Mike's Tiki Bar
Mike’s Tiki Bar is a popular outdoor venue located near Burke Mountain, offering a large deck with a horse shoe shaped bar, a variety of craft beers, wines, cocktails, and food trucks. It has a casual and trendy atmosphere with live performances and is dog-friendly, accommodating both locals and tourists. The venue features outdoor seating and is wheelchair accessible. However, staff service has received some criticism, and there are no specific dog park amenities mentioned such as fenced areas or water features for dogs.
Reviews
Sorry, we were actually expecting a Tiki Bar. You know, something Caribbean-themed and colorful cocktails. So we were a little disappointed and didn’t stay. However, they did have a really nice large deck and an outdoor bar featuring a long list of craft beers, which we had already been drinking all day. Can’t say how the service or food was, but I can say it was really busy, so probably fine.
Nice outdoor deck but maybe skip the taco food truck. The bartender ordered from the pizza truck and that should have been a clue. This place seems designe for the weekend bro-bike-beer crowd rather than for families and riders.
This is a review of the Two Tamales truck, which aside from having run out of the eponymous tamales, had superb bowls with both omnivore and vegan options. Do not discount the contribution of farm-fresh lettuce, and do not assume it needs to be further clad in a tortilla. Atmosphere at Mike’s Tiki Bar was full of people and dogs, both generally social and sociable, and beverage selection was better than what one might expect given the lack of enclosure.
Staff in need of hospitality training, stat!
Exterior venue serving beer, wine and root beer from a horse shoe shaped bar in the middle of a large deck with multiple table/chair groupings. There is a covered band stand adjacent to the parking lot with food trucks at the other end of the outdoor pavilion. It has potential, but needs to fix some serious staff issues.
The afternoon I was in town coincided with the annual Fall Festival, so the parking lot was crowded with festival goers added to the stream of mountain bikers coming off the Kingdom Trails.
It was poor planning by management to post a lone bartender when the place opened at noon for cyclists and festival goers. That is simply not conducive to a good customer experience. Going 15 mins before making eye contact with people sitting on the bar stools is too long—and the same bartender was expected to service the long queue of people standing patiently at the bar. Then the bar tender said the multitude of phones on their property knocked the Wi-Fi out so all sales were cash only, further slowing things down.
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Speaking of lacking customer service: We drove into town on an EV, and would have felt more comfortable being able to top off the battery. When the area is a bit remote, sometimes private enterprises will allow plugging into their exterior plug for an hour or two. The gesture costs them very little, and they sell more during the time people are waiting for their car battery to charge. I scoped out an exterior plug behind the building, but instead of just pulling in to sneak a charge, my husband did the right thing and approached an older woman wearing the Mike’s logoed shirt. We had seen her clearing glasses off the table earlier and she’d seemed to be in charge. He received an appalling response from her. She laughed and dismissed his request to plug in saying, “You bought it, it’s your problem.” Then she stated that if he plugged in all their circuits were going to blow.
That jarring note soured an otherwise pleasant visit to Burke Mountain. It is rumored that Vermonters are notoriously cheap, but what could electricity have cost after we’d already purchased several NULL beers— cash since their wifi was down—and we would have stayed to consume more. Vermonters are also famed environmentalists, and what could be greener than a vehicle that does not rely on fossil fuels to reach the nearest chargers in St Johnsbury.
I recommend leaf-peepers, hikers, bikers, and snow bunnies stay away from this bar– it’s incapable of handling a crowd, and staff needs a lesson in hospitality with a heavy dose of empathy thrown in.
PS: We plugged in our EV overnight at our condo rental, and we now know that a 10 hr top-off battery boost cost our host NULL. (NULL!) To save
What a cool place to finish a ride at KT! Nice warm atmosphere. Good truck food to accompany your rounds of Fiddlehead after a spectacular ride. Also a nice change of pace from the other bar right around the corner. Definitely stop for a beer after earning it by finishing a nice ride!