Michele Rundgren poses along a portrait of her more youthful self. Taken Mar. 6, 2024. Picture Credit score: Scott Yunker/Kaua‘i Now
Michele Rundgren – the owner-operator of Tiki ‘Iniki, the one tiki bar at the Hawaiian island of Kaua‘i – has spent an entire life within the highlight.
Her lengthy and sundry profession has integrated stints as a trapeze artist, off-off-Broadway performer, rock ‘n’ roll singer and dancer, standup comic and native radio host. She may be the longtime spouse of rock big name Todd Rundgren – a multitalented musician whose various résumé comprises mild ’70s hits “Hi It’s Me” and “I Noticed the Gentle,” the hyperactive “Bang the Drum All Day” and manufacturing credit at the iconic Meat Loaf extravaganza “Bat Out of Hell.”
“I’m an entertainer … even if I’m now not going to be the global entertainer I assumed I might be,” laughed Michele throughout a contemporary interview at Tiki ‘Iniki. “However that’s OK. I’ve had a beautiful rattling excellent existence, and extra to head.”
The normally bubbly girl used to be reflective that evening. She had excellent explanation why to be.
“I’m going to provide you with a scoop,” Michele printed just about an hour right into a reputedly never-ending flow of dialog and tropical cocktails, pupus and entrées. “I’ve been at this for a very long time. I’m able to promote Tiki ‘Iniki.”
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Michele opened the 1,500-square-foot bar and eating place on the rear of the Princeville Buying groceries Heart in 2013, after her plans for a small song venue in the similar North Shore house fell via. She had dreamed of opening a tiki bar since becoming a member of The Tubes rock ‘n’ roll band within the early ‘80s – the twilight of the tiki technology.
“They took me out to rejoice on the Tonga Room in San Francisco,” she mentioned. “Each and every the city we went to, we looked at the native tiki bar. That’s in Japan, in France, anyplace we have been traveling … I simply fell in love with tiki.”
Consistent with Michele, she first bonded with Todd over a shared love of the unique subculture, which started as a mid-century craze that delivered a romanticized model of Polynesia to numerous mainland American citizens. Todd would move directly to unencumber “With a Twist…” in 1997, a bossa nova album he carried out are living amidst an onstage tiki bar.
“As an target audience member, you have been taking a look at a little bit Fifties degree with Todd because the lead singer within the band,” Michele recalled. “Over right here used to be a tiki bar. I feel I had 4 little tables.”
Within the position of hostess, Michele would invite contributors of the target audience to sit down onstage and revel in Todd’s song up shut. She would then serve them cocktails; when they had completed their beverages, they would go away the tables to make room for extra lovers.
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Regardless of Michele’s resolution to section along with her bar, devotees of tiki don’t have anything to concern: She is going to handiest promote to “the easiest purchaser” keen to take care of the established order in all its rum-soaked glory.
“I’m 67 … I wish to sing extra. I feel I may put a band in combination on Kaua‘i. A tiki dance band. I will’t do this and run a cafe,” Michele, who has lived at the Lawn Isle for many years, defined. “There’s not anything extra a laugh than dancing with a are living band. There’s a large number of song issues occurring right here, however they’re for more youthful folks. I feel folks my age and those who take into accout ’80s, ’90s and 2000s rock, I feel they’d nonetheless like to bounce and sing alongside and chuckle.
“Additionally, Todd’s nonetheless traveling like loopy, so when he’s house, I might in fact like to hang around with my boyfriend,” she added. “I name my husband my boyfriend. I at all times have.”
With ideas of her deliberate existence alternate most likely best of thoughts, Michele gave an enthusiastic excursion of Tiki ‘Iniki’s inside prior to showcasing her established order’s foods and drinks menus. Unique embellishes are filled into each to be had inch of its wall and ceiling house. That is handiest proper: Any tiki bar price its salt is devoted to such extra.
Michele’s favourite items come with an enormous decorative lamp and drums salvaged from the stays of Coco Arms, a fabled Kaua‘i hotel destroyed via Typhoon ‘Iniki in 1992. (It famously catered to celebrities throughout the closing act of the Golden Age of Hollywood; Elvis Presley strummed a ʻukulele there within the 1961 musical “Blue Hawai‘i.” As of late, the way forward for the ancient belongings is contested via locals antagonistic to mainland builders’ plans for a brand new lodge.)
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Additionally on show are a antique signal and carving from Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room in Disneyland, fan-made art work of Todd and a puffer fish lamp. The lamp is one of the items sourced from Oceanic Arts, a now-defunct eating place provide trade that performed an integral position throughout tiki’s heyday, sourcing original pieces from across the Pacific to decorate world-famous bars and eating places all the way through the USA.
Shifting to the Tiki ‘Iniki bar, Michele ordered a chain of cocktails starting from the vintage – similar to a mai tai – to the unique, like The ‘Iniki and the Velvet Gorilla, an enormous libation impressed via Michele’s band Intoxicats. Every potion contains a staggering collection of fresh-squeezed juices and liquors, all served in ornate glasses and crowned with elaborate garnishes.
“Our usual pour is ready two oz, which is beautiful heavy in comparison to different puts. That’s the entire tiki factor: sturdy beverages,” mentioned bartender and normal supervisor Jay Armstrong, appearing off a laminated recipe card coated in exact measurements. “If you’ll bartend right here, you’ll bartend any place.”
No much less an expert than Jeff “Beachbum” Berry – an creator, mixologist and bar proprietor who is likely one of the international’s main mavens on all issues tiki – agreed with Armstrong.
“He’s completely proper,” Berry mentioned. “Other people don’t notice that is the toughest type of bartending that there’s.”
Berry, who used to be presented to tiki bars as a kid in mid-Sixties Los Angeles, extolled upon their magic.
“It’s the hermetically-sealed film set. That Technicolor faux-Polynesia vibe that you just get while you stroll into this kind of puts if it’s been correctly achieved,” he mentioned. “The unique puts again within the ’30s and ’40s, all of the approach up till the whole thing petered out within the ’70s, the great ones didn’t have any home windows.
“Whilst you stepped during the entrance door – whether or not you have been in Los Angeles or Chicago or Indianapolis or anyplace – you stepped during the door and also you have been on this totally art-directed Polynesia of the thoughts,” Berry persisted, noting tiki is now in the middle of a renaissance.
Michele has surely created a correctly achieved bar in step with the Beachbum’s top requirements.
“It’s all about break out and having a laugh. I feel that’s why we’re such a success right here,” she mentioned. “Vacationers come right here and are so satisfied to go searching. I feel this embodies what they anticipated to seek out.”
