Exotica Moderne #20, 2023 (Tiki, House of Tabu)

We’re capping off our fifth year of publication right back where we started with a new beautiful cover by Tom “Thor” Thordarson. Thor provided the cover for our very first issue so it is only fitting to have his work once again grace our magazine. Inside Thor provides a stunningly thoughtful take on what it means to be in the Tiki scene and how each of us have our own “Tiki” journey.

Since we’re reminiscing about our first issue, Monique LeBleu makes her stop at Tonga Hut in North Hollywood, where we launched Exotica Moderne and she also visits TH’s Palm Springs location.

We’ve a lot of music reviews this time around and Dave Bagdade got a chance to catch up with The Ventures, as they release their new LP, New Space.

CE Hunt pay a visit to none other than Jeff “Beachbum” Berry at Latitude 29 and the Bum discusses the current state of the Tiki bar scene. As an added treat, the Bum provides us with one of his cocktail recipes, just for our readers.

As long as we’re already in the great state of Louisiana, we take a look at the first-ever Louisiana Tikifest. Moving on to the Midwest, we feature several of the Midwest’s Tiki events in the article Third Coast Tiki. Stopping in Indianapolis, we visited with Bob and Wendy Cripe to check out their home bar.

Ray “Tiki With Ray” Wyland also visits two home Tiki bars but this time north of the border in Victoria, British Columbia. Tiki Lindy explores cooking with a focus on one main ingredient - the pineapple, and Tom Tiki Duncan takes us back in time to 1938 in New York and spends an evening at the Hawaiian Room in the Hotel Lexington. (From the Publisher.)