This story is part of our October 2025 issue. To read the print version, click here.
The first sight through the door is something like an aquatic
gargoyle with long fingers, smiling fangs and the scaly tail of a
mercreature from the lowest depths. This sculpture, stretching
five feet from its head to rear fins, is entombed in glass across
from the three-dimensional rendering of a pirate ship that covers
an entire wall of Davis’ most-talked about tiki bar.
When Nate and Melissa Yungvanitsait opened Shipwrecked Tiki Bar
in 2023, they were sharing a fable they’d been gradually
inventing. It’s the yarn of an ill-fated South Seas buccaneer
whose voyages and misadventures ended with an upbeat,
rags-to-riches finale. But rather than map out this tale by
writing a book or blog, the couple started telling it through
architecture, interior design and an array of antiques and
hand-crafted trinkets they carefully positioned throughout their
bar.
Now, people coming into the half-hidden spot along G Street can
try to intuit the Yungvanitsaits’ narrative by dwelling on the
bar’s arrangement of underwater illusions, massive Kraken
tentacles, Caribbean jail cells and treasure rooms full of
wonders.
Having struck gold, the Yungvanitsaits then created a spin-off
chapter to the same story with a tiki bar in Midtown Sacramento,
this one called Shipwrecked Paradise Island, which opened in
October 2024. Their bars are part of a tide that has been rising
for the better part of a decade.
Tiki bars first gained a foothold on the West Coast in the 1930s,
popularizing environments filled with rum cocktails and
Polynesian-themed collectables in hotspots like Don the
Beachcomber in Hollywood and Trad’r Sam in San Francisco.
According to
Smithsonian Magazine, these portals of escapism were “a
perfect fit for the economically troubled era” during the Great
Depression and then, after World War II, became mirrored
funhouses of false memories and complicated nostalgia for
veterans who’d fought in the Pacific Theater. Sacramento had a
signature tiki-themed restaurant called Coral Reef between 1949
and 1994, and then the genre was kicked back to life with the
arrival of Jungle Bird bar in 2016.
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The Yungvanitsaits and other Capital Region tiki bar owners are
enjoying the public’s reaction to their version of the trend. “If
you’re watching people come through the front door for the first
time, you can read their lips, and you’ll usually see ‘Wow,’”
Nate muses. “When you walk in and shut the door, we want you to
be in a totally different world.”
A captain crashes into fate and curses
The menu at Shipwrecked Paradise Island recommends this Captain
Bob’s Bourbon Swizzle for “pirates looking to put some hair on
their chest.”
The Yungvanitsaits intended Shipwrecked to
embody a pirate character called Captain Bad Luck Bob. In the
Davis location, Captain Bob’s ship was wrecked by the ancient
Kraken, the tentacles of which create an entire seating area of
the bar. Meanwhile, Bad Luck Bob’s once-beautiful girlfriend was
cursed by a sea witch. She’s now the ghoulish mercreature that
greets people at the front door.
The bar’s front area references the sandbar where Captain Bob ran
aground, while its drink-mixing spot is a bridgeway to the
watery, shark-filled realm from which the Kraken emerged. Beyond
those spaces is a series of dark jail cells that patrons can
drink inside of, all alluding to the pirate’s fate that befell
Bob after surviving the Kraken. Perhaps the bar’s most intricate
spectacle is its shimmering treasure room that visitors can peer
into.
“Captain Bob eventually became rich when he got out of jail,”
Nate reveals.
It wasn’t long before the Yungvanitsaits were imagining a
different chapter of the Bad Luck Bob story for their Sacramento
watering hole. This one would encapsulate Bob’s debacle of
running aground on a reef ahead of a shadowy rain forest and
ancient ruins. The location’s features include a massive anaconda
statue constricting above its circular bar and open kitchen,
while carved elephants, tigers and Venus flytraps keep their eyes
on patrons.
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Nate, who grew up in Bangkok, Thailand, returned to that country
to get most of the decorations for both Shipwrecked spaces. The
intriguing pieces of shell fish art came from markets in
Thailand’s beach cities, while the large fish and animal statues
were made in the north of the country, which is renowned for its
wood-carving.
When it comes to cocktails, the Yungvanitsaits devised a menu
that pairs experimentation with classics. “A lot of the drinks
are traditional tiki drinks,” Nate says. “Our 1945 Mai Tai is a
staple of tiki bars. We’ve chosen to go with the higher quality
rum on that. We actually put four different kinds of rumn into
1945 Mai Tai, trying to mimic the original recipe that was
created back then.”
Hawthorne’s sweltering hole of secrets
Tentacles and other fantastical deep-sea elements reference
Captain Bob’s run-in with the Kraken.
Below the streets of Sacramento is a secret
door and false wall that cloaks the clandestine lair of Elias
Hawthorne. Inside, a portrait of a mysterious explorer named
Hawthorne rests on a bartop made from a slab of claro black
walnut. The mysterious explorer’s face is thickly bearded and
totally inscrutable. Judging from it, Hawthorne could have been a
contemporary to Ernest Shackleton or Sir Edmond Hillary. But he
is, in fact, an invention of Stage Nine owner Troy Carlson’s
imagination.
His creative project, influenced by years of being an art dealer
associated with the Walt Disney Company, is officially launching
this month as a private events venue called Hawthorn’s Hideaway.
Similar to Shipwrecked, Hawthorn’s Hideaway offers an experience
akin to walking through a dusty novel brought to life by sounds,
lights and high-caliber cocktails.
“I always loved tiki, but I’ve also always loved mountaineering,
which is something I personally do, so I created this fictional
character who’s traveled all over the world and done these
amazing things,” Carlson explains.
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By October, he was ready to start building the hideout in a room
attached to his underground art vault below Stage Nine. He wanted
the space to be highly interactive — and have plenty of
surprises. Carlson got help on that front from Garner Holt
Productions, a company renowned for its work at Disneyland and
Walt Disney World. The fun essence of a theme-park is definitely
reflected in the room’s animatronic totem spirits, Tika and
Magma, which speak to visitors while they’re drinking.
In the backstory Carlson drew up, Tika and Magma were Elias
Hawthorne’s greatest discoveries.
Working with Disney creatives is nothing new for Carlson. He’s
been a serious art dealer for Disney-connected painters and
animators for years now. He notes that his proximity to Disney
did influence a few elements of Hawthorne’s Hideout.
“When I was in college, I did an internship with Disney, so
that’s part of understanding storytelling and attention to
detail,” Carlson recalls. “Writing Hawthorne’s story gave us a
guiding light. … I think (the background with Disney) helped me
with a framework for how to approach it.”
When guests have a party or event in the hideout, a host — who is
an actor — leads them through some dinner theater-style fun as
they enjoy several specially devised tiki cocktails and nibble on
a host of culinary dishes.
Chelsea Evans, the Downtown Partnership’s district manager for
the Old Sacramento Waterfront, thinks what Carlson has come up
with equals a valuable new attraction. “Stage Nine’s new
Hawthorne’s Hideout delivers a magically immersive adventure
underneath the cobblestones,” Evans tells Comstock’s, adding that
it is “yet another interactive offering to the historic
neighborhood’s ever-evolving array of unique experiences.”
From Carlson’s perspective, the thrill of the room comes from
unearthing all its concealed Easter eggs and mini legends
embedded in its cluttered walls. “We literally tried to cover
every square inch of this place with little, hidden artifacts and
props and touches of the theme,” Carlson stresses. “One of our
docents, Cornelius or Albert, will help you explore the room
through activities and mayhem. Once the door closes, it’s your
private space and you’re removed from whatever was going on in
your day — you can be whisked away.”
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