The popularity of the famous Tiki Bar opening – which for many has come to signal the unofficial start of summer – extends across the state and even beyond. The inaugural crowd continues to grow each year. On the 21st the staff anticipate anywhere between 8,000 and 10,000 guests to celebrate the opening – and to say the folk at the bar have had a busy spring preparing for them would be an understatement!

“It’s had a new facelift,” Dave Weiskopf, the general manager, told The Bay Net. After touring the site I would say that if that’s a facelift I suspect it had collagen injections and a boob job to boot!

One Moai statue now residing in Calvert County

Among the augmentations are traditional Tiki carvings and Moai statues, modeled after those on Easter Island, Chile, new stores, drink stands, apartments, and an awful lot of sand.

Perhaps the abundance of sand is the first thing you notice as you now visit the bar on Solomon’s Island. What used to be a concrete area for visitors and vendors between the main bar and the building to its side (which will now house stores) and part of a former parking lot have been replaced by an expanse of sand – Tiki’s very own beach. In addition two new drink stands have been erected with bamboo siding, adorned with beautiful carvings, and grass roofs. There are already several Moai statues in the “beach” area, and they will soon be joined by an additional twenty-foot stone monolith that will take center stage.

The Moai figures and the carvings were created by Tiki artifact designer and craftsman Bosko Hrnjak of Southern California. Bosko is renowned for his exquisite carvings and Tiki designs, and for helping to revive Tiki art and culture. In 2000 Bosko designed and outfitted the first authentic Tiki Bar to be built in the U.S. since the 70s, the exclusive Taboo Cove at the Venetian Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. On the opposite coast he has helped to conceptualize and create the new face of Southern Maryland’s Tiki Bar. One of the most impressive features will be a “story wall” of tales told through authentic carvings (see the slideshow below for an exclusive preview of some of the pieces that will go onto the wall).

Besides the bar itself the Tiki Bar will be opening two new stores a week on Friday, a gift shop with merchandise ranging from t-shirts and jackets to Tiki mugs, dashboard hula women, and cocktail swizzles, and a comprehensive cigar store.  The latter includes a humidor constructed from tobacco barn wood and a welcome area infused with welcoming aromas, and decorated with curios such as old cigar moulds and antique tobacco tags . They will stock an extensive range of cigars, including Cohiba, from the Dominican Republic, Monte Cristo No.2, and Dave’s favorite, the Hemmingway Short Story. You’ll also find an array of personal-sized humidors, cutters, and special lighters. “It’s a cool place to come and hang out and smoke a cigar,” said Weiskopf. It will be the first cigar store in Calvert County, and will offer cigar-lovers a variety that they’d otherwise have to travel to Annapolis to find.

“It’s going to look really good in a week,” said Dave, who is still awaiting the arrival of twenty palm trees and banana trees!

On opening night there will be several new vendors in addition to the regular Grill Sergeant. The addition of a frozen drink stand on the sand, and a beer stand, the queues for beverages should be reduced even with the busy crowd. If you go, you may also want to wear shoes suitable for traversing the dunes!

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