I’m not one to criticize tackiness.  Tackiness is arguably a cornerstone of tiki culture and should be embraced.  However, this recent Wall Street Journal article makes several excellent points about the history of tiki bars in the U.S. and how the perception of tiki culture has evolved.  Tiki Bars have hosted heads of state and movie stars through the years.  Tiki cocktails such as the Mai Tai and Zombie weren’t (and shouldn’t be) just cheesy, sugar-loaded drinks but exquisite combinations of rums and juices.

The latter part of this article focuses on the recent Tiki Crawl 8 in San Francisco.  The schedule included some great stops and would be worth including in your next San Francisco trip, even if not part of the official event.  Locations on the schedule included Trader Vic’s, Forbidden Island, and the Tonga Room.

The author also differentiates ‘good tiki’ from ‘bad tiki’.  Definitely worth a read.

There’s good tiki and bad tiki. Anything sleek and postmodern — say, a steel-and-glass totem — is bad tiki. Anything you can find in the luau section of your local party store — think cheap plastic leis and cardboard cutout hula girls — is bad tiki. I’m also of the opinion that “camp” makes for bad tiki. Ours is an irony-soaked culture, and camp is just a gaudy variety of the old, knowing wink-and-a-nod. Campy tiki provides no escape at all.

Tiki Doesn’t Have to be Tacky (WSJ)