R.I.P.: Tiki Bob’s
Here lies Tiki Bob’s, preferred party/date rape destination for mooks from the Northeast and suburbs who, it can be fairly said, probably had no other interaction with the city whatsoever. Yesterday, one of our readers caught the Tiki Bob’s sign being removed, with all the pineapple garb to be replaced some kind of polished-table “saloon” kind of vibe. But we sense that this will be just another theme bar, because when you are in the Finnegan’s/McFadden’s loop, even “classy” is just another rude joke with ass in the middle. We’ll miss you, Tiki Bob’s. We’ll miss you for your blatantly racist dress code. We’ll miss you for those nights when we’d ride by and shout to the line assembled “WHERE’S YOUR CUBICLE?” (True story.) We’ll miss you for the blunt, dumb naivete your customer base represented. We’ll miss the money you pumped into the economy, whether it was insurance or drink tax or, not to be denied, the wallets your clientele dumped into the hands of local hoodlums who knew that the corner down from you was Easy Mark Central. We’ll miss you, Tiki Bob’s, we’ll miss you so much. Write us!
October 9th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Is McFadden’s still standing? I think Tiki Bob’s / McFadden’s are actually the same business (I’ve seen them paired up together elsewhere, Rochester, NY and somewhere else too). My guess is “Tiki McFadden” or whoever owns the chain is dropping the Tiki Bob in favor of a new brand/look. With the saloon buzz, maybe we’ll be seeing an apothecary/southwark/chicks/Time for the bridge and tunnel crowd … which in their world is just shots of Jack and Beam served on a bar with a dark a varnish, and maybe some well polished brass here and there. Or maybe they’ll still pour on the cheese and give the place a frickin cowboy theme.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Meet the new Mooks, same as the old mooks:
http://www.buckheadphilly.com/
October 9th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
oh no not Tiki Bob’s. The few times I went there during my college life I had fun…although you’re right, they kind of were racist :-\.
But the dollar drink specials were awesome.
Eghhh oh well
October 9th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
I went to Tiki Bob’s when it started raining really hard while I was walking to a party I didn’t really want to go to. I have two things to report from that night.
1- After I had paid the cover and wandered in the first thing that happened was incessant hollering from a bikinied DelCo chick standing above a tub of Miller Lites. “Yo, hey! You! You want a Miller Lite? Miller Lite!” I say sure fine, this promo will offset the 8 dollars I just paid. She twists the cap and says “six dollars”. One minute in and I’ve fallen for some slutty siren…. how the fuck?
2- on the stroke of midnight all the lights turned on, the DJ started playing ‘Living On A Prayer’, every single person in the crowd sang along, and two guys climbed into the booth and started spraying foam fire extinguishers into the crowd.
October 9th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Places like Tiki Bob’s are vital to Philly’s bar ecosystem. Their primary purpose is to contain annoying people you have no interest in encountering at the bar of your choice. Like Poly Esthers before it another Tiki Bob’s will thankfully emerge keeping our fragile ecosystem in tact. I guess it could be argued that Old City is one giant containment area.
October 9th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
I hope the new proprietors have the common sense to have their hot bartenders dance on the bar at the stroke of every hour… Yeeee-Hawwww!!
October 9th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
sorry but this sounds kind of amazing:
“on the stroke of midnight all the lights turned on, the DJ started playing ‘Living On A Prayer’, every single person in the crowd sang along, and two guys climbed into the booth and started spraying foam fire extinguishers into the crowd.”