Hunã After Dark

The opening brief covers the established facts: a basement bar beneath Echelon, rum-forward cocktails, a separate food menu, and the same team that runs the James Beard semifinalist upstairs.

The entrance is a discreet door on Washington Street, just west of South Main, unmarked from the sidewalk. A staircase leads down to what the Ann Arbor Observer described as a 4,000-square-foot basement with a thatched-roof bar, bamboo trim, booths, banquettes, and high-top seating, with greenery worked into every corner.

The space works because it doesn't wink. Plenty of tiki bars in 2026 treat the concept ironically, kitschy decor that signals "we know this is silly." Hunã plays it straight: the bamboo and thatch are built out rather than pasted on, and the stone accents read as considered rather than slapped in. The room reads as a place, not a theme.

The Drinks

The cocktail menu is rum-forward by design, which is what separates Hunã from the cocktail bars upstairs and elsewhere on South Main. The Last Word, Spencer, Echelon itself: all excellent bar programs, but none of them are built around rum. Hunã is.

The Strong Island stacks gin, rum, vodka, lemon, cinnamon, curaçao, grapefruit soda, and bitters, which is as much spirit as the name threatens. Cinnamon is an unusual note for a tropical drink; most menus lean on straight sweetness instead, and it's the detail that separates this from a generic rum punch.

The Iguana riffs on a green Negroni: gin, Midori, dry vermouth, green Chartreuse, and Salers aperitif. That build reads bitter and herbaceous by ingredient alone, territory most tiki menus don't go near. Hunã's menu reaches from classic tiki formulas (Mai Tais, Zombies, daiquiris) to original constructions that borrow from other cocktail traditions. The breadth signals a program built by people who know spirits beyond rum, not a rum list padded out with the classics.

Large-format shareable drinks are the group option. The ceramic vessels and elaborate garnishes commit to the tiki tradition without being embarrassing about it. Ordering one for a table of four works out cheaper per round than four individual drinks.

Non-alcoholic options exist and are taken seriously, which is not always the case at cocktail bars.

The Food

The bar snack menu is short: coconut shrimp, poke, bao buns or lettuce wraps, galbi ribs, and dessert, according to Hunã's current menu. This is not a dinner destination. It's food built to keep you upright through a second or third round, not a tasting menu.

Echelon and Hunã share a kitchen team and a building, but not a register. Echelon is the composed meal upstairs. Hunã is the second act: darker, louder, more playful.

The Membership

Hunã also runs tiered annual memberships, with perks that include priority access and member events. The bar's official hours require no membership to walk in, Thursday through Saturday, 7 p.m. to 2 a.m., which keeps the tiki bar itself open to anyone who wants to go underground for a drink.

What It Means for South Main

The 200 South Main block now has Echelon upstairs (James Beard semifinalist, wood-fired kitchen), Hunã downstairs (rum-forward tiki bar), and Pretzel Bell next door. Add The Last Word around the corner and Spencer a block east, and this stretch of downtown Ann Arbor has become the densest cocktail corridor in the county.

Hunã fills a specific niche: the late-night, mood-driven, occasion-feeling bar that Ann Arbor has lacked. The Last Word is serious and small. Spencer is a wine bar with food. Echelon is a restaurant that happens to have a great bar. Hunã is a bar that happens to be underground, and going underground for a drink is a different proposition than walking into any of those other rooms.

Thursday through Saturday, 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. Closed Sunday through Wednesday. A three-night schedule for a room this specific means weekends will be the harder table to get.

Hunã Tiki Bar is at 200 S Main St (basement), Ann Arbor. Enter via Washington St, west of Main. Thu-Sat 7 p.m.-2 a.m. Memberships available at huna.bar.