Trailer Happiness

My Wife and I came here for my 45th birthday. The entrance was tiki-ish, but the bar itself was very 70’s lounge, in a dive bar kind of way. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a great hangout. The music that day was reggae and dub, which while not Martin Denny, still helped me relax and put me in a “I’m not in London” vibe.

The best parts were the waitress and the drinks. Our waitress really wanted to give a suggestion, but as tikiphiles, we kindly picked our own for the first couple. The drinks were well made (mine were Hell in the Pacific and a Zombie, with flames, and my Wife had the Tropical Thunder and the Painkiller). Finally, the waitress buttered me up by saying we looked like people who know tiki drinks, so I had her suggest the next one for me. She sent me back to the classics and I had a Missionaries Downfall. It was the perfect, minty drink to end the night.

I had the pleasure of visiting Trailer Happiness in early April of this year. Earlier commenter Garrlicbread hit the nail on the head when he said "what it lacks in old school tiki atmosphere it makes up with hospitality." I didn't meet Joe, but I did meet Tom. Together with new bartender Ollie, I had a great tiki evening, the best during my entire trip to London. I have more photos and info on my blog post about the trip (with looks at The Beachcomber and Trader Vic's London as well). You can catch it here: https://monsterago-go.blogspot.com/2019/07/im-freaky-for-tiki-19-london-calling.html It was a fun place. CHEERS!

I was served by Rasa at the bar on a Sunday evening. Her skills are quite good. Drinks were pretty good and tasty.

Lovely paintings throughout and nice and dark. Some other nice decor touches such as a mug display (outside) and a beautiful bar setup. However, even on a Sunday night, the music was super loud pop and the patrons were a mix of drunk revelers and middle aged men creeping on young drunk women. Ugh.

My wife and I had an excellent time there. The team of Tom and Joe were great to hang out with. They get it. It's a passion, not a job. The place isn't anywhere near as beautiful as the oldest tiki bar in London (no named shade being throw here) but what it lacks in old school tiki atmosphere it makes up with hospitality. You definitely are welcomed to their basement vs feeling like you're in a hotel bar. Good job! And the drinks were fantastic. Boom!

I had a really good experience at Trailer Happiness. The folks there took very good care of me. The drinks were very well made. They also had a really nice selection of rums.

Lacking in Tiki Decor, however the drinks and rum selection were excellent, as were the Bartenders and Manager.

Definitely playing the late-era tiki card, but don't count it out. Their 70s swag evokes the exotic, and the drinks are absolutely on point.

Cute little club, very much a 70s/Kitsch decor with a nice complement of disco, soul and modern music. At the time of our visit the kitchen was not in service. The cocktail menu is Tiki in nature but again vodka forward but found a couple rum nuggets in there. This is one place where the bartender makes all the difference, it was a slow evening so she came over and chatted with us a bit when we made our usual Daiquiri/MaiTai order. She totally hit both of them out of them park. I'd certainly recommend Trailer Happiness but you might check ahead if you are expecting food. Lots of neat little shops and restaurants in the surrounding blocks.

Boilerplate London Tiki Bar Comment: (you'll see this on all my reviews from London so if you've read it once you can skip over it). All the tiki bars in London are very thinly tiki themed, under their skin they are all just after 9pm party bars. It should be noted that all our visits were before that, about 6pm. None of them played any music that came close to exotica, cocktail, surf.... They all had very vodka forward cocktail menus and even though there were recognizable drink names they were generally void of any rum. Our general process for cocktail evaluation is for us to try a couple of their signature drinks and then order a simple Havana Club Daiquiri and a MaiTai. None of the London menus had a traditional MaiTai or Daiquiri listed. There are probably exceptions to this rule but in general pubs are for boys and all other types of bars are for girls. The burlesque club and tiki bars we visited had pretty much exclusive customer base of women and "Hen Parties", just a drinking culture thing here in London I assume.

Came on a quiet Wednesday night. Great staff, fairly plain decor, music ranging from the 60s to the 80s, but great drinks and a truly insane presentation for the Zombie punchbowl.

It doesn't have a Mai Tai specifically on the menu and too many of their drinks contain only Bacardi rum, and they don't have any memorable tiki mugs, but I'll be damned if they didn't taste great and look lovely.

It's clearly inspired by tiki. It's tiki-adjacent. It takes elements of what makes tiki bars great and tilts the theme sideways towards the aging dregs of americana just as mid-century modern transitioned into 70's wood-panelling. It's the "tiki bar" made on the cheap by your dad in the basement of your childhood house in Suburbia, USA.

Amazing service!!!!! Phenomenal cocktail program!!!

I spent for days in London recently and made two visits to Trailer Happiness. it's not tiki per see, but it serves truly great tiki drinks. The Zombie I had there was memorable. And the two house drinks I sampled (the Atomic Punch and the the Trailer Grog) tasted great too. It's fun bar with good lounge music and a great retro decor. You feel like you're in a basement in the seventies. Behind the bar, there's a shrine to Don the Beachcomber, Trader Vic and Beachbum Berry - which is a very good sign in my opinion. Notting Hill is a fun place to visit and Trailer Happiness is a very good reason to do it.

It's also the home of the Nottinghill Rum club - regular Rum tastings are held here.