Psycho Suzi’s Motor Lounge – Minneapolis, MN

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Bar & Restaurant Reviews and tagged with Minneapolis, Minnesota, Psycho Suzi's, Restaurants, Tiki, Tiki Bars, Travel January 19, 2012

Forget the Mall of America — if you’re in the Twin Cities you have to check out Psycho Suzi’s. A little more than a year ago they moved to this larger location that was just a few blocks away. Starting with the giant roadside sign redone with their logo tiki it was clear Psycho Suzi’s had come back bigger and better.

This space in the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District was previously a saloon-turned-hiphop-club named Gabby’s, but apparently it was originally designed to be a church. (This is fairly obvious from the outside.) Making the move more than quadrupled Psycho Suzi’s inside capacity, not to mention the 300-plus seats on the terrace.

As if that weren’t noteworthy enough, there’s also a big waterfall fountain in the lobby, views of the Mississippi from the riverfront patio, a gift shop with greatly expanded signature merchandise, and three tiki bars upstairs in “Shangri-la” that are only open Friday and Saturday nights. (We were there in October, hence the Halloween decorations.)

They seem to have a tongue-in-cheek attitude about the whole tiki theme, but you can tell that there’s true passion for it lurking underneath the ironic front. I was instantly charmed by the custom-designed carpet that resembles wooden planks with nails, like the deck of a ship.

It looks like most of the decor from the previous location, including the Mender of Broken Dreams neon sign above the bar, made it over here. So even though the dining room was much larger, it still felt familiar. (Check out my past Psycho Suzi’s post if you want to see how the original looked.)

The downstairs area had retro brown vinyl seating juxtaposed with lauhala matted walls, tiki masks backed with leopard print shields, a curtain of bamboo pieces, and shelves of mugs, plus those lamps I love, giant wooden forks and spoons, and other tiki art.

The Psycho Zombie Slush, a slushie made with rum (possibly overproof), lime, cola and cherry flavors, will set you up for a brain freeze, sugar rush and future hangover all at the same time! I can’t for the life of me remember what drink I ordered but I do recall that it was good. Judging by the mug, I’m guessing it was The Native’s Curse: “mango and lemon tropical rum swill.”

They also demonstrate their sense of humor with the food. There’s self-described “trashy” appetizers like Potluck Pickle Roll-ups with ham and cream cheese (a.k.a. Minnesota Sushi) and Red Rockets, which are lightly beer-battered cocktail weenies served with honey mustard. Both were fine but next time I’ll opt for the fried cheese curds and bacon-wrapped smokies we tried on our first visit.

The Suzi Burger with caramelized onions, provolone and red pepper mayo definitely packed some heat. There’s also salads, sandwiches and pizzas (both regular and a version of deep dish). If we hadn’t been so stuffed with tater tots I would have gone for the deep-fried Snickers bar for dessert.

I was so impressed Psycho Suzi’s that it’s now taking spot #4 in my power rankings for the best tiki bars in the United States, bringing some geographical diversity to that list. It’s well worth a visit for the atomic-inflected tiki decor, fun food, decent drinks and tons of signature merch.

Psycho Suzi’s Motor Lounge
1900 Marshall St. NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
612-788-9069

Tiki on TV: “Archer” on FX Edition

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Tiki on TV and tagged with Archer, Moai, Television, Tiki on TV January 12, 2012

By now I think we’ve had the following one-sided conversation with practically all our friends and acquaintances: “Do you watch ‘Archer’? You-have-to-watch-Archer-it’s-so-funny-you’ll-love-it-the-first-season-is-on-Netflix-Instant-go-home-and-watch-it-now!”

There’s a warning before each episode telling you there’ll be violence, strong language and adult situations. What more could you want? The title character, Sterling Archer, is like James Bond in cartoon form but way more narcissistic and cocky. (Phrasing!) And also hilarious, as are the rest of the oddballs employed with him at the ISIS spy agency.

There’s a mod 1960’s vibe to the show that I of course enjoy. The ISIS office looks straight out of “Mad Men” — and not just because these characters are also constantly boozing. Sterling’s mother/boss, Malory Archer, has a chair that looks like a variation of the Eames Lounge. The art director talked about his mid-century modern influences in this interview on the Archer production blog.

You can also spot this Moai bookend on the shelf in a lot of the episodes. (There’s your tiki connection, my friends.)

New episodes of “Archer” season three start airing Thursday, January 19 at 10 p.m. on FX. Tune in and spare yourself from me bugging you about it next time we meet. Then we can just talk about how great it is instead.

City of Downey’s Tiki Float – Rose Parade 2012

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Other Tiki Topics and tagged with Pasadena, Photography, Rose Parade, Tiki January 5, 2012

Happy New Year! Every year on January 1st (or January 2nd in this case), we go check out the post-parade viewing of the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena. Two years ago I blogged about an under-the-sea themed float with a neat school of pufferfish, but this go-round there was a bonafide tiki float!

The City of Downey’s float was called “Enchanted Paradise” and it won the Founders’ Award, which is given to the most beautiful entry built by volunteers (as opposed to the professional float-building companies that make most of them).

The float featured a volcano that actually erupted fire, three tikis, a thatch and bamboo hut with tapa-style designs, parrots, palm trees and giant orchids.

I loved the flowers on the volcano, especially the garlands of orange mini orchids and the “lava” flowing down from the top. The audio tour said it was covered with sheet moss, Spanish moss and reindeer moss, and that the rest of the float had thousands of roses, anthuriums, carnations and ginger.

There was also a waterslide built into the volcano, but you couldn’t really see from the ground or even on the TV coverage, so I don’t really know what the point of it was. I guess it was fun for the people riding it…

All the floats have to be covered with natural materials, so this “cockatoo” was coated with white and yellow rose petals, and onion seed for the beak.

During the parade this tiki moved its arms, playing the drum. According to Stephanie Edwards on KTLA, the tikis were covered with bark, barley, mum, walnut and strawflower.

This sleepy-looking tiki was spewing out smoke during the parade. I love the “tiki torches” next to it — bamboo poles with whole pineapples, pink carnations and heliconia for fire.

One of the volunteers said that all the tropical flowers (i.e. not the roses or the mosses) had been flown in from Hawaii the previous week.

It’s interesting to me how they make something — like a palm tree — out of something else — corn husks and orchids. Palm fronds instead made it on to this tiki, giving it a cool texture.

I liked that the float designers “carved” tiki masks into the support poles of the hut, using squash seeds for some of the white details. That’s a pretty nice bamboo bar they have up there, too — only thing missing is the rum!

Riding on the float was the beauty queen Miss Downey and her entourage, a few local float association bigwigs, and author and retro slideshowist extraordinaire Charles Phoenix. (Someday I hope to try some of his kitschy Test Kitchen creations like Frosty the Cheeseball Man and the Astro Weenie Christmas Tree.)

In case you missed it on TV, you can see video of the City of Downey’s tiki float and all its moving parts on the KTLA web site (around the 2:45 mark). Milestone Products is also selling Rose Parade pins featuring the drumming tiki for $6. Check out more of my photos of the float over on Flickr.