Published by Jeremy. Last Updated on July 29, 2026.
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We love tiki drinks, and when we heard that Spork Island Trading Company was opening up as an immersive tiki bar in Pittsburgh's Cultural District, we had to go right away.
This one combines a beautiful ambiance with a robust tiki menu and is helping convert Penn Avenue downtown into quite the cocktail hub.
So, let's dive in and share a bit of our experience from opening night in this one!
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Tiki Comes to Downtown Pittsburgh at Spork Island
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Before talking about the cocktails, we should first mention the ambiance. Spork Island Trading Company went all out for an elaborate, immersive tiki feel that truly warrants a walk-through around the space when visiting. Every little nook and cranny seems to have some element of design, including the restrooms, and it's something we truly love to see at a tiki bar (including some extras that happen when the premium, shareable volcano is ordered).
But let's get straight to the most important part- the drinks. Spork Island has quite the large menu with an array of options to choose from!
Our first round at Spork Island included Nine More Lives and Sophisticated Ape, both with classic tiki-style recipes.
Nine More Lives featured pineapple rum, Campari, overproof rum, lime, cinnamon, and sparkling wine, with nice tropical notes and a hint of cinnamon to round out the tiki experience. The Sophisticated Ape was made with pot-still rum, blended Scotch, banana liqueur, vanilla, cinnamon, pineapple, lime, and bitters, and had a dominant note of pineapple and banana, with a subtle spice note on the back end.
To me, both were pretty conventional tiki drinks, with a hero flavor in each to pair with their base spirits. I wanted a bit more complexity for the price, I will admit, but the portions were generous for what we got.
- Note: One issue we had at Spork Island at the time of opening was that their menu was loose, AI-generated drink cards included notes that they were both temporary while looking for an artist and “prices may be incorrect but close.” Ignoring the loose cards being a pain to sort through, the Nine More Lives was listed at $1 less than we were charged, and Sophisticated Ape was $2 less than what we were charged. At the list price of $16 each, these would've been decent for a higher-end cocktail bar downtown, but at $17 and $18 respectively, I would've considered another drink outright.
Our second round included the Pearl Diver and Purple Reign, the latter of which offered a fair bit more complexity that we appreciated.
Pearl Diver was made with demarara rum, gold rum, lime, gardenia mix, and bitters and felt like a fairly simple play on a daiquiri. The Purple Reign was among the more inventive cocktails that we could try and featured pisco, paw paw shrub, chica morada, lemon, lime, yuzu curacao, egg white, and bitters, which made for a really integrated and robust cocktail where you could taste many of the flavor notes in an excellent balance. Put this one on our shortlist to order again, because it was quite delicious.
Finally, we ended the night with Uka-Uka, made with pineapple rum, banana, lime, and spice. This one, albeit simple in its ingredients like the Pearl Diver, felt like a more complex, tropical daiquiri and came with a candied pineapple piece as well, which helped elevate the flavors nicely such that I'd gladly order this one again in a future visit.
Now, we should also stop here and point out that there is one downside to tiki culture for us specifically- many of the best-sounding cocktails at Spork Island contain nuts, namely via ingredients such as orgeat, select falernum brands, and macadamia liqueur, and Angie has an allergy. As such, on our first visit to Spork Island, we had to skip some of the more interesting-sounding cocktails on the menu (including their shareable volcano), and hopefully I'll be able to visit solo one day to try them, as it is possible that our selection doesn't do this bar justice for its full lineup.
Beyond the drinks, Spork Island has a robust small-bites menu and will be rolling out a yakitori feature in the future, which we hope to return to and try on a future visit once the full menu is available as well.
Finally, at the time of opening, this one does not accept reservations and only seats walk-ins. Given that the bar is fairly small, you may need to be prepared for a bit of a wait if it's busy. All told, we're happy that downtown bars are popular, and this one most assuredly will be popular- just plan accordingly!
That said, Spork Island Trading Company is hitting the ground running despite a few minor issues and is bringing a welcome tiki addition to downtown Pittsburgh's cocktail scene. We are looking forward to returning to this one soon for more.
Spork Island Trading Company is located at 946 Penn Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh.
