Visiting the KON TIKI ROOM…and meeting MR. ULTIMATE MAI TAI!

(UPDATE: While the Kon-Tiki Room’s parent bar, The Kon-Tiki in Oakland is still open, the Kon-Tiki Room is no more…)

Several years ago, on the awesome (but now defunct) Critiki website, I encountered a user who intrigued me. His comments were thorough and spot on. He had been to most of the tiki bars I’d been to—and a few others I hoped to explore eventually. And he had this crazy knack for seemingly visiting bars in various places either right before or right after me. (We were also eventually both featured on the TIKI WITH RAY show at different times.) How interesting.

Once Critiki went dormant, I eventually found Instagram. I let me tiki freak flag fly there…and found others with the same interests. One day, I don’t recall who found who first (I’m guessing it was he finding me as I’m NOT a very avid social media user.), but there was this account—The Ultimate Mai Tai (with links connected to a website The Search For The Ultimate Mai Tai)—in my Instagram feed. Clicking through it, it was obvious that it was the same guy from Critiki, Mr. Kevin Crossman!

It turns out Kevin lives in the Bay Area, a place I used to live years ago and still visited frequently We had just been missing each other at bar visits around the Bay Area occasionally, over the years as well. When I knew I’d be flying back to California to escape the winter cold in Washington, I let Kevin know. We agreed to meet up when I was in the area.

He asked where I wanted to meet. I had given him a list of three places; Trader Vic’s in Emeryville (which was currently closed for refurbishment), Kon Tiki in Oakland (which I knew he frequented and was a place I needed to revisit, having only been there a time or two pre-pandemic), or the Kon Tiki Room.

Kon Tiki Room? That was a new one to me. I had first heard about it through Kevin’s Instagram and was curious to see it.

Of the choices I sent him, Kevin picked the Kon Tiki Room. He also scheduled us to go on a Thursday evening, as it is Star Trek Night at the bar. Star Trek? In a tiki bar? I didn’t know what quite to expect and I’m not a huge Star Trek fan, but sure. I was game. Beam me up, Scotty.

With some trepidation (Here I am, a middle-aged disabled man venturing into an unfamiliar, sketchy downtown Oakland evening…), I braved BART (Thank goodness the up escalator was working) and emerged just a few blocks from my destination.

From what I understood, the bar was inside of another establishment, the Palmetto. There was a street entrance to the Kon-Tiki Room, but I just thought it was an acknowledgement that it was there, not an actual entrance. The windows and door appeared to be boarded over.

Yet, at 5:30 p.m., while I was waiting down by the Palmeto door on the corner to be unlocked, I heard what sounded like the couple waiting around the tiki bar’s door going in. I turned to look and they were entering…and there was Mr. Crossman waiting for me. Ha! (Apparently the bar used to be only accessible through Palmetto, but that was changed and now it is completely separated.)

The outside windows really gave no indication as to what the inside would be like. I didn’t know what to expect. The original Kon-Tiki I recall is nice (and I really need to revisit that place…). What magic would its sister bar hold?

We went inside and WOW! Yes, it was small (as the “Room” in its name implies), but it was done up so nicely.

Kevin had, of course, been there many times. He and I needed to get acquainted a bit. So I temporarily put my geeky tiki need to explore on hold and we sat down at the bar.

The bartender quickly handed us some menus, one of which was the flyer for the Star Trek Night drink specials.

The whole Star Trek thing wasn’t that invasive. Aside from the drink specials, there was a lone TV, silently playing Star Trek movies high above and to the left of the bar. That’s it.

For our first drinks, Kevin and I both decided to boldly go where our taste buds hadn’t gone before and ordered from the Star Trek drink menu. We both opted for the C-Class Nebula, which turned out to be a mighty tasty concoction.

We also ordered a bit of food. Kevin had fish sticks, while I had fries.

About the time the drinks and food arrived, this big guy in a Hawaiian shirt entered from the kitchen. He spotted Kevin and greeted him. It turned out to be Christ Aivaliotis, one of the owners of the bar.

He is a great guy, very fun and was happy to have us there. He also broke out a bottle of the bar’s own specially made rum, Worthy Park Single Barrel Rum, and gave us a shot. Smooth.

As we sipped our C-Class Nebulas and munched on our snacks, I bombarded Kevin with questions-questions-questions! I wanted to know most about his blog site, The Search for the Perfect Mai Tai. He’d originally had a website for it in 1998. He let it go, but restarted it as an Instagram account in 2017. From the Instagram sprang a new, full-blown incarnation of of he website in 2020.

His site and Instagram are very impressive. He constantly updates them. There are photos of bar visits and events, reviews of tiki bars, cocktail recipes, tiki histories, and discussions about (of course) Mai Tais. Kevin keeps a running tab of his Mai Tai experiences and every year he publishes his list of the Top 10 Mai Tais of the year. Last year’s No. 1 spot went to Birds of Paradise, a home bar in Sacramento. Wow! Mixology dreams can come true. (Second place went to a customized cocktail at Trader Sam’s tiki bar at Disneyland.)

Kevin is a font of knowledge, knows his rums, and is a true tiki explorer. He has even held symposiums (on Mai Tais) at tiki conventions. Beyond all of that, he’s just a great guy.

After picking Kevin’s brain awhile, our drinks had mysteriously vanished. It was time for round two. We placed our orders with the very delightful and talented bartender, Jeni, who created the Star Trek drink menu and was developing other original beverages for X-Files and Saturday cartoon-themed nights that are in the planning stages. Impressive.

While the drinks were being readied, I got my geek on and did my quick exploration of the place. It was all so cool. The dioramas above either end of the bar gave the small-ish space a more expansive feeling. There were interesting tidbits tucked away up there; monkeys, a single little tiki totem, cases of rum, even a cannon sticking through the wall.

The lamps were of the most interest to me (as I hope to build out my own home tiki bar someday and am having trouble finding lamps for it). There was this huge, massive one that really filled the space and made a statement. The others were more typical tiki bar sized. I really dig them.

Amazingly, I found out that most of the decor in the bar — and the lights — and the bar’s signature mugs (which, unfortunately, were a bit out of my price range) were all done by one incredible local artist named Woody Miller. Yowza!

Our second drinks had arrived. I opted for the Kon-Tiki Room Zombie, while Kevin went with the Frozen Disco Banana. I didn’t get a picture of his drink. As good as it sounded, I didn’t want to be sucking down a cold, frozen cocktail in January—even in California. Brrr.

As we sipped away, I was asking Kevin his thoughts on and drink recommendations for various tiki spots I was soon to be visiting. Leaving Kevin answering my inquiries left him little time in imbibe while I’d sucked my Zombie into oblivion. That only meant one thing…I needed another cocktail. Of course, in Mr. Mai Tai’s honor, I tried the Kon-Tiki Room’s take on the Mai Tai.

As we were nearing time to leave, I asked Jeni to snap a photo of Kevin and I.

I slurped down my Mai Tai. Just as we were getting up to leave, the gregariously fun Christ returned. He offered us a farewell shot of a Haitian rum called Benevolence (which fit the spirit of the moment perfectly).

There was time for one more quick shot of us, this time with Christ.

It had been a fun evening and it was especially nice to have finally gotten to meet Mr. Kevin Crossman—in the flesh! Thank you all (Kevin, Christ, and Jeni) for a tiki-terrific evening. The Kon-Tiki Room may seem small, but it’s big on hospitality. Mahalo.

The Kon-Tiki Room
1900 Telegraph Ave.
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 817-4002

Website: https://palmetto-oakland.com/the-kon-tiki-room/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/thekontikiroom?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=