The Flamingo Lounge will make your head spin.

Aloha shirts don’t make Eric dizzy. You’d think he’d have been classically conditioned with all that spinning around, but no.

Eric wears a different aloha shirt every Friday from Memorial Day to Labor Day. It’s a tradition he’s kept every summer for ten years. He calls it Hawaiian Shirt Friday. To celebrate, he puts on his aloha shirt, smiles big, and takes a selfie while the world (quite literally) spins around behind him. He aims the camera at his beaming face and does a complete three sixty while taking the photo. Once he’s got the winning shot, he posts the pic with the hashtag #HawaiianShirtFriday to his socials. “That’s a whole lot of spinning. I’ve been doing it for a decade,” he told me. I was already feeling dizzy just thinking about it, but apparently, Eric is the spin master.

“Like any good selfie, you can’t just take one. You’re spinning, but is your face in focus? It might take a couple spins to get the best shot,” he added with a grin.

Why the spin? Eric figures it disguises the background, but I suspect it’s also fun and makes for a great photo backdrop. When you count up those spins in years, his Hawaiian Shirt Friday posts account for over one hundred Aloha shirts with likely three to four hundred rotations.

Today, he’s got a closet full of five-dollar thrift store finds, and the weekly summer ritual is worth every penny. He’s typically drawn to hibiscus florals and palm frond patterns, but you’ll also find the occasional foray into tropical pop themes like Star Wars or Christmas Tiki shirts. He’d also feature a new Tiki mug for a few of those years, but the Aloha shirts have kept him spinning right ’round the entire decade.

Friends love his posts. To prove the point, one of his friends gifted him a personal bobblehead (the head spins, get it?) of Eric dressed in yellow pants, purple Converse shoes, and a Hilo Hattie purple Hawaiian shirt, head bobbling while holding a Tiki mug garnished with a yellow straw and green umbrella. It’s a prized possession, and Eric wore the same shirt as his bobblehead doppelganger when we chatted in his stunning Flamingo Lounge.

“See? It’s me!” Eric beamed as he set the bobblehead down on the bar with the matching Tiki mug.

Speaking of head turns, yours will, too, when you see the Flamingo Lounge. Eric’s home Tiki bar occupies the entire basement of his beautiful mid-century modern house in Detroit, Michigan. Furnished with an expertly-curated collection of large Tikis and Moai, rare Witco, vintage lamps, a celebrity pool table, and an entire wall of Tiki mugs, it’s clear that Eric has been collecting for a long time. As you might expect from the name, you’ll find flamingos in unexpected places through the space. You’ll also find fifty pink flamingos grazing in his backyard. A favorite feature is the Tiki chess set and wooden inlaid board hand-carved by revivalist Crazy Al a few years back. One side contains sixteen chess pieces demonstrating traditional Tiki carving styles. The other side has sixteen carvings based on Tiki Revival artists’ work. The set is surrounded by four quite rare and stunningly beautiful chairs from Columbus’ now-gone Kahiki. It all adds up to an inviting and impressive place for a potation of Polynesiacs to play.

I’ll save the other stories for Eric to tell you personally when you sip on a “Toucan” (the Flamingo Lounge’s signature cocktail) at the Flamingo Lounge. Ask him about the time Martha Reeves sang (yes, of Martha and the Vandellas!) in his lounge or maybe that time he used masking tape to slide the Moai down the stairs.

Just wear your aloha shirt, and try not to get dizzy from all those spins.