While we like the weather here ‘oop north just fine, we can still admit that sometimes things can be lacking in the ‘sunny and warm’ department. But even that has a silver lining, because that’s where the tiki bars in Manchester come in handy.
These fun venues make it feel like summer each and every day of the year, and the following are some of our favourite spots to have a rum-tastic time, rain or shine.
Photo credit: Keko Moku via Facebook
Keko Moku
One of the originals in town, this tiny tiki bar in the Northern Quarter offers a quirky break from your daily routine. The interior is made almost entirely of wooden planks, featuring barrels for barstools (perhaps set adrift in the South Pacific and discovered in the Manchester Ship Canal?) and loads of hanging fishing net. The castaways behind the bar are what make Keko Moku special though, as they knock out zombies and mai tais with a flair for the dramatic – and fire-breathing blowtorches – with a smile on their face and a good sense of humour.
Photo credit: The Liar’s Club
The Liar’s Club
Descending the steps at The Liar’s Club is to leave the city far behind. Below, you are met with a veritable cornucopia of colorful graffiti and in true Caribbean rum shop fashion, pony-kegs for seating. We sure hope that The Liar’s Club aren’t telling lies when they say that they have the largest selection of rum in Northwest England, because we are currently working our way through it, and surely there’s no prize for polishing off the second most extensive list in these parts.
In addition to traditional tiki dalliances like pina coladas and painkillers, we love the Juice Springsteen (tequila, cassis, lime ginger beer, and absinthe served in an American house-party-inspired red plastic cup) and the Breakfast At The Liar’s Club (Jamaican overproof rum, nutmeg, creamy condensed milk and honey). Fun and crazily-presented sharing cocktails are also standard operating procedure here.
It’s also worth noting that The Liar’s Club also runs the The Liar’s Lounge, which pours tiki cocktails each weekend at Cane & Grain.
Photo credit: Hula
Hula
First and foremost, we absolutely love the retro-tastic decor that they have going on at Hula. It feels the closest to the original vibe that Trader Vic’s and Don the Beachcomber’s had and that is worth something in our eyes. The drinks are impressive here as well, with their signature Big Kahuna (three types of rum, orange and apricot liqueurs, passionfruit, citrus juice, and blackberry liqueur) and its fiery presentation being our favourite. If you come here with a group, be sure to try out one of their supercharged sharers like the Volcano Bowl, which is made of orange, guava, rum and Falernum – and you guessed it – presented with an eruption of flames.
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