Tiki tradition is alive and well

By Tom Fraki

Tiki culture has had a grip on American fascination since the 1930s, focusing on island drinks, beach life and tropical themes of the Caribbean and South Pacific.

For several homeowners on Horseshoe Lake in Mission Township, the beachside tiki bar spirit has taken hold with many in their neighborhood building freestanding bars along the lake.

While not all of the neighborhood bars on Horseshoe Lake strictly follow a tropical theme, they all reflect the intersection of beach living and the sense of community present in the lakes area.

Eric Carder, who built his bar in 2016, was one of the first to build a neighborhood lakeside bar on Horseshoe. Carder said that for him, the idea came from wanting to have options outdoors when having people over.

“I kind of just came up with the idea that instead of everyone sitting around a fire pit, you could have a spot where you could watch a football game on a Sunday or a baseball game in the summer. And if you wanted to get out of the sun, you could do that,” he said.

Carder said his bar has more of a rustic theme, having built it out of reclaimed metal panels, a cedar deck and pavers.

Tom Laurence, another one of the lake’s earlier tiki bar adopters, also has one of Horseshoe Lake’s most mobile bars.

Built on a pontoon, Laurence said the idea for his bar came from seeing a photo of a similar bar taken by a friend’s parents.

“So I was like, ‘Wow, I can build one of those if I had a pontoon.’ So this neighbor of my mother- and father-in-law had an old pontoon sitting in the driveway that had been there for years. So I bought that from him and stripped it down to the platform and pontoons. I started from there, building it from the ground up from the pictures I’d seen, and built basically a floating tiki bar,” Laurence said.

“So that’s kind of how it all came to pass. And they’ve just been growing in popularity around the lake,” he said.

Dan Whirly may have one of the more elaborate bars on the lake. His bar, the “Surf and Swing,” features a tiki theme and hanging swings for the bar’s stools.

“The way I run mine is I have a stoplight on the dock. If the stoplight’s red, that means it’s family time, and don’t just swing in. If it’s green, swing on in and belly up if you want to,” Whirly said.

“Dan’s got a very nice setup over there with his swing bar, for sure,” Laurence said of Whirly’s bar.

Whirly said that after the COVID-19 pandemic, people in the neighborhood were looking for different ways to get together and that’s when the trend really took off.

“I think COVID really sparked that need for people to get together. We started to see a lot more of them as peo- ple were looking for alternatives to get together outside,” he said.

Joe Butorac said his bar, the “But-y Bar,” was originally modeled after a friend’s bar on a nearby lake. As a way of keeping a history of who stops by, Butorac puts up photos in the bar of people who visit.

“We wanted to have that option for neighbors who want to stop by. It’s a really good gathering place,” Butorac said.

Erik Lee, whose bar is named “Lee-sure Time,” said the bar trend with homeowners on the lake is much less about partying and more so another way for neighbors to reach out and get together.

“It’s just kind of a fun, social lake. Getting together with everyone on the lake and getting to know everyone, it’s a whole lot of fun. That is probably the best part. Everyone comes over and everyone’s welcome whenever, wherever you’re at on the lake,” Lee said.

Laurence said having the tiki bar trend has given people around the lake another way to connect and has brought the neighborhood closer together.

“It’s that camaraderie and being able to bring people together. Horseshoe Lake has got a really, really good group of people who live around it. It’s really gotten to be a lot like a big family,” he said.

TOM FRAKI is a staff writer for the Pineandlakes Echo Journal weekly newspaper in Pequot Lakes/ Pine River. He may be reached at 218-855-5863 or tom.fraki@pineandlakes.com.