Tiki has landed in Fort Worth via Shipwreck, a bar newly opened at 1015 Foch St., in Fort Worth's West Seventh district, where it's already slinging barrels of rum.
It comes with a storyline: "Serving new and re-imagined Tiki Cocktails for our re-telling of the great adventures of Captain Jeffrey Alexander on the immersive eternal Jade Island." There's also a fun riddle online which gets you access to a secret cocktail.
The bar opened quietly but is celebrating a weeklong grand opening from August 15-20. It's from a team that includes Owen McGrath, who he previously opened The Shot Cellar, also on Foch Street, in 2019; and Michele Kettle, his business partner at ShipWreck & The Shot Cellar, who also owns a cocktail bar in Midland called The Buffalo Nickel.
Staff wears Hawaiian shirts, and the decor kills: The bar is fashioned as a ship, with the bar as the bow of the ship, plus a cannon and parrot manning the helm, and the floor is painted to look like a shimmering dark pool of water. There are blues and purples turned iridescent with black lights; palm trees; tiki-hut-style seating; a beach scene with waves is projected on the wall; and niches in which to hide and sip.
Cocktails to share are a major motif, which might under any other circumstance gross one out but represent a refreshingly old-school lack of fastidiousness that ruled the pandemic era. Let's hear it for shared saliva! Drinks come with silly names like Band of Hairy Men, Buffoon Marooned in the Lagoon, Monkeying Around ("Screaming for attention this cocktail boasts rum and scotch, and all the banana goodness you ever need"), Pirates of Bali, and Curse of the Sea Witch.
Beautiful interior at ShipwreckShipwreck
There's the obligatory rum including a rum punch, a rum-soaked cold brew martini, and a creamy frozen rum drink with chocolate described as "one for those with a sweet tooth."
Pain, Kill, ARR! is their take on a trademark staple of the Tiki world, created in the 1970’s by the Soggy Dollar Bar in the British Virgin Islands, with rum, coconut, and tropical fruit. Plus tropical-style drinks such as mojitos and pina coladas.
They're served in the fun vessels for which tiki bars are famous, such as a seashell-shaped bowl.
Food is limited to a few sharables, for groups of two to four:
- The Charcuterie Plate has Calabrese Salami, Italian Dry Salami, Multi Grain Crisps, Castelvetrano Olives, Cheddar Cheese, and Dark Chocolate Cranberries and is $20.
- Plantain Chips and Mango Salsa consist of White Corn Tortilla Chips and Lightly Salted Plantain Chips, with a fresh Mango and Jalapeno Salsa, for $10.
"A fun feature of the bar is that, when you order one of our group cocktails, the audio visual system changes to tell the story in an incredible way as the drink is brought to your table," McGrath says. "We have 10 'Chapters,' with 10 drinks and 10 experiences to go along with them."
"We also have a sort of built-in bar crawl, dubbed 'The riddles of the 7th seas,'" he says. "At seven other bars in the district, we've hidden a sea scroll with a riddle. If you can find all the sea scrolls and solve all the riddles, you' unlock our super secret cocktail."
It's just the tip of the iceberg, McGrath says. "We have so much more fun things in the works that haven’t been revealed yet," he says.
