Rain, Rain (Don't) Go Away: The Tonga Room Rally

I can only imagine that the call to action is that classic Hawaiian song, "Mele Kalikimaka."

Since the New York Times reported it it must be true: San Franciscans are rallying around the Fairmont Hotel's venerable old Tonga Room. As news of a hotel expansion that would force out the old tiki bar hit the wires, fans of this kitschy spot—where the drinks all taste, in our opinions, like the spiked fruit punch you concocted for college parties—have gathered to protect the landmark. Petitions have been signed, Scorpion Bowls have been drunk. Losing such a place is sad (as our own Jordan Mackay wrote last summer, they just spent over $1 million restoring the place), especially since, as Otto Von Stroheim is quoted as saying in the Times piece, "It's the only one that has a rain storm of that scale. It's a classic."