The Tonga Room And Hurricane Bar

I spent my…. thirty-first birthday in this place, I believe. The signature tropical drinks are huge, expensive, and terrible (heavy on the Kool-Aid), and the food is edible but overpriced.

But none of that matters. You need know only two things about the Tonga Room:
1) Band on an island in the pool at the center of the room, playing easy listening classics , and
2) Artificial thunderstorms, every hour on the hour!!!

It’s a brilliant look at what someone thought was fancy thirty or more years ago, and is now even more surreal and agreeably seedy. It’s amplified by the fact that the Fairmont Hotel, despite its location in among the most expensive parts of town, is clearly showing its age a bit. Totally worth a visit. A very good time can be had in tiki-bar splendor before you stagger down one of the steepest bits of Nob Hill in the fog.

The house cover band always plays this at the end of the night, while their little boat pulls away and rain falls into the pool!

Well, I went to the Tonga Room during my last visit to San Francisco. Very cheesy, but that’s what I was expecting. The crowd definitely was a bit older and richer than me. At least the drinks were strong.