Fueled by mai tais and ukuleles,Don Nelson has found the secret to surviving Milwaukee winters. Nelson, 43, is the manager and “visionary” at Riverwest’s Foundation Bar on North Bremen Street, a Tiki-themed neighborhood joint where limes and fresh mint are major budget items.
“A Tiki bar in Milwaukee?” people often scoff. But this city is the perfect place for one, Nelson insists.
“In the dead of winter, a customer takes off his parka and he’s got a Hawaiian shirt on underneath,” says Nelson. “You’ve got Hawaiian music playing. Everyone ordering tropical drinks. You got the heat cranked. You forget where you are.”
The Foundation, owned by Nelson’s friend and former bandmate Charles Joyner, started as a punk bar in 1995. At Nelson’s urging, a Tiki Tuesday was started, and about five years ago, the bar went full Tiki, complete with a drink menu boasting 30 tropical concoctions. James Teitelbaum, author of Tiki Road Trip, calls Nelson a “key figure in Midwest Tiki.”
Nelson was drawn to this fantastical world of sun and surf while tagging along with his father on his visits to rummage and estate sales. “My favorite things were Ventures records, Hawaiian records, coconut monkeys, any kind of little Tikis.”
A veteran of the local music scene, Nelson played drums for the popular surf band The Exotics in the ’90s and later in the similarly inclined Nelsonics. Last summer, his current project, the Bikini Beachcombers, released the CD Holiday in Waikiki.
The Beachcombers are the Foundation Bar’s house band and perform with a professional hula dancer, who knows the sign language that accompanies many of the more traditional songs. Nelson, you see, strives for authenticity.
“No plastic Tiki cups and cheesy stuff from Bartz’s party supply,” he says. “For a little kid to have a birthday party with Tiki hats and plates, that’s fine. But for a grown man, it needs to be more convincing. The more authentic it is, the more escapism there is.”
