Bikini Lounge, Grand Avenue.

Phoenix's last serious tiki dive.

Bikini Lounge opened in 1947 on Grand Avenue, the diagonal arterial that runs from downtown Phoenix toward the airport. The bar was founded as a tiki lounge during the post-war South Pacific romanticism craze. The original tiki decor is intact. The pufferfish lights, the bamboo ceiling fans, the Polynesian wall masks, the rattan booths, and the original tiki bar back have all been continuously in place since 1947, with periodic maintenance but no replacement.

The room is medium sized: a small front bar with eight stools, a back room with six rattan booths, a tiny enclosed patio at the back that catches afternoon shade. The lighting is intentionally dim and orange, throwing pufferfish shadows on the ceiling. The decor is the bar. The Mai Tai recipe has not been changed since 1947, when a former Hawaiian Air bartender installed it on the menu.

Why this matters. Bikini Lounge is the rare American tiki dive that has held its 1947 design through 78 years of Phoenix transformation. Most tiki bars from the era have closed or been converted. Bikini has not.

The pufferfish ceiling lights.

Twenty-two pufferfish hang from the bar's ceiling, each containing an original 1947 incandescent bulb in a small glass enclosure. The pufferfish are real, sourced from a Hawaiian dealer in 1947 and preserved chemically since. The bulbs are replaced as they burn out using period-correct incandescents from a small specialty supplier in San Francisco.

The pufferfish are the bar's signature lighting feature. They throw a soft amber light tinged orange by the body of the fish itself. The light is unlike any other in Phoenix. Photographers who attempt to capture the bar's atmosphere using flash invariably fail; the only way to photograph the room is in available light.

Mai Tai, Bikini Punch, Tecate.

• Mai Tai: eight dollars. The 1947 recipe: dark rum, light rum, orange curaçao, orgeat, lime. Served in a tiki mug, no umbrella by tradition.
• Bikini Punch: nine dollars. The bar's house punch, invented in 1953: rum, pineapple, passion fruit, lime, served in a small ceramic skull.
• Tecate: three dollars a can. The Phoenix dive default, served with a slice of lime jammed into the top.
• Negroni: seven dollars. The bar's only non-tiki cocktail. Pours fast.
• The thing nobody knows: the bar pours a small Demerara rum at five dollars from a 151 proof bottle. Ask for "the original Demerara." The bartenders pour it neat.

Wednesday at 5pm. The shade hour.

Bikini Lounge opens at 5pm and closes at 2am. The patio at the back gets afternoon shade by 4pm in summer. Wednesday at 5pm is the shade hour: the patio is open, the temperature has dropped from peak afternoon, the pufferfish lights are starting to glow, the bar is at 30% capacity.

The peak hour is Friday and Saturday between 9pm and midnight, when the Grand Avenue arts crowd packs the bar. The Tuesday at 6pm hour is the local hour: the regulars are reading the Phoenix New Times, the bartender pours Mai Tais slowly, and the room smells faintly of orgeat.

The bar is closed Sundays and Mondays. The closure is a 1958 lease provision and has not changed.

What the Mai Tai actually is.

The Bikini Lounge Mai Tai recipe was installed in 1947 by Hank Wilson, a former Hawaiian Air bartender who had worked the Honolulu hotel circuit. The recipe predates Trader Vic's claim to the Mai Tai by four years. Wilson's recipe: 1.5 oz dark rum, 1 oz light rum, 0.75 oz orange curaçao, 0.5 oz orgeat, 1 oz fresh lime juice, shaken with ice, strained into a tiki mug filled with crushed ice, garnished with a single mint sprig.

The recipe has not been adjusted. The bar still uses the same orgeat brand from a small Los Angeles supplier that has been making it since 1944. The Mai Tai costs eight dollars and has cost between six and eight dollars for the last twenty-five years. Wilson died in 1971; the recipe was preserved by his apprentice and passed to the current head bartender.

Thirty dollars per person, two Mai Tais.

Plan for twenty-five to forty dollars per person for a three-hour visit. Two Mai Tais at eight, one Bikini Punch at nine, twenty percent tip. A pair of friends drinks for fifty-five dollars total.

Cards are accepted. Cash is preferred. Two dollars per drink in cash on the bar is the local norm.

Grand Avenue arts, Phoenix tiki regulars, the patio late shift.

Bikini Lounge draws three populations. The first: the Grand Avenue arts crowd, particularly painters and photographers from the surrounding studio buildings. The second: the Phoenix tiki regulars, who follow the schedule across the city's three remaining tiki bars. The third: the late-shift restaurant industry, particularly cooks ending shifts at Roosevelt Row restaurants.

You will find some Phoenix tech crowd, but only on weekend evenings. The bar's price point and the pufferfish filter for a music-and-art-first audience.

How not to be the worst person at Bikini Lounge.

• Do not photograph the pufferfish with flash. The flash kills the room and damages the period-correct paper of the fish.
• Do not request an umbrella in your Mai Tai. The 1947 recipe does not include an umbrella.
• Do not order a frozen Mai Tai. The recipe is shaken and strained, served on crushed ice.
• Do not bring a stag party. The patio cannot accommodate a group of eight.
• Do not refill your tiki mug from a friend's mug. Each mug is a single Mai Tai by tradition.
• Do not photograph the regulars on the patio. The Grand Avenue arts crowd does not pose.
• Do not, ever, ask if Hank Wilson's recipe is "the real Mai Tai." The bartenders consider the question settled.

Welcome Diner, Bikini Lounge, Roosevelt Row.

The classic Grand Avenue evening: dinner at the Welcome Diner on Roosevelt Street at 7pm, the Phoenix Southern-fried institution. Walk three blocks west to Bikini Lounge at 9pm for two Mai Tais on the patio. End at the Roosevelt Tavern on Roosevelt Row at midnight for one more, the Phoenix neighbourhood dive that completes the Grand Avenue trinity.

For more bars in the area, see our Phoenix city guide, the Phoenix cocktail bars guide, and the Grand Avenue hidden gems.

Yes. America's most preserved 1947 tiki dive.