Sip-N-Dip Tiki Lounge

I visited a couple months after Piano Pat had surgery and so was not playing this night. I imagine that music and even the mood would have been better had she been there.

The Mai Tai was a 5, but everything else was a 2- tasted more like gasoline than alcohol. It's a local bar and they cater to their crowd by a big assortment of craft beers rather than tiki drinks. Still, I think tiki mugs and especially a collectable mug would go a long way.

Can't be the mermaids though, and the classic kitch. The table tops with seahorses are great. All in all, you need to take a visit here.

Ok, so the Sip n Dip is by far the best tiki bar for well over 100 miles. That said, it’s in Great Falls MT, which is a depressing town in central MT (and I am a Montanan, so I do know the towns). That said, it’s the best around, but it’s still a sad tiki bar. Bamboo that is falling off of the ceiling. Wood panel walls. A handful of tiki type statues and art, and a lot of plastic flowers, clam shells, etc that look like they are from Party City. The pool is clearly just a pool, not a lagoon or anything. End of the day it’s another Montana dive bar (no pun), that threw up a few tiki statues. If you are looking for mermaids, the Dive Bar in Sacramento, while not tiki, is a much better at plan and execution.

I grew up in Great Falls and had always been vaguely aware of the "mermaid bar." But it wasn't until I was an adult and had moved away from Montana that I started to learn more and then had a real desire to go there. Last year I had the opportunity. I agree with other commentators that it really feels more like an organically grown "mostly tiki." Unfortunately, the night we went Piano Pat--who is the star of the show--had the night off. (She is a treasure! There's a nice mini-documentary about her on Youtube.) My drinks were well made and strong but nothing too complex. The mermaid show is a lot of fun.

I asked my parents if they had ever been to the bar and despite both growing up in Great Falls, neither had been-- "it was the old fogey place when we were young and going to bars"...now it's the cool kids bar and probably the coolest place in town.

I loved this place; Piano Pat, mermaids, fun crowd, great service, friendly doorman, and culture. My score came out to be a 7.3. Unfortunately, the mai tai has a lot to be desired along with the blue Hawaiian, these were more like cruise ship drinks. So I asked for a pain killer or zombie, the bartender looked them up on her phone and said they couldn't do it. Had I given the drinks an 8 the rating would have jumped to a 8.6, but this place has a lot going on, so at this bar you don't need to focus on the drinks. Sip'n Dip sells an atmosphere, and experience ; with that they did not disappoint!!! I could easily be a regular here and I'm sure if I were they'd be MORE than happy to make a proper mai tai and have a couple other great tiki offerings. Overall this is a place was well worth the three hour detour and because of that we stayed right there at the lodge. One word CLEAN!!! The lodge is VERY OLD but I could eat off the tile floor. Don't expect the Hilton, but you can expect a great night sleep!!!

The Enchanted Tiki Cowboy Bar...

Sip-N-Dip is a neat oddball, as a small little Tiki bar in an old motel in a small city in the middle of Montana. There is no real rational reason how and why it should exist. It does, though, and the world is a better place for it.

This bar is not a polished artifice of certified Tiki aesthetics, like something designed by a Disney Imagineer. It has evolved organically over its history, accumulating encrustations from different eras. It still has tabletops of its pre-Tiki nautical theme. It has a big old organ in the middle of it. It has mermaids. It has VLTs off to the side. It's in a motel that leaves complimentary rubber duckies in the rooms. It has a regular clientele of hipster kids and weathered cowboys.

The Sip-N-Dip appeals to my sense of the ironic and incongruous. I can't not be delighted by having to look over a bunch of cowboy hats to see a mermaid floating behind the bar. It also appeals to my preference for "Fantasy Tiki." Normal, standardized Tiki, cultured like a pearl, is fine and I wouldn't turn it down, but I tend to veer into the directions of either really authentic or really fake and fantastical. I want to either learn about real Polynesian cultures, or go to Disneyland. Sip-N-Dip's flotilla of mermaids (pod of mermaids? School of mermaids? Shoal of mermaids?) is right up the alley of the fantastical.

My wife and I stayed overnight at the O'Haire Motor Inn on our way down to Yellowstone, specifically because it housed the Sip-N-Dip. Staying on site is a good course of action if you're breezing through town. The locals kind of gave us the stink eye (pft, tourists!) but we did have a nice chat with another couple of out-of-towners.