The ad that started it all
The dining room
All hopped up on Robitussin
Hiding in the foliage
One of the stone tikis
Love that neon!
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Chin's
28205 Plymouth Rd.
Livonia
Michigan
Phone: 734 525-CHIN
I am starting to think that perhaps Michigan is a minefield of undiscovered tiki bars. Just when I thought we'd exhausted every lead, Jason found this intriguing ad in the Detroit Yellow Pages. "Excellent Food Served In A TROPICAL SETTING" it claimed. On closer examination, he noticed that behind the rather disturbingly chipper couple in the photograph, was a TIKI!
We vowed to check this place out the next time I came down over the border for a visit. During this interminable wait, I bought Sven Kirsten's new book "Tiki Style" and noticed that one of the montages featured a tiki stir-stick from a place called "Chin's Tiki, Detroit". Could this be the same place? Could this really be the tiki hunter's holy grail - an authentic, unpillaged tiki bar?
Well, yes and no. I believe since the ad says "Since 1955" this may very well be the "Chin's Tiki" alluded to in the book. The decor is authentic tiki - all the requisite blowfish lamps and rattan walls are there. The stone tiki gods stand guard out front, and the wooden ones hold fort within. But it is plain to see that Chin's glory days are over.
The menu is standard Cantonese-Szechuan and American food, served by semi-enthusiastic teenage girls, and a fellow whom I'm guessing is the son (or grandson) of the original Chin. This guy looks like he's really rather be doing something else, like maybe owning a more lucrative restaurant like a Pizza Hut franchise, but is stuck with the Chin legacy instead.
Among the he music provided for our dining pleasure was "I Love You Just The Way You Are", which perhaps is a sentiment Mr. Chin should embrace, cause I have a feeling if he had the dough, he'd tear down the 45 year old tiki decor and remodel in an instant. Just a hunch, mind you.
There are the obligatory exotic drinks - I had a super-sweet strawberry daiquiri (methinks the daiquiri mix was also circa '55) but no mugs. My simple query as to whether the drinks "came in those fancy mugs" was greeted with a bemused "uh, no?" from our waitress. Hey, you never know.
The vegetarian selections were sub-par, but perhaps I'm being unfair - Chin's ad boasts they are "Rated #1" for General Tso Chicken. Rated by whom, they did not say. I had a cold, so I couldn't really taste my tofu stir fry - I felt like a judge on Iron Chef, proclaiming things like "The water chestnuts give it an intriguing texture!" and "Peanuts... how different!". Jason however, who had full taste bud faculties intact, declared his Szechuan vegetable stir fry secret sauce was "probably just barbecue sauce". And in his world, that ain't a good thing.
We decided, all in all, that if you rented out the place, dimmed the lights, and provided your own Martin Denny and other exotica tunes, you could have quite the authentic tiki experience at Chin's. And I bet you could, for a reasonable price.
My birthday is in June, by the way.
This may not be my most positive review ("how you gonna keep em down on the farm when theyve been to Kahiki?") but I wouldn't want to dissuade you from going if you're in the area. It's genuine, unpillaged tiki, sans the frills. And because I've never heard of it mentioned anywhere else by any other tikiphiles, I'd like to claim this discovery as a tikifish first.
ADDENDUM!
I have just been told by Sven Kirsten and others that this is NOT the Chin's Tiki of the stirstick photo fame. That particular Chin's Tiki is closed (what else is new... sigh) but photos and reminiscings of it can be found here. However, it may be owned by the same Mr. Chin, as he apparently had two restaurants at one time. But I still found this one! Ah-ha-ha-haaaa! (Evil fishstick laughter inserted here)
PS. Do you know of a Tiki bar in YOUR town? The fishstick is willing (as you might have gathered) to travel long distances to get to one! e-mail me with your dining suggestions!
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