Kukui, Oxford

Oxford

Kukui

venues, January 2009, COMMENTS

Escapist dreams of far flung shores grace the minds of many at this time of the year. No longer distracted by the run up to the festive season and stumped slightly by the thought of the long, cold, relatively desolate months before spring, retreat to a colourful paradise would, for many, be the perfect SAD remedy. Unfortunately idealism comes at a price, and the reality of a break in the South Pacific has a much closer relationship with the associated financial constraints than the fantasy ever does. So it’s lucky, for the people of Oxford at least, that Harvey Sinclair and Stuart Kerley have teamed up with Jamie Wilson of Cheeky Tiki, to create the multi-sensory experience that is Kukui.

The tiki bar concept isn’t new in the UK; its history around these parts bares the arguable indignity of being a nationwide feature within Butlins Holiday Camps during the ‘70s and ‘80s but comparisons of then, and now with Kukui, should end there. Whilst the fun and unpretentious elements remain, Harvey and Jamie have come up with a sophisticated venue, inspired and furnished with a plethora of South Pacific materials, as well as bespoke tiki carvings and ceramics created in Cheeky Tiki’s London workshop.

Something of a media tycoon, Harvey floated his online media company, The Hot Group, in 2002 and sold it to Trinity Newspaper Group in 2006 for £60 million. His initial steps into the leisure sector were taken in Verbier, Switzerland, where he invested in commercial property in ski resorts, but disillusionment with the current offer in provincial cities inspired him to make tracks into the UK market as well, as he revealed: “I was well aware that the current offering of late night bars and clubs is very generic, quite bland and a little bit stereotypical at the moment. I wanted to bring the fun back into going out, bring the cocktail back, look at something that is themed but not tacky, that has a personality and a character, get rid of the whole VIP, red carpet culture and bring back something a little more fun and friendly. And so that’s where we conceived the concept of Kukui.”

Jamie designed successful London outfit Mahiki, a venue which Harvey admits has offered up lessons in ‘what to do, and what not to do’, but which certainly opened the doors for the resurgence of the tiki bar idea. As Jamie said: “When we took on Mahiki, it gave the whole thing a huge boost, and us as well, it made the Tiki bar popular again.”

Kukui is placed on the Isis River in the prominent, central location that once housed Ocean & Collins – a very different take on the late night, cocktail bar. The entry point of the venue offers a captivating field of view, setting the vibrant and visually impacting tone of the place. Immediately to the right, one of the two, seven metre long bars, backed by retro, modernist shelving and adorned with unusual, Chinese black speckled bamboo, provides the patrons’ first point of contact.

To the right of here, an aquarium wall, home to lipstick tangs, lionfish, white spotted sand shark and 3ft balinese leopard eels, splits the space to form the Castaway Room. Described by Jamie as ‘James Bond-like’, it has a blue domed banquette that seats 35 and is decorated with tiki shields and a giant wood carving Polynesian mask.

From the main bar, a bridge, overlooked by the VIP area, crosses waterways that run throughout the club, to reach the dancefloor area.

The VIP area has a very traditional tiki feel to it, with five booths that incorporate bamboo and fibreglass tables, which are lit up by matching lampshades. Placed behind this area is the Californian Room, complete with a 15m tropical rainforest wall screen and furnished with 1920s Pretzel Design Company inspired rattan sofas in jungle felt screen prints.

Raised seating around the dancefloor is set below the commanding DJ booth, which is shadowed, along with the dancefloor, by a 10m high, tiki hut. Here, one of the most intriguing design elements – a shoal of glowing puffer fish – can be found, bringing a unique lighting aspect to the venue.

The lights, sourced in the Philippines and made from real puffer fish that are hollowed out and dried, have been used by Jamie before but never with such prominence, as he explained: “They’re quite an unusual thing. We’ve used them before in other bars but this time we decided to make them part of the whole disco area of the room and have them change colour and things. It’s quite strange having dead fish hanging from the ceiling of a club!”

Underlining the desire for fun and rounding the venue off with a relatively simple, but inspired addition, is the piping positioned above the waterways. When an unsuspecting customer orders The Thunder God cocktail, the dancefloor and footbridges are enveloped by a wall of warm tropical rain while strobes give the effect of lighting, stepping an already entertaining venue, up another gear.

“It’s a beautiful venue, it really is a stunning, stunning environment to have some fun in,” exclaimed proud owner Harvey. The busy nature of the different design elements is typical of the tiki style, and, as Jamie explained, gives Kukui strength in depth: “That’s the whole tiki look really, there’s a bit of clutter to it, but the idea is everywhere you look, you get a different view of the room. It’s a big place so you can actually go and sit somewhere else and get a new experience. But personally, from our design point of view, none of the areas clash, they all somehow fit together.”

Kukui will provide a blueprint for future brand rollout. Although Harvey admits there are still ‘two or three months of operational tweaking’, confidence in the model has already raised £3 million of second round funding that will aid the creation of ten venues over three years. Levels of investment are placed at £0.5 million to each venue, signifying the tiki bar’s development has certainly come a long way since Butlins.

Words: Michael Nicholson

From: January 2009 Issue

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