Salt Lake City tiki bar scene is growing, and new pop-up Suckerfish offers preview

It might be the middle of winter, but the minds behind a new pop-up bar in Salt Lake City are ready to transport you to a tropical paradise, complete with fruity tiki cocktails.

Suckerfish is a temporary bar concept from ACME Bar Company, which threw the monthlong Christmas party “Season’s Drinking” in the former Campfire Lounge throughout December.

ACME bought the Sugar House space at 837 E. 2100 South in October before creating the holiday-themed event, then launching the new Suckerfish pop-up as a way to keep the bar active before they shut it down in the spring for a complete remodel.

Think of Suckerfish as a “tabula rasa” as well as a “neighborhood cocktail dive,” said Sean Neves, who’s a co-owner of ACME as well as a co-owner of the bar Water Witch in the Central Ninth neighborhood. That blank slate can act as a backdrop for fundraisers and different events, he said, until its doors eventually close for about two months for renovation.

The bar will then reopen as a permanent establishment, with a brand and concept that will be ... well, it’s still somewhat of a mystery.

But Neves said they’ve thrown out a couple breadcrumbs hinting at what its future will look like. And one of those clues is Suckerfish.

Escaping to the tropics

The food and drink menus at Suckerfish are small, but they’re curated by some big names in Salt Lake City’s dining and drinking scene.

The cocktails are crafted by Sam Miller and Mikey Edwards, the minds behind Island Time, a wandering tiki bar operation that focuses on making classic tiki cocktails and throwing tropical-themed parties.

Miller emphasized that the cocktails on the Suckerfish menu are the real deal, made from recipes created in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s. Tiki drinks “basically went extinct” in the 1970s, he said, and “turned into this horrible, high fructose corn syrup, overly sweet, dumbed-down version of what classic tiki is.”

But since a revival in the early 2000s, tiki is seeing a renaissance, Miller said, featuring drinks made with fresh-squeezed juices and handmade syrups.

The Suckerfish drink menu is made up of tiki classics including a mai tai made with lime orgeat syrup, curacao liqueur, and Martinique and Jamaican rums.

The banana daiquiri and Blue Hawaii on the menu are tributes to Harry Yee, the influential bartender who invented the Blue Hawaii and pioneered the widespread use of tiny parasols in tropical drinks.

“The main ethos of tiki in general is escapism,” Miller said. “... Let’s transport people when they step in the door to another place where they forget about what’s going on outside and can enjoy themselves.”

The food menu is the creation of Chef David Chon, whose Asian gastropub Nohm in Central Ninth was recently bought by Neves and ACME/Water Witch co-owner Scott Gardner with the plan of converting it into a bar.

The menu includes spicy Korean fried chicken that Chon describes as “tangy and sweet” and said will pair well with the tiki cocktails. There’s also a Jamaican curry with lamb and beef, slow-cooked in Caribbean spices and served over udon noodles, for a dish that Chon said is perfect for cold weather.

You can also choose to have the curry “poutine-style” over fries. The third dish is a vegan, Japanese-style savory pancake that Chon said has a “bar food vibe” and can also be enjoyed by omnivores.

The food and drink menus are limited because Suckerfish is “showcasing our interests,” Chon said, and acting as a preview for what type of food and drink that he, ACME and Island Time would like to bring to Salt Lake City.

“There is something a lot greater coming up in the next phase,” Chon said.

Why a pop-up?

Miller and Edwards want to open Salt Lake City’s first tropical bar, but first they want to build a culture of tiki cocktails in the city. To reach that goal, they’re treating their spirits classes (like one they did on rum at Caputo’s last summer) and pop-up events as ways to “educate” Salt Lakers on what’s to come.

Pop-up events are stressful, said the two bartenders, as they have to learn how to operate in each newly designed space as well as keep all their ingredients fresh.

But pop-ups have a type of “magic,” Miller said. “It’s this living, breathing thing that doesn’t really have any rules, aside from, obviously, the rules that we have in Utah of running the bar.”

Everything from glassware to presentation to the menu can be changed, Miller said, and “it’s a lot more work in the long run. But it’s so much fun.”

The duo also thinks of pop-ups as a way to grow Salt Lake City’s bar scene. The nature of the pop-up is about community and shifting from competitive spaces to collaborative spaces, Edwards said, adding that “rising tides raise all ships.”

“We’re very open books when it comes to our processes, our recipes, our knowledge of the products,” Miller said. “That’s how we started is sharing our knowledge and passion of this with people.”

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