We were looking for a tiki bar in Knoxville, and this is what came up. It feels like it has some of…read morethe trappings of some of the metropolis tiki bars I've been to but in a smaller scale (that likely didn't require hundreds of thousands of dollars in building renovations). Drinks are heavily poured and true to their tiki origins, service is friendly, and the place feels really relaxing.
PROS:
-Good selection of drinks! Tiki drinks tend to be approachable to most people with their juice-forward design. They're also just pretty. Most of the drinks here run on the sweeter side, but there were a few drinks that looked like they'd run spirit-forward. I can't confirm as we didn't order them, but it gives people in your party some options.
-Drinks are well-poured. If you're driving yourself, even one full cocktail is probably going to be pushing it. Definitely don't order some of their "Limit of...." cocktails in that case. But it's nice to get my money's worth. They taste very approachable, but they're heavily poured.
-Every drink was nice to look at. They do a great job with garnishing; it was neat to watch as the server tends to garnish the drinks while the bartender makes the drink itself. We didn't receive any drinks in tiki mugs, but I also didn't see if they had tiki mugs either.
-It's really nice to see that they attribute their recipes to where/when/who originally made the recipe. Most tiki drink recipes are "classic" recipes at this point, but it's really cool to see that they specifically listed out the 1930's bar that made the original drink recipe.
-A good mocktail selection! While most of the mocktails kinda felt like "mixed juice concoctions", the fact that they had a whole page, had them reasonably priced, and still garnished them as if they were full cocktails was a nice surprise. As a DD, it felt like I was still having a great time and part of the social experience.
-They have outdoor seating in front (I think?) and in back of the restaurant. It was too hot for that, but quite a few people were happily seated out there. That seems helpful as the restaurant itself doesn't have a ton of space. Expanding outdoors lets them seat a whole lot more people.
-An extremely inebriated individual popped in, and while the bar turned them down for drinks, they handed them some water and let them use the restroom. They were extremely polite to someone who wasn't a "customer", and that was really nice to see.
-Two individual unisex bathrooms. One of them has cute bird sounds that play while you're in there, and that was a really surprising touch. Both have free information and supplies for things adults may be doing after visiting here.
CONS:
-I wouldn't say this bar gives me "tiki bar" decor. They definitely serve tiki-style drinks, but the decor feels more "I love plants and leaves" than tiki. I still liked it...it's just not what I'm used to compared to most tiki bars.
-Parking is a gigantic pain in the butt. We circled the area for a good 15 minutes to try to find a spot that wasn't in an extremely expensive parking lot. We ended up finding a street spot, but those max out at 2 hours. Plan at least a drink's price just to park to get into Tern Club. (Not the location's fault, but definitely be aware before you agree to meet up here.)
