which was very active from 1995 to 2003, and sort of half-active from 2003 to 2007.
Now it is gone.
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Chicago, IL
.News:
Ciral's
House of Tiki has joined Kahiki in the Tiki Bar Death Race 2000:
Ted Ciral closed it's doors for good on
September
30, 2000!
October, 2000:
|
In a surprise move, Ted Ciral has closed Ciral's House of Tiki. 'The Tiki' (as locals called it) closed up for good on September 30, 2000. Unlike the sadly missed Kahiki (Columbus, OH) which closed a few short weeks earlier, Ciral's shut down with virtually no hype, no press, and no warning. The following night, throngs of Tikiphiles and local regulars held a vigil on the doorstep of House of Tiki, lighting candles, and leaving notes, drawings, and photos for Ted, Bea, and the Tiki Gods themselves. The Chicago Reader ran a brief article on House of Tiki the following week, buried in the nether regions of Section 1, which no one reads anyways. It is true that Ciral's House of Tiki was far from the highest rated of all the Tiki Bars we have visited, but as authentic vintage Tiki Bars continue become extinct at a rapid pace, any and all losses are tragic ones. Rumor has it that Ciral's House of Tiki (1962-2000) will soon be a steak house. It seems that none of the three Ciral offspring wanted the business, and someone made Ted an offer he couldn't refuse. Geez, Ted, I would have bought the place if I knew you were selling! Original review: March, 1997 Tiki Bar Review Pages corespondent Andrew Loew sent me a tip regarding another Tiki Bar right here in Chicago. We checked it out on Friday the 13th of March, 1997. Perhaps it was the date, or perhaps it was fate, but this Tiki bar is one of the weaker ones we've visited.
The jukebox was blaring out some bad rock music, and contrasting the south side low lifes at the bar, most of the booths were filled with drunken college kids who seemed to be of the opinion that they'd prefer it if Ciral's was indeed a sports bar. The decor wasn't anything awe-inspiring. The usual bamboo and palm fronds, with a few obligatory Tiki masks, spears and shields hung here and there. Some plants hung from the ceiling, adorned with small colorful Christmas lights strung through the leaves. Typical fare. The really good stuff, the Tikis and masks, were pretty few and far between. |
|
My
first inkling that this one was going to be a bomb came as soon as I
drove
up to the place. There were at least four neon signs advertising
cheap
beers in the windows. House of Tiki, from the outside, comes
across more
like a sports bar (our dreaded nemesis) than a Tiki palace. Yes,
the HUGE
"House of Tiki" sign dwarfs the beer signs, and it is a tremendoulsy
cool
example of vintage neon craftsmanship, but Tiki Bars and Budweiser
signs
just don't mix well with me. Entering the establishment, things
got worse.
The bar is on the right, and there are about 15 booths to the
left. A
lot of really scary individuals sitting all along the length of the
cool
wavy bar looked up from the beers they were hunched over, and all
seemed
to be wondering if I was worth mugging. |
There were three people behind the bar: a cute young Japanese girl and an elderly couple, all decked out in Aloha shirts. Turns out that the couple, Ted and Bea Ciral, have owned the place sinve 1962. Bea reported that they have been in this location for 30 years, and then elaborated that her husband had opened the bar in 1962 "a few blocks north of here", and after 7 or 8 years they had moved it to the current location. Without further elaboration, she waddled off to finish filling the beer cooler. We got out of there pretty quickly. Directions: Ciral's House of Tiki is on the south side of
Chicago
in
Hyde Park. If you're driving from up north, get off Lakeshore at 53rd
st.,
and head west for about 2 blocks. Or, by Metra, get off at 55th, head
north
two blocks, and then east 1-2 more. May, 1997: We stopped back late night to check out the action a second time about six weeks later. The Cirals and the Asian girl were still tending bar, the clients at the bar were still scary, and the loud rock music had become annoying techno. The college kids were still camped out in the sticky booths. We ordered two different tropical drinks. They arrived a few minutes later. The glasses they came in were different, but the libations looked identical. Taking a sip, it took us about five seconds to realize that although the drinks had different names and came in different glasses, we were both drinking the same thing: cheap rum in warm Hawaiian Punch. We put them aside for a few minutes to allow the ice in the glasses to bring the Punch to something below room temperature. I wandered over to the jukebox and read a newspaper article hung above it, which talked about Mr. Ciral's amazing record collection from the 1940s, and how these records were always being played in the bar. I didn't think they had been making Chemical Brothers records in the 1940s, but I guess I could be wrong, because that's what I was hearing as I read the article. We did find merit here on this night: the drink menus are really cool (even if the drinks were really warm), and when we switched to beer, we found the prices to be very reasonable (for Chicago). When we get the urge to go Tiki Bar hopping in Chicago, we're going to stay with Hala Kahiki for now... |
|
Just a bit of trivia: A bar that you reviewed,
Cirals's
House
of Tiki, while not that hot of a Tiki Bar, it was in a motion
picture.
I watched "The Package" with Gene Hackman over the holidays, and there
it was, a full shot of the outside, and interior shots. It's too
bad it's not that great of a Tiki Bar, as I love that big 'ole neon
sign
out front.
Summer, 1999:
Okay, I have to admit it, Ciral's has grown on me a
bit. Not
just
becasue Wild Chicago filmed me and a few other members of the
Bamboo
Crew getting bamboozled there, but just because the place does have
it's
own sort of charm. Even the guys at the bar aren't so scary any
more!
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 15:28:22 +0000
From: Steve Mitchell <stevem@eekarchitects.com>
Subject: Stupid Review
Ciral's House of Tiki got slammed in your Review Page, but I took offense at your characterization of the clientele as a combination of (a) South-Side low-lifes and (b) drunken sports-bar college kids.
(a) Besides the fact that you are an ignorant elitist, what is the point of a Tiki bar if there are no so-called "low-lifes" in it? I noticed that you much preferred the other Tiki bar in the "western suburbs." It figures. Since most bars in the South Pacific during WWII were frequented by horny GIs and prostitutes, I'd wager that the South-Side Tiki bar offers the more authentic Tiki "experience."
James replies:
Ignorant, no. Elitist, yes. What's the problem?
A):
There are charming low-lifes, and there are vermin-infested homeless people who are buying Old Style beers, paying for them with panhandled change, and looking for some place to get out of the weather for a bit. While I have great sympathy for these people, and I suppose the Cirals are showing them some compassion and also making a small amount of extra income by letting them sit there, they are bringing down the overall legitimacy of the business, ultimately dirving away peoper customers, and are doing nothing but embellishing the negative reputation of the south side of Chicago. There are places they can go to get a bed, a warm meal, to get sober, and to try to find legitimate employment. Their sitting in a bar is helping themselves and the bar in the short term, but damaging both themselves and the bar in the long term. They need to go.
B):
The college students are indifferent to the Tiki vibe.
The sports bar - if you read my review - is "our dreaded nemesis".
Clearly, I don't spend much time in them, but clearly the students I experienced at Ciral's would prefer to.
More power to them.
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