Don the Beachcomber’s Third Annual Tiki Highway, Setup Underway

If you live around the Southern California area, word has probably been spreading about Tiki Highway, a relatively new collective event showcasing hotrods, rats, bobbers, choppers, rockabilly acts, DIY vendors, and a tiki carving exhibit, just to name a few things without overloading your excitement gauges.

It’s the whole gamut jam packed into Don the Beachcomber, a place with enough nostalgia to leave an event attendee yearning for a history lesson over a stiff rum and coke. It is considered to be the first Tiki Bar in the contiguous United States. That alone should be enough reason to get up and grab yourself a “Sumatra Kula.”

We got a chance to attend the first and second annual which has been booked during the month of August in the past years. Tiki Highway’s Facebook recently posted that they were in the process of setting up the event although no official date has been announced yet. If you want to keep up with their progress give their page a like and stay up to date.

The establishment is huge but the show itself is what some would consider a smaller scale production. In the past the parking lot of Don’s has been split three ways – an area showcasing customs, rats, and hotrods, another area setup for a vendor’s row, and a designated area of the lot that faces PCH showcasing some bad two wheelers.

Inside is a menagerie of lowbrow art and their corresponding artists ready to sign, sell, and shoot the bull. One of the two dining halls is cleared out for the Teds and Betties to enjoy some good ol’ Rockabilly over Red Stripes for a $1.00. All this and Don’s original Tiki Bar running a full well pouring them tall on the rocks, watch out though, AC is a luxury of today and this place is one heck of a time warp.

Don the Beachcomber is an amazing establishment and a testament to real old school Americana. Tiki Highway is the brainchild of a group of good people who want to pay homage to a culture and share it with those willing to stay and have a few drinks. You won’t want to miss out on all of this, below is just a few of the rides that came out for last year’s event – we’ll see you there!