At Tucana Tiki Bar, owner and bar director Nicky Vann Tisdale has created a space designed for pure escapism. As soon as you walk past the tiki torches, you quickly find yourself on a lush, tropical island: palm leaves abound, floral patterns on every wall, and all of a sudden you’re holding a beverage in a shark mug. 

“We really want you to be able to walk into the space and be transported,” Vann Tisdale says.

And that’s certainly what Vann Tisdale has done. From the moment guests walk through the door, Tucana immerses and transports with its tropical design and attention to detail. For Vann Tisdale, Tucana is more than a concept—it’s personal. 

A Birmingham native, she says she’s fallen in love with the city all over again as she’s watched it grow. When she first entered the hospitality industry, Birmingham’s food and beverage scene was much smaller than it is today. “Now we’ve just exploded,” she says. “And it’s so cool to watch Birmingham grow up with me.”

Falling for Hospitality

Vann Tisdale started, like many bartenders do, in dive bars. But her academic focus was fine dining and hospitality management, and it was there that she first encountered the farm-to-table philosophy and a deeper, more intentional approach to service.

“My first introduction to hospitality—this welcoming culture—was kind of addicting for me,” she says.

Working in smaller, curated spaces opened her eyes, and she soon fell in love with the idea that a meal or a beverage could be an experience, not just a transaction.

Much of that influence traces back to Ollie Irene and its owners, Chris and Anna Newsome. Vann Tisdale credits them as mentors who shaped her understanding of what hospitality could be: intentional, generous, and relationship-driven. 

“I completely fell for it,” she says simply.

Discovering Tiki

Craft cocktails weren’t initially her world–but that changed at Queen’s Park, where she encountered their tiki program, “Ohana Night.”

“I had never really done craft cocktails,” she says. “But when I went to Queen’s Park, it felt like it meshed those two worlds together – my training with hospitality and the precision and attention to detail with cocktails.”

Tiki, she explains, is special because of its mystery. For decades, bartenders guarded recipes with near-paranoid secrecy. “The thing that draws me to tiki is the escapism of it,” she says, laughing. “Having a bad day and drinking something out of a pineapple.”

Tiki certainly isn’t just a drink – it’s an entire world, where the theatrics and secretive nature of the recipes play a major role.

A Brief History of Tiki

Tiki began in the 1930s with two California bar owners who created tropical escapes for Americans dreaming of the South Pacific. In 1934, Donn Beach opened Don the Beachcomber in Los Angeles, serving rum-heavy “Polynesian” cocktails made with fresh juices and house-made syrups. His drinks—especially the Zombie—were famously secret and layered with complex flavors.

A few years later, Trader Vic brought his own version of the concept to Oakland with Trader Vic’s, later claiming the invention of the Mai Tai and expanding tiki into an international phenomenon.

Today, tiki has experienced a modern revival rooted in craftsmanship and quality ingredients. At its core, tiki has always been about escapism—creating a place, and a drink, that transports you somewhere else.

Vann Tisdale’s portal is called Tucana—a toucan, and a nod to the toucan constellation in the southern hemisphere. According to lore, sailors who were lost at sea would look up and be guided home by the stars. Upstairs at the bar, the disco ball constellation room shines as a playful tribute to that idea.

The Mad Scientist Behind the Bar

With so many ingredients, techniques, and flavors, I asked her if she feels like a mad scientist sometimes. “Oh, for sure,” she said and laughed.

She and her team hand-make everything: from the syrups and cordials to sodas and infusions. If she’s juicing grapefruits, she’s also turning the peels into syrup. If bananas are on the menu, she builds a house-made banana soda from scratch.

“Sustainability is a major factor in my work,” she says. “I always ask, how can I use every single part of this thing?” 

Vann Tisdale finds inspiration daily, in various aspects of her work and life. One example is her mother-in-law, a farmer, recently dropped off five pounds of muscadines—an Alabama tradition that, she realized, pairs beautifully with tropical flavors. Trips to Mi Pueblo Market turn into flavor expeditions, where exotic fruits become future syrups and liqueurs.

“It’s really just about having fun and trying new flavors from different cultures,” she says.

Cocktails, she insists, can be as easy or as hard as you want to make them. She chooses hard—because hard is interesting, and perhaps more fun.

Spring at Tucana

Tucana’s rotating menu just released its spring lineup, and it leans heavily into joyful nostalgia.

The Midori Miami Vice, one of Vann Tisdale’s favorites on the spring menu, is a frozen banana piña colada swirled with a Midori kiwi sour. Visually striking and layered in flavor, it’s essentially two cocktails in one, plus the third experience of tasting them together.

Then there’s Bubble Plum: tequila blanco, yuzu curaçao and mango, with acid-adjusted bubble gum. It arrives with a piece of Hubba Bubba clipped to the rim and a cloud of bubble gum “air” floating on top—an aromatic foam that forms actual bubbles you can smell, taste and pop.

“It’s harder on the backend,” she says of these playful techniques. “But you’re tasting something you’ve never had before.”

Classics anchor the menu year-round. The Zombie is served in the style Donn Beach made famous—appropriately potent. Mai Tais, Mojitos and the Ancient Mariner round out the lineup.

And then there’s the glassware: theatrical, over-the-top, joyful – and something is always bound to be on fire.

Escapism Done Right

At its core, Tucana isn’t just about rum, technique, or sustainability — though all of those matter. It’s about stepping inside after a long day, grabbing a flaming pineapple, and being transported. Tucana undeniably honors tiki’s history while adding a distinctly Southern touch; you might just find muscadines and mangoes in the same shark mug.

And above all, it’s the vision of a Birmingham native who fell in love with hospitality—and wanted to give everyone a place to escape, even if just for a night.

 

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