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 a life-time 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 rockstar Todd Rundgren – a multitalented musician whose various résumé comprises delicate ’70s hits “Hi It’s Me” and “I Noticed the Mild,” the hyperactive “Bang the Drum All Day” and manufacturing credit at the iconic Meat Loaf extravaganza “Bat Out of Hell.”
“I’m an entertainer … despite the fact that I’m not going to be the global entertainer I assumed I’d be,” laughed Michele throughout a contemporary interview at Tiki ‘Iniki. “However that’s OK. I’ve had a sexy rattling excellent existence, and extra to head.”
The in most cases bubbly girl used to be reflective that evening. She had excellent reason why to be.
“I’m going to come up with a scoop,” Michele printed just about an hour right into a apparently unending circulate of dialog and tropical cocktails, pupus and entrées. “I’ve been at this for a very long time. I’m in a position 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 Middle in 2013, after her plans for a small tune 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, anywhere we had been traveling … I simply fell in love with tiki.”
In line 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 pass directly to free up “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 had been taking a look at just a little Fifties degree with Todd because the lead singer within the band,” Michele recalled. “Over right here used to be a tiki bar. I believe I had 4 little tables.”
Within the position of hostess, Michele would invite contributors of the target audience to take a seat onstage and revel in Todd’s tune up shut. She would then serve them cocktails; when they had completed their beverages, they would depart the tables to make room for extra fanatics.
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In spite of Michele’s resolution to section along with her bar, devotees of tiki don’t have anything to worry: She is going to best promote to “the very best purchaser” keen to handle the established order in all its rum-soaked glory.
“I’m 67 … I want to sing extra. I believe I may just put a band in combination on Kaua‘i. A tiki dance band. I will be able to’t do this and run a cafe,” Michele, who has lived at the Lawn Isle for many years, defined. “There’s not anything extra amusing than dancing with a are living band. There’s numerous tune issues occurring right here, however they’re for more youthful other people. I believe other people my age and those that take note ’80s, ’90s and 2000s rock, I believe they’d nonetheless like to bop and sing alongside and snort.
“Additionally, Todd’s nonetheless traveling like loopy, so when he’s house, I’d in reality like to hang around with my boyfriend,” she added. “I name my husband my boyfriend. I all the time have.”
With ideas of her deliberate existence trade most likely best of thoughts, Michele gave an enthusiastic excursion of Tiki ‘Iniki’s internal sooner than showcasing her established order’s food and drinks menus. Unique adorns are filled into each to be had inch of its wall and ceiling house. That is best proper: Any tiki bar value its salt is devoted to such extra.
Michele’s favourite items come with a large decorative lamp and drums salvaged from the stays of Coco Fingers, a fabled Kaua‘i lodge destroyed by way of Typhoon ‘Iniki in 1992. (It famously catered to celebrities throughout the ultimate act of the Golden Age of Hollywood; Elvis Presley strummed a ʻukulele there within the 1961 musical “Blue Hawai‘i.” Nowadays, the way forward for the ancient assets is contested by way of locals adverse to mainland builders’ plans for a brand new resort.)
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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 industry that performed an integral position throughout tiki’s heyday, sourcing original pieces from across the Pacific to decorate world-famous bars and eating places during america.
Shifting to the Tiki ‘Iniki bar, Michele ordered a sequence of cocktails starting from the vintage – similar to a mai tai – to the unique, like The ‘Iniki and the Velvet Gorilla, a large libation impressed by way of Michele’s band Intoxicats. Each and every potion accommodates a staggering choice 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: robust beverages,” mentioned bartender and common supervisor Jay Armstrong, appearing off a laminated recipe card lined in exact measurements. “If you’ll bartend right here, you’ll bartend anyplace.”
No much less an expert than Jeff “Beachbum” Berry – an creator, mixologist and bar proprietor who is among the international’s primary mavens on all issues tiki – agreed with Armstrong.
“He’s completely proper,” Berry mentioned. “Other folks 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 simply get while you stroll into any such puts if it’s been correctly performed,” he mentioned. “The unique puts again within the ’30s and ’40s, the entire means up till the entirety petered out within the ’70s, the nice ones didn’t have any home windows.
“Whilst you stepped during the entrance door – whether or not you had been in Los Angeles or Chicago or Indianapolis or anywhere – you stepped during the door and also you had been on this utterly art-directed Polynesia of the thoughts,” Berry persisted, noting tiki is now in the course of a renaissance.
Michele has definitely created a correctly performed bar in step with the Beachbum’s top requirements.
“It’s all about get away and having amusing. I believe that’s why we’re such a success right here,” she mentioned. “Vacationers come right here and are so satisfied to go searching. I believe this embodies what they anticipated to search out.”
