Donn Beach, born Ernest Raymond Gantt, sparked the tiki bar craze when he opened Don the Beachcomber in Hollywood in 1934. Inspired by his travels in the South Seas, Beach created a tropical oasis with bamboo decor, tiki torches, and secret rum cocktails like the Zombie and Mai Tai.
His inventive mixology and immersive design offered Americans an exotic escape during turbulent times, planting the seeds for a lasting subculture. At its peak, Don the Beachcomber grew to 16 locations before ownership changes shrank the brand, with the last location closing in 2018.
Two years ago, 23 Restaurant Services acquired the rights to Don the Beachcomber with plans to revive the storied brand. A key part of that effort is Marie King, an internationally recognized rum and tropical cocktail expert who has worked at some of the world’s most respected tiki bars.
The revival officially kicked off in February 2024 with a new Don the Beachcomber in Madeira Beach, Florida. But after Hurricane Helene flooded the space nine months later, 23 Restaurant Services rebranded it as Tiki Docks, another of its concepts. Now the company is focused on what it sees as Don the Beachcomber’s true comeback: a flagship restaurant in Hamlin, Florida, near Disney World. This large-scale, ground-up build is expected to open in 2026.
In the meantime, 23 Restaurant Services is bringing immersive, run-centric bar experiences inspired by Don the Beachcomber more quickly and cost effectively through a new “brand within a brand” concept called the Gannt Reserve Collection. These speakeasy-style bars focus on elevated cocktails and immersive decor, with themes tailored to each location.
Last summer, downtown Tampa welcomed its first Gantt Reserve bar: Morgan’s Cove, tucked inside an existing restaurant. King describes it as leaning less into tiki and more into “nautical pirate mystical escapism” with mythical sea creatures throughout and a giant leviathan skeleton hanging from the ceiling. “You walk in and you don’t know what time of day it is, you don’t know what city you’re in,” she says. “You’re completely immersed.”
Future Gantt Reserve bars will remain rooted in the tropical cocktail tradition but won’t always be tiki. King is exploring ideas inspired by the history and culture of areas where 23 Restaurant Services already operates, such as a clipper ship-themed bar, a steampunk speakeasy, or a 1920s gangster space. The goal is to add more of these rum-centric bars across Florida while the flagship Don the Beachcomber is still in development.
“We have 30 restaurants with liquor licenses in Florida,” King says, “so any one of them could get a Gantt Reserve.”
And while the upcoming return of Don the Beachcomber may prompt talk of a tiki resurgence, she believes the conversation is broader. “I think it’s more of a cocktail resurgence and the need for escapism,” King says, adding that in her view, that’s what Donn Beach was truly about.
The broader tiki bar space has ebbed and flowed over the years, much like the brand that helped start it all. But in a time when there’s no shortage of reasons to unplug and drift away, a new generation of tropical cocktail bars is embracing escapism with fresh energy.
At The Lobby Tiki Bar & Grill in Oceanside, California, that escape takes the form of a retro-chic mash-up of midcentury nostalgia and modern rum-fueled creativity. Opened earlier this year inside the historic Brick Hotel, The Lobby delivers a playful dose of island fantasy. The vibe is lush and immersive with mood lighting, tropical mugs, and exotic plants. The menu offers a cheeky spin on comfort food, with dishes like Crab Rangoon Mozzarella Sticks and the showstopping Pineapple Express Tri Tip Skewers, presented inside a charred pineapple boat.
The drinks are just as theatrical, with playful names and bold presentations—like “The Jason Mamoa (Cock Punch),” a mix of rum, elderflower liqueur, pomegranate, fresh lime juice, orange bitters, and prosecco served in a giant golden rooster for two to four. “Big Ulps Eh?” is another shareable, blending rum with orange curacao, lime, orgeat, rock candy, and pineapple juice in an oversized golden pineapple. For solo sipping, the “Temple of Doom” combines bourbon, house rum, demerara, falernum, macadamia nut, pineapple, and lemon—and it arrives on fire.
Fridays turn up the island energy even further, with hula dancers bringing live rhythm and movement to the space. The goal? To make it easy for guests to stay a little longer, order another drink, and forget what day it is.
That kind of immersive escapism is also on full display at the James Beard–nominated Strong Water in Anaheim, California, where reality fades the moment you step inside—helped, in part, by the total lack of cell service.
Co-owner Ying Chang says it wasn’t intentional but it’s become part of the charm for many guests. “Half of the time, they’re like, ‘Oh my god, that’s actually so cool,’” she says. “And half of the time, they’re like, ‘Oh my god, can I get your Wi-Fi?’”
Immersion has always been the goal for Yang and co-founder Robert Adamson. The idea started at their first concept, Blind Rabbit, where their “Mahalo Monday” events celebrating tropical rum drinks sold out within minutes.
They didn’t realize it at the time, but those early events were essentially the starting point for Strong Water’s cocktail menu. As they went deeper, Yang and Adamson began visiting other tiki bars to study the culture. That exploration opened their eyes to the depth of tiki’s history.
Still, Chang notes Strong Water wasn’t conceived as a strictly tiki bar. When they opened, they called it a Nautical Tropical Bar and focused on fresh, modern takes rather than staples like the Mai Tai or Painkiller. Now, the menu blends originals with those classics, many marked by their origin and creator. One standout Strong Water originals is the “Tales From the Black Lagoon,” a layered mix of Jamaican black pot still rum, Spanish liqueur, pineapple, lime, banana cane, hemp orgeat, and black walnut bitters, served in a custom souvenir mug. On the classic side, options include the “Cobra’s Fang,” a 1937 Don The Beachcomber creation made with rum, falernum, lime, fassionola, orange oleo, bitters, and absinthe; and the “Jet Pilot,” a 1958 recipe featuring multiple rums, falernum, cinnamon, citrus, bitters, and absinthe.
Chang credits the tiki historians of the ‘70s and ‘80s for preserving the stories and recipes behind the drinks—a tradition she wants her staff to help preserve and pass along to guests.
“Our training program is very intense,” she says. “They have to know all this history and background of where this drink or that drink was first invented and who invented it. We want to have that conversation with our guests so we can educate them as well.”
The classics are still tweaked and updated through a modern lens to better suit today’s drinkers, though.
“If you look through some of the archives on the cocktails and you actually make them to spec, they’re rough,” Chang says. “They can be hard to drink and maybe not necessarily fully balanced. So, I say ‘modern’ in terms of approachability. We want to make sure that we don’t completely bastardize the cocktail and that we still celebrate all those beautiful notes of the original concept of the drink.”
That commitment to storytelling extends beyond the menu. Chang and Adamson spent years curating pieces from estate sales, Goodwill, and Facebook Marketplace, handpicking every item to build a world within the bar’s walls. The vision is a shipwrecked vessel run aground, where rum-fueled travelers gather amid the wreckage. Chang likens it to Robinson Crusoe: You’ve washed ashore and found refuge in the hull.
Some seats are highly coveted, like the intimate Captain’s Quarters tucked in back. Other guests gravitate toward the Zombie King Grotto, a dramatic water feature and nod to tiki tradition. It also inspired the Zombie King cocktail—a blend of dark rums, coconut rum, pimento dram, lime, pineapple, and cinnamon, plus black walnut and Angostura bitters—and a larger fictional world; QR codes on the menu link to short films that expand the bar’s lore, adding another layer of playful escapism to the experience.
Of course, tiki bars aren’t without cultural questions. The genre’s history is complicated, often borrowing loosely from Polynesian and Pacific Island aesthetics without much thought to their origins. While some say a tiki bar must have tikis, Strong Water’s focus on shipwrecks and seafaring adventure was an intentional choice to sidestep concerns around appropriation.
For operators who do lean more heavily into traditional tiki, Chang’s advice is simple: don’t center yourself. Step back, consider other points of view, and approach with respect. “It’s really about the perspective of the consumer looking within,” she says. “You have to be mindful of what you’re bringing into your space, because you always want to make sure everyone feels comfortable and welcome.”
