Chicago Area Tiki Tour — Event Hub Prototype

Vitals

Fix your position

DatesTBA — historically a spring weekend (last run: Apr 2019)

Format3-day crawl — Fri opening party, Sat chartered buses, Sun farewell

Infofraternalorderofmoai.org

Founded2011

HostRed Palms chapter, Fraternal Order of Moai

CadenceIrregular — “reappears every few years,” per the Moai

Venues~5 participating bars, downtown to the far suburbs

Getting aroundChartered buses on tour day; a car every other day

The intel: CATT is the anti-convention — no ballroom, no vendor hall, just a chartered bus, a checklist of tiki rooms 30 miles apart, and exclusive drinks and eats at each stop. When it runs, tickets are limited to what a bus holds and they go fast inside the Moai/Facebook grapevine. The 2019 HQ was an O'Hare-area hotel, which is the smart base regardless: it's the geographic center of gravity between downtown, River Grove, Des Plaines, and Arlington Heights. If no tour is announced: this chart still works — every stop below is a self-guided pilgrimage in its own right.

The Chart

41°53′N · 87°38′W

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Layers

Chicago · Lake Michigan approaches · Inland sea

Soundings in rum · Not for navigation

Suggested Runs

Plot a course

Operating · downtown to River GroveOne evening

The City Flagship Run

Start subterranean at Three Dots and a Dash (book the Bamboo Room if you can), walk to pocket-sized Tiki Tiki at the Silver Palm, then ride west to finish where Chicagoland tiki never stopped: Hala Kahiki, pouring since 1964.

Three Dots and a Dash→Tiki Tiki at the Silver Palm→Hala Kahiki

Tap to plot on the chart Google Maps ↗

Mixed · ghosts and luausHalf day

The O'Hare Corridor Run

Pay respects at the Kona Kai's old Marriott address, catch the fire-knife dinner show at The Tiki Terrace in Des Plaines, then run north to Kahala Koa — a bar literally built from the salvage of rooms like the one you just mourned. Cap it at Hala Kahiki on the drive back in.

Kona Kai→The Tiki Terrace→Kahala Koa→Hala Kahiki

Tap to plot on the chart Google Maps ↗

Dead Reckoning · 1940 to 2022Afternoon

The Dead Reckoning Run

Eighty years of vanished Chicago tiki: the Palmer House lower level where Hilton's Trader Vic's empire began, the Shangri-La block at State and Wacker, Don the Beachcomber's 1940 Walton Pl address off the Mag Mile, then out to Logan Square to find Lost Lake's rock wall inside Common Decency.

Trader Vic’s→Shangri-La→Don the Beachcomber→Lost Lake

Tap to plot on the chart Google Maps ↗

Know Before You Go

First-timer intel

This event hibernates

CATT is not annual — it's run 'every few years' by the Red Palms Moai chapter (2011, 2015, 2017, 2019), and no edition has been confirmed since 2019. Follow the Fraternal Order of Moai; when it wakes up, bus seats sell out fast. Every stop on this chart works as a self-guided tour in the meantime.

The geography is enormous

These bars span roughly 30 miles — River North to River Grove to Des Plaines to Arlington Heights. That's the whole point of the chartered bus. Self-guiding, you'll want a car or a designated driver; don't plan to walk between anything except the downtown stops.

Transit gets you halfway

Three Dots and Tiki Tiki at the Silver Palm are easy CTA territory. Hala Kahiki, Chef Shangri-La, The Tiki Terrace, and Kahala Koa are car-or-rideshare suburbs — budget accordingly, and note suburban rideshare wait times after midnight are real.

Reserve the small rooms

The Bamboo Room seats 22 and books out; Tiki Terrace's luau dinner shows (Wed/Fri/Sat) routinely sell out in advance. Hala Kahiki takes walk-ins but has no kitchen — eat first.

Suburban hours run early

Downtown bars pour until 2–4am; the suburban legends don't. Chef Shangri-La is a dinner restaurant (closed Mondays), Tiki Terrace closes by 11pm, and Hala Kahiki is a lounge, not a nightclub. Sequence your run suburbs-first, city-last.

Survival Guide

Provisions & resupply

Liquor

Binny's Beverage Depot (Downtown) — Illinois' rum mothership, three blocks from Three Dots and a Dash. If a bottle exists in the Midwest, it's here.

9am–9pm · Sun 11am–6pmMap ↗

Ice

Jewel-Osco (River North) — Full grocery with bagged ice until midnight, walking distance from the River North bar cluster.

Daily 6am–12amMap ↗

Late-Night Food

Velvet Taco (Gold Coast) — The 4am safety net after a full run. Weird, good tacos; expect a post-bar line on weekends.

Fri–Sat till 4am · Thu till 1amMap ↗

Late-Night Food

Billy Goat Tavern (Michigan Ave, Lower Level) — Subterranean, fluorescent, immortal. A cheezborger under Michigan Avenue is the correct chaser to an evening spent underground at Three Dots.

Till 1:30am Thu–Sat · midnight most nightsMap ↗