{"id":563,"date":"2018-08-23T14:22:36","date_gmt":"2018-08-23T21:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/?p=999915242"},"modified":"2018-08-23T14:22:36","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T21:22:36","slug":"tiki-bar-downtown-long-beach-island-centric-concoctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/food\/tiki-bar-downtown-long-beach-island-centric-concoctions","title":{"rendered":"This tiki bar in Downtown Long Beach is hidden behind a wall just for you"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are two things Beer Belly has never been lighthearted on: its food and its drinks\u2014the latter of which are perhaps its most underrated aspect thanks to a spectacular bar program headed by James Squire and\u00a0Sherwood\u00a0Souzankari.<\/p>\n

The Downtown business can now add a hidden tiki bar to its list of accomplishments.<\/p>\n

\"Beer<\/a>
Beer Belly’s Tikitiki offers the classic Frozen Bird, a concoction of rum, Campari, pineapple, and watermelon. Photo by Sherwood Souzankari.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Every Thursday through Saturday, beginning at 6 p.m. until midnight, one has to simply venture toward the western wall inside Beer Belly, push on it, and enter Tikitiki, a dark, red-and-blue tinged, pufferfish lantern-lit space offering up classics like Frozen Birds to\u00a0Souzankari’s more creative creations. (Like the Desert Daiquiri, a blend of rum and aloe liqueur with hints of pineapple-and-sugar and lime-and-salt.)<\/p>\n

With flexibility in terms of management\u2014maintaining a permanent tiki bar could be financial ruin in some cases, but with an offshoot attached to a restaurant, stability remains viable\u2014and a genuine cool factor in terms of vibes\u2014the room is devoid of any outside light and creates a sense of total escape\u2014Tikitiki is the type of space needed in what was becoming a monotonous bar scene.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Sherwood Souzankari greets patrons at Tikitiki, Beer Belly’s hidden bar. Photo by Brian Addison.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“We [Squire and I] wanted something cool\u2014we wanted to build something that was like a hidden tiki bar but wasn\u2019t completely held down to being a traditional tiki,” Souzankari said. “We wanted something we would both visit if we were a patron. We decided to approach the menu in the same way, building out drinks that people could be familiar with but with a more modern tiki twist, like an old fashioned, but with a rum base instead of whiskey base.”<\/p>\n

Rum is where Tikitki shines thanks to the liqueur-centric talents of\u00a0Souzankari.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The punch bowl at Beer Belly’s Tikitiki bar comes with a show. Photo by Brian Addison.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His approach is far more reflective of the L.A. cocktail scene as a whole than it is Long Beach-specific: sometimes challenging, oftentimes rewarding. This also goes for his approach to the rum selection, where you’ll find everything from a Oaxacan rum that leans toward the savory\u2014I am being quite serious; it tastes similar to Spaghetti-Os and it’s strangely satisfying\u2014to Haitian rum aged for 8 years.<\/p>\n

Add onto this punch bowls (complete with a mini-fire spectacular), music that serenades while you intoxicate, and an overall sense of escape and you have little wonder that is Tikitiki.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every Thursday through Sunday, beginning at 6 p.m. until midnight, one has to simply venture toward the western wall of this Downtown venue, push on it, and enter Tikitiki, a dark, red-and-blue tinged, pufferfish lantern-lit space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":66087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[167],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-bars","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=563"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}