Sip-N-Dip Tiki Lounge in Great Falls, MT

The Sip-N-Dip Tiki Lounge has been part of the O'Haire Motor Inn since 1962. The main attraction is the mermaid show -- there are windows in the bar that look into the hotel's pool, and mermaids put on a show on weekends. Another attraction is "Piano Pat" Sponheim, who has been playing piano five nights a week�Tuesday through Saturday�since 1962.

When actress Daryl Hannah, who famously played a mermaid in the movie Splash, was filming in the area, she made a special visit to the bar, even donning a mermaid suit and jumping in the pool to give a show.

In 2003, the bar was featured on a list of the top 10 bars in the world in GQ Magazine. In 2004, a crack in one of the glass pool walls threatened the bar; the glass walls have been replaced with new triple-pane glass.

The bar's ceiling is lined with bamboo, and there are beachcomber-inspired fish trap lamps.

The bar does especially well on weekends during the mermaid show, when patrons line up to get into the small 72-person capacity bar.

Comments

MichaelJTanner

MichaelJTanner has visited Sip-N-Dip Tiki Lounge.

October 24, 2018, 11:53 AM

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.

enchantedtikilounge

enchantedtikilounge has visited Sip-N-Dip Tiki Lounge.

August 9, 2016, 6:03 PM

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!!!

CWGross

CWGross has visited Sip-N-Dip Tiki Lounge.

January 21, 2016, 10:09 PM

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.