Inaugural Haberdasher Tiki Week 2014 poster, courtesy of Roy Clark, The Haberdasher
Every summer, Mobile Tiki Week turns downtown into a tropical paradise, with a week of exotic drinks, eats and events at dozens of bars, restaurants, breweries and coffee shops.
How did we get here? The story behind Mobile Tiki Week is as colorful and spirited as the concoctions, garnishes and get-ups you will see as tiki-fied Mobilians and visitors meander through Mobile’s downtown entertainment district.
Visit Mobile sat down with Roy Clark, Mobile Tiki Week founder and General Manager at The Haberdasher, where all the tiki inspiration first began.
Visit Mobile: When was the first Mobile Tiki Week, and what did the initial event involve?
Roy Clark: Tiki Week started as Haberdasher Tiki NIGHT in 2013.
VM: What was the inspiration behind hosting the first Tiki Week, ahem, NIGHT?
RC: I'd been reading “Potions of the Caribbean” by Jeff "Beachbum" Berry, who has been called the Indiana Jones of Tiki Cocktails. I first approached tiki from a purely mixological standpoint, as the early drink masters like Donn Beach (Don the Beachcomber), Victor Bergeron (Trader Vic) and Mariano Licuidine (the Mai Kai) were making elaborate craft cocktails well before that was even a term.
But I soon became enamored with vintage tiki culture, aesthetics and lore. Since then, I've visited 20+ tiki bars across the states, and a half-dozen more bars that we would call "tiki adjacent." I have been to four bartender-centric tiki conferences and worked on the bar team at the Hukilau, one of the biggest national tiki gatherings in the U.S.
VM: How did MTW begin to grow?
RC: It didn't take long to realize that it was way too much work for just one night of tiki. In 2014, we expanded it to be Haberdasher Tiki Week, which we did again in 2016 (we were closed to relocate in 2015).
VM: How have you evolved MTW, as we know it now?
RC: In all that time, I had been thinking about asking like-minded people and bars to possibly join up, and in 2017, we made that happen.
It was just four of us: Haberdasher, OK Bicycle Shop, the Merry Widow and Sidecar Lounge at Noble South. It went exceptionally well, and we've been growing ever since.
There were five bars in 2018, seven in 2019, NONE in 2020 [because of the COVID pandemic] and seven again in 2021. In 2022, we jumped to 16 and grew, with 21 in 2023, 24 in 2024 and now 32 participating venues and businesses in 2025.
"So many people showed up, all dressed the part and ready to tiki from one end of downtown to the other! That's when I realized this thing might just have legs, and that people were really open to it. That they wanted it."
