----------- It's summertime, you sexy, gorgeous Beijing denizens. Time to shear the legs off a pair of old jeans, don open toed footwear and sip tropical cocktails. And lo and behold, sound the gongs, a new tiki bar called Bungalow has just opened in the hutongs. Fucking puuuuuuuuuuuuurfect timing. Meow. (^._.^)É What's tiki? Tiki is exuberance, kitsch, ignorance, armchair anthropology, novelty, exotica, bad Chinese food, romanticized caramel-colored cultures, fodder for the Hawaiian tourism board and paper umbrellas. It reached its fad pinnacle in post-War America, with dozens of Trader Vic's and Don the Beachcomber bars & restaurants blooming across the country. It died hard, but its recent resurgence and reexamination is partly a backlash to a glut of bow-tie wearing, faux-Sinatra, douchey speakeasies, and also because the era's drinks are damned good. So yeah, Bungalow. Exterior features a colorful mural of a grinning idol and a bold, cartoonish font. Décor is no-frills Orlando dad's basement tiki bar. It's a tiny place. Palm thatch, strewn flotsam and cheesy sunset paintings. Homey, and I'm totally into it. Outdoor seating is a bit mishmash, and given the recent string of blue sky days, customers were pulling out the inside furniture to get drunk al fresco. Drinks. Bungalow's cocktail menu is a lovingly curated time capsule. Very authentic vintage tiki cocktails on an attractive, illustrated menu with surprisingly fair prices. Artifacts. So yeah, we immediately got to ordering a whole hell of a lot of them. A Jet Pilot (50RMB) is my personal go-to tiki cocktail. There is some contention with recipes, but Bungalow's resembles Don the Beachcomber's recipe, possibly exactly. Three kinds of rum, fresh lime & grapefruit juice, cinnamon, falernum (a liquor or syrup made from clove, lime zest and ginger) bitters and absinthe. Again, an artifact. The execution is entirely faultless. Yes, I'll have another. Lots of gems on this menu. I particularly enjoyed Bungalow's take on the classic Corn and Oil (45 RMB) Typically made with rich black-strap rum, which is not readily available in China, Bungalow's version uses two kinds of rum, falernum, lime and bitters to conjure some kind of black magic that satisfies. If you like the sweeties, try their version of a Painkiller (50 RMB), which is like a more complex dark Jamaican and Barbados rum based piña colada. The coconut rum, guava nectar and pineapple juice Leilani's Volcano (45 RMB) would look just perfect right in frame with a keai Chinese girl taking selfies. Light, cute, fruity and presented in a great novelty coconut cup. For the coup de grâce, share a Scorpion (65 RMB) with your friends and lovers. An odd, but terrifically balanced combination of gold rum, brandy, gin, orgeat and fruit juice. I'm drunk. Damn good cocktails, positive vibes and a gregarious, knowledgeable bartender. No food menu, but some bar peanuts graced our table. I've heard they also have great classic cocktails, but I'm sticking to the tiki. That romantic, fleeting magic of Beijing summer is over before you fully appreciate it, so soak it up, girls. Aloha! *** Bungalo Tiki and Cocktail Bar is at 82 Dongsijiutiao. They're open daily from 6pm to midnight. Later if people are there drinking.