Sip 'n Dip Lounge

The Sip 'n Dip Lounge is a tiki bar in Great Falls, Montana opened in 1962, when Polynesian themes were popular, and 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 women 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 also features "Piano Pat" Sponheim, who has played piano there since 1963 and is noted for her unique "jazzy" style.The mermaid concept was introduced in 1995, when there was a revival of the tiki fad, and it 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 of Montana, when the magazine GQ listed the lounge in its list of the top 10 bars in the world, ranking it as the "#1 bar...worth flying for". The bar 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 until 2004.Celebrity patrons of the Sip 'n Dip have included Nick Nolte, star of The Deep, 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, repaired, and the double-paned glass replaced with a triple-paned version.