 A "mermaid" at the Sip 'n Dip | |
| Company type | Tiki bar |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1962 |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Area served | North Central Montana |
| Parent | O'Haire Motor Inn |
| Website | ohairemotorinn.com |
The Sip 'n Dip Lounge is a tiki bar in Great Falls, Montana, US, opened in 1962, when Polynesian themes were popular. It has survived to the present day with its tiki theme intact. Located inside a local motel that was considered modern and trendy at the time it was built, the Sip 'n Dip is known for having people dressed as mermaids swimming underwater in an indoor swimming pool visible through a window in the bar. Decorated with a bamboo ceiling and a South Seas theme, the bar featured Patricia "Piano Pat" Sponheim, noted for her unique "jazzy" style, who played piano there from 1963 until her death in May 2021.
The mermaid concept was introduced in 1995 when there was a revival of the tiki fad and was the brainchild of the bar's current owner who wanted to add a "fun factor". It became popular, particularly for Montana, a landlocked northern state where a tropical tiki theme is unexpected. Beginning in 2003, the bar began to gain prominence outside Montana, when the magazine GQ listed the lounge in its list of the top ten bars in the world, ranking it as the "#1 bar...worth flying for". The bar usually employs six women, who wear mermaid outfits designed and hand-made by the bar's manager, Sandra Johnson-Thares. Mermen were brought back in 2016, having previously appeared on occasion from the late 1990s to 2004.
Celebrity patrons of the Sip 'n Dip have included the actors Nick Nolte and Daryl Hannah, who reprised her portrayal of a mermaid in Splash by swimming in the pool while wearing a mermaid tail. Both actors signed the glass window, though their autographs were lost two years later when the window cracked, forcing the pool to be drained and repaired and the double-paned glass replaced with a triple-paned version.