Motorized Tiki Bar To Cruise Pittsburgh Rivers This Summer

PITTSBURGH, PA - Coming to the three rivers this spring: a mobile, motorized tiki bar.

Cruisin’ Tikis, a two-year-old Fort Lauderdale company, will have its first boat on the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio as early as May, company founder and president Greg Darby confirmed Tuesday.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun up there in Pittsburgh,” he told Patch via phone from Florida. “We put smiles on people’s faces, one smile at a time.”

A typical two-hour Cruisin’ Tiki river cruise will cost about $400 total for up to six people. The price won’t include alcohol, which you’ll have to bring on your own, but will include water, soda and ice.

The boats meet Coast Guard vessel standards and each cruise will have a captain to navigate the 16-foot-wide craft on the water.

The tiki bars are in a number of Florida markets but are expanding into northern cities. Buffalo has one and Darby said one is coming to Cleveland. The Pittsburgh franchise will be headed by Dale McCue, who could not immediately be reached by Patch.

Darby said he conceived the company by accident. He decided he wanted a tiki hut but didn’t want it cluttering up his backyard so he built a floating one and launched it in a nearby canal.

“Then I wondered what would happen if we put a motor on it,” he said. “So we did and put it in the river. Somebody shot a video of it, the thing went viral and next thing I know I’m getting calls from Dubai asking about it.”

He added, “I’m just glad my lawyer told me to patent it.”

Photo via Crusin' Tikis. Used with permission.