Tiki: A taste of Polynesia in Midtown Village
The crew from Vintage, Time, Bar, Garage, et al., is going into 13th and Drury Streets.
To explain a local shortage of bamboo, rattan, and dried palm leaf:
Finishing touches have been applied to Tiki, the tiki bar at 102 S. 13th St. in Midtown Village by Jason Evenchik (Vintage, Time, Bar, Garage, La Casa de Tu Madre, and Heritage) and Tim Heuisler, the longtime manager at Time.
Tiki is looking for a Tuesday, July 5 opening in the two-story corner spot that formerly housed Apothecary, APO, The Corner, and Mamou. The location's wow-feature has long been a roof deck overlooking a bar-rich block of 13th Street, which includes Lolita, Barbuzzo, and Jamonera.
Tiki is a full circle for operations manager Kate Moroney Miller, who managed APO.
They've decorated the two-story space not through the kitsch catalogues or Amazon, but through the garage collections of friends, which yielded masks, carvings, and well-used surfboards. Heuisler's childhood friend Richard Pastor, a bartender at The Industry, painted a colorful mural next to the bar and also created etched glass of a surfer on the mirrored wall in the first-floor dining room. There are bars and seating on both floors.
Food menus are here and here - light stuff like the green papaya salad, spicy beef summer rolls, steamed shrimp dumplings, fried pork dumplings, two bao buns, grilled shrimp, and beef satay and spicy peanut satay.
Cocktail menu is here; who can pass up a drink called Punching Nemo - it's a punch with two brandies, luxardo, and ginger grean tea reduction.
Wine/beer list is here.
Meanwhile, Evenchik is looking for a late July/early August for Garage North, opening at the former Penn Treaty Market at Frankford and Girard Avenues in Fishtown.