The Grass Skirt

The Grass Skirt opened in November 2016, in San Diego's Pacific Beach neighborhood. It is owned by the SDCM restaurant group. This speakeasy-style tiki bar is hidden behind a poke restaurant, Good Time Poke. There is a full menu of tropical cocktails, mostly their own creations, and a menu of seafood-centered dishes. Carved posts by local tiki legend Tiki Bosko support thatch over booths wrapping around a central fire pit, and backed by a grand mural of Diamond Head with a hula dancer. The bar is backed with orange tile and lava rock, and fronted by bamboo, lauhala and tapa cloth. One booth sits inside the mouth of a huge tiki head.

Comments

tikiglees

tikiglees is a semi-regular at The Grass Skirt.

July 22, 2017, 8:19 AM

7 months in and GS keeps getting better... Menu continues to be worked with new drinks and the food items are tip top. Music is good mostly and they are always willing to change it up on request. Bartenders are super engaging and fully into it. I dig this spot as its done in its own way, its not copying any place else that I can see, it has a bit more color, but def with an artist's eye. oh yeah... and good times.

DoktorTiki

DoktorTiki has visited The Grass Skirt.

July 6, 2017, 1:47 PM

Entered thru a "freezer" door off a small restaurant kitchen, the interior decor is a mod tiki vibe with lots of eye candy and interesting extras. The drink menu is big and the quality of the drinks is good. The service was nice and they have their own parking lot. The food is good but limited menu leaning to the spicy. What kills the place is the music. They had some classic rock, country western (all too loud) but nothing appropriate. This would be a great place for some modern surf rock, modern tiki jazz, the Blue Hawaiians would be perfect. As it was you could not tell if this was a regular bar that fell into a vat of tiki decor or a tiki bar struggling to get past a management that couldn't figure out what was wrong when everything should have been so right.

DrUmiUmi

DrUmiUmi has visited The Grass Skirt.

April 27, 2017, 12:20 PM

The Grass Skirt has found a special identity that neither clumsily copies and pastes the saturated decorative style of False Idol nor does it slap on a thin veneer of Tiki like the Cat Eye Club. Instead, this new PB Bar has found its own vibe, and while it does emulate some shtick like the walk through refrigerator - speak easy style - as well as atmospheric effects reminiscent of Trader Sam's Grog Grotto, it has some tiki elements of its own to claim. For example, the color changing neon is tastefully and reservedly used, often perched behind unique decorative ideas like the bronze pineapple skulls. The midcentury fireplace in the middle is a gorgeous centerpiece, but contrasts a little with the oversized Tiki heads both near the entrance (it's maw accommodating a room-facing table) and out on the balcony. I have a special love for the lava-rock backdrop at the bar, which reminds me of an older school approach to decorating Tiki bars, though it is somewhat of a mixed bag after that. The water vapor lava effect is nice, warm and soothing, but I have mixed feelings about letting a television into a tiki space, even if it is veiled and obscured by large tiki heads.

Service and drinks are both good. Our bartender was a real mensch, making sure we always had something to sip on, and answering my barrage of questions throughout the evening. And the drinks were delicious, and never too sweet. More affordable than False Idol, this is an awesome alternative, especially if you want to avoid the hassle of parking downtown and wading through the trendier crowds choking the refrigerator door at FI.

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