Saturday, on a walk-in/first-come-first-served basis.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS 

• MONDAY, AUGUST 16 – Mobile Tiki Week kicks off! Pick up a “Passport” (see Wednesday below for details) at any venue and start your adventure!
• TUESDAY, AUGUST 17 –”TUESDAY TIKI TRIVIA” at the Merry Widow! Test your knowledge of all things tiki and win prizes along the way!
• WEDNESDAY AUGUST 18 – ”Rum Crawl” Pub Crawl – Start at the business of your choosing at 6:30pm for a tasty tropical tipple, then make your way to the other venues in whatever order you’d like! Participants can pick up “Passports” in which each drink offered is listed and can be stamped upon purchase, so you can keep up with what you’ve tried. Make sure to wear your best tropical attire!
• SATURDAY AUGUST 17 – 8th Annual Haberdasher Luau and Pig Roast You’re invited to don your tropical finest and wrap up Tiki Week in style! Sip through the menu and munch on tiki specials from the kitchen. But don’t get too full, they’ll be serving up complimentary whole roasted hog prepared by talented cooks (with any food purchase, while supplies last)!

VENUE INFORMATION: 

• THE HABERDASHER / TRADER ROY’S TIKI ROOM – 113 Dauphin St. The Haberdasher will be mixing up 10 concoctions in a completely transformed and immersive classic tiki bar setting that you’ll have to see to believe. Drinks will range from creative variations on Don the Beachcomber classics that defined the genre, to original and exciting libations with ingredients that Trader Vic himself couldn’t have dreamed of. The kitchen will be serving handmade specials all week inspired by Pan-Asian, Polynesian, and Caribbean fare.
• THE SIDECAR LOUNGE – Open at 6pm nightly Monday through Thursday for a variety of fun tiki drinks with all fresh ingredients, many of them house-made! Food available from Noble South Tuesday and Thursday. Reservations suggested Thursday. Closed Friday and Saturday (Noble South WILL be open, however).
• POST CRAFTED COCKTAILS & WINE BAR – 571 Dauphin St. POST up with us as we set sail into our Tiki Week. They will be featuring four tiki-themed drinks that will have you feeling tropical island, no-worries vibes in no time.
• SQUID INK ECLECTIC EATS AND DRINKS – 102 Dauphin Street. Squid Ink is diving into Tiki Week with an eclectic spin on some of your favorite tropical treats! Join us all week long for carefully crafted cocktails (and beer cocktails!) featuring house made ingredients. Be sure to check out the luau pork and poke bao specials!
• ROOSTERS LATIN AMERICAN FOOD – 211 Dauphin St. Is all that drinking making you hungry? Roosters will be featuring their almost famous “Rum Ham” grilled sandwich, which boasts a Kraken rum glaze on top-notch ham, toasted Cuban bread, swiss cheese and grilled pineapple. Wash it all down with their play on a tiki cocktail classic, the “Alabama Painkiller.”
• THE MERRY WIDOW – 51 S. Conception St. This beautiful corner bar will be celebrating all week long with classic tiki cocktails as well as a few original drinks. Don’t miss Tiki Trivia on Tuesday!
• ALABAMA MUSIC BOX PRESENTS “TAKI WEEK” – 12 S. Conception St. AMB is offering a playfully tacky and lighthearted counter to Tiki Week and…well we’ll just let them tell it: “Deep in the island of Pensacola Beach stands a Tiki oasis known to the locals as ‘Margaritaville Beach Hotel.’ We got real drunk there once & the Parrot King himself told us ‘Taki Week must exist in the City of Oysters.’ At least we think it was him….it was dark in that restroom. Is Mobile even known as the City of Oysters? What if he wasn’t even talking to us? Anyways, come down to the Box all week long for some Taki drinks, Jimmy Buffett tributes, free hula hooping, & a spam eating contest. Ma, hello!”
• BRAIDED RIVER BREWING CO. – 420 St. Louis St. Braided River is MTW’s first ever OFFICIAL brewery, and aptly so! With a history of tropically-tinged brews they will be providing a bubbly alternative to strong and boozy cocktails. Look for some taproom only tiki-inspired brews! Open Tues-Sun.
• DEBRIS POBOYS AND DRINKS – 276 Dauphin St. Check out bartender Kendall Turk’s special Tiki Week cocktail offerings all week long! And the food…well that goes without saying. 

   For more info or questions please contact Roy Clark at MobileTikiWeek@gmail.com or (251)229-2728.