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A small sampling of The Headhunter’s paraphernalia from the legendary Bali Hai restaurant, including the cake toppers the Guilmets used on their wedding cake.
Tiki, I’m learning, is more than a trend. It’s a way of life. It’s the period clothes, the cars, the art, the architecture, the music. It’s a way of interacting with the world and escaping it at the same time. When I ask them what The Headhunter cost to build, the couple shake their heads, baffled. Maybe $25,000 for the structure, they tell me. “But it’s 25 years worth of collection,” Ilze says. “Yeah, you could search eBay everyday for 10 years and not recreate that collection,” Jonny adds. Raised in OB and Point Loma, Jonny grew up going to Shelter Island, with its Polynesian theme and mid-century architecture. The couple’s immense collection includes a wall of ceramic Mr. Bali Hai tiki mugs—a bone-through- the-nose figure the restaurant describes as “modeled after early headhunters of the South Pacific”— as well as rare Mr. Bali Hai lighters and salt-and-pepper shakers, two of which the couple used as cake toppers at their wedding, dressed as bride and groom. “Every home bar is very personal,” Ilze says. “Ours is Polynesian, South Pacific, nautical, kinda taboo- ish,” Jonny adds. “It’s cool, it’s colorful. We’ve also got four real human skulls in here.” In Matt Reese’s bar, it’s the same. Everywhere you look, something looks back. A skull, a mug, a mask. The space is dense with objects hanging from the ceiling, the walls covered with carvings and pirate loot. “I’ve got three human skeletons in this room, and people don’t even realize,” he says. (His are fake.) It’s dizzying to take in, but it’s all a deliberate part of the allure. Matt has his bar dialed in down to the music inside— and jungle sounds outside, playing on repeat from a thrifted CD player. Not to mention the 10-foot tiki of mysterious origin that greets you when you walk in. “A tiki bar has to have a tiki,” he tells me. “If you don’t have a tiki, then it’s not a tiki bar.” So maybe that’s his secret.
COCKTAIL HOUR Sip on specially priced handcrafted cocktails alongside Italian-inspired small bites, plus beer and wine specials
served on our patio or airy bar. Now pouring Wednesday–Friday 4:00pm–6:00pm
425 FIFTH AVENUE | 619 738 7300 @ PENDRYSANDIEGO | PENDRY.COM
JUNE 2023 70
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