Tiki Archaeology: Moon Islander, South Titusville, Florida

I came across this weird menu cover again in Jim Heimann's "May I Take Your Order?- American Menu Design 1920-1960" and thought that maybe some Florida Ohana know something about this place. Here is a scan from Jim's book:

This menu design looks like such a failed attempt at Tiki Modern, I find it totally baffling. What were they thinking? Dali, American indian rock art, Chinese...? Heimann describes it as "abstraction gone awry"- I say!

The caption estimates it to be from 1955, (maybe by the prices?), but I'd say it's more 60s or even 70s. Probably a Chinese Fu-joint, and the owners grandson got to design the cover.

Where the hell is South Titusville? Anybody live nearby, or ever found any evidence of the place?

I don't know anything about this place, but Titusville is about an hour east of Orlando

South Titusville is north of Vaginaville

Titusville is right next to Kennedy Space Center. Back in the 1960s, during the heady days of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space projects, Titusville was a happening place. A lot of press, guests, and probably employees of KSC would stay in Titusville. A lot of hotels and restaurants popped up to support all of those visitors going to watch the mission launches.

So perhaps the name of the restaurant - Moon Islander, is a clue or tie-in to the big Apollo craze of the mid and late 1960 in Titusville.

On 2008-01-05 10:37, tikipedia wrote:
So perhaps the name of the restaurant - Moon Islander, is a clue or tie-in to the big Apollo craze of the mid and late 1960 in Titusville.

Cool! I was hoping for it to have that connotation, Space & Tiki is one of my favorite facets of Tiki Modern!

:)

Here is a picture of my menu. It is a beautiful example of Abstract Tiki similiar to the South Seas menu in Boston.

More information on this restaurant would be nice. James has it listed in the "new" edition of Tiki Road Trip in which he states...

Moon Islander, Highway 1, Titusville, Florida
"A popular prom destination in the 1960's, they had souvenir Tiki mugs with their name on them. An unrelated woman's clothing store is using the name now."

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

Now we're getting somewhere! James, where'd you get that info? What type of mug did they have? What does the logo of that store look like?
I do like the contrast of your menu cover better, Jeff, but the graphics are still way off. Were they trying to do Bugs Bunny in space type of stuff? That bird? And is that a space ship/UFO on the bottom? :) Questions, questions.

A google search turns up:

http://www.loansenseplus.com/industries/eating_places1.asp?spg=233
MOON ISLANDER RESTAURANT
U S HIGHWAY#1 SOUTH
TITUSVILLE FLORIDA, 32780 * SOUTHEAST BANK OF TITUSVILLE P O BOX B
TITUSVILLE FLA, 32780 * 04/27/1967

http://www.tikiroom.net/gallery/main.php?g2_view=comment.ShowAllComments&g2_itemId=293&g2_page=2

someone who may have been there:
http://forums.floridatoday.com/viewtopic.php?p=331283&sid=890fc659643a6fb2c8ba7c40a6451f24
Grovian
Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007
I miss the:
Sandpoint Inn
Moon Islander

Good fingerwalking research, thank you.
I wonder if the Moon Islander had decor like THIS:

:)

I may have to take a road trip over there. I use to spend a lot of time in the area.

It's very run down now but I do remember some cool architecture in the area.

Is there an address on the menu?

Flounder, good to hear from you, where've ya bin !? There is none in TRT ? Jeff actually has the menu, I just copied it from a book. Maybe you can find some ads in the local library in the yellow pages, or old newspapers.

I'm so crazy busy these days that I'm having trouble making time to do the things I love.

I'll try to get over there soon. Maybe I can get Kailuageoff to tag along.

Part of your menu was covered up Bigbro, but judging by Jeff Centrals cover GROG would say that the artist was using "implied line". By showing part of an object, the artist leaves the viewer to fill in the rest of the object in his/her imagination. So GROG quickly fill in GROG version to show what GROG beleieve the artist was implying with the art. GROG believe it's a full bodied wooden tiki with a headdress holding either a paddle or a war club with a woodpecker pecking into the wood of the tiki. But, that's just GROG's guess. All artwork is open to interpretation.

[ Edited by: GROG 2008-01-17 18:35 ]

Hmmm, very nice! Facial reconstruction and post-mortem illustration techniques might prove helpful in Tiki archeology! :)
I am quite certain though that the artist was inspired by abstract, modern, surrealist art like this Dali lamp:

I think back in the 60s "modern art" and "Space" were all associated with "weird", and that was the concept for the cover....a space alien Tiki portrait. A naive tribal Dali Tiki.

Kinda like this "mask" that you all know from the chapter index of Tiki Modern:

Hey Bigbro,

Where did you get that picture of me?

That's usually what I look like when listening to my turntable sewing machine. I believe I was listening to Nurse With Wound's "Steel Dream March of the Metal Men" when this snapshot was taken. :lol:

Nice artwork Grog!! That actually looks pretty good!!

Cheers and Mahalo you crazies!!! :wink:

Jeff

Maybe the guy was mixing cocktails with a shaker like mine and got inspired. This thing is from the 1950s- notice the bird and the flying saucer thingie

Now THAT is cool mid-century modern graphic design. The Moon Islander menu cover is an attempt at that, but a hilariously failed one. I doubt it was done by a professional artist.

I hate to tell you but Moon Islander is all but a memory.

It used to be at the end of my street across from Seartown Mall on US1 located right on the river.
It is now a very modern (new construction)duplexes.

My brother used to work there as a dishwasher in the 1970's and the family dined there on special occasions.
The decor had a more of an Oriental design, with a pagota style tile roof. My memory of it is scarce, I was only 10. But I remember it being kind of upsacle (for Titusville). It was somewhat dark throughout even though there were lots of windows facing the water.

I thought I would add that the owner, a little old oriental man was well known for walking up and down US1 with a golf club. I don't know which one, a putter, sandwedge, another mystery from the annals of Titusville.

But alas, she's been mowed over for progress.

[ Edited by: Moonman 2008-02-26 07:10 ]

I know exactly where you are talking about. They need to rip down the Seartown Mall as well. Total dump from what I remember. Isn't there an old Howard Johnson right there on the river as well. The kind with the high polynesian inspired peek and orange
roof.

Thanks for sharing Moon Man. First hand knowledge is the best, even if it is a bit dim from time.

I see that these posts asking about the Islander are years old, but in case anyone is still waiting... Moon Islander was a restaurant in Titusville in the 1970s. It had a polynesian type of flavor (from what I can remember,..I was just a kid). I can remember walking through and there being little bridges over a pond in the lobby area, and someone else told me that the water went through the whole restaurant. It hasn't been open in ...decades? The building that it was in is no longer there, although I'd have to ask around to find out why. If anyone wants more info, I can ask some people who would have better memory than my own.

Big Oops on my part..I apparently only read page 1, and didn't realize that Moonman had solved the Moon Islander mystery. Moonman,...you and I must have been in school together, but you had clearer memories than I did of the Islander. For Flounderart--amazingly now, the Searstown Mall has more than the Miracle City Mall does... not that either have much at all!

It still would be great if you could ask around in town if anybody has any memories, photos or other material from this unique place.

I'll see what I can find!

Adding to the recollections of Moonman and titusvillegirl70, my high school date (now my spouse) and I dined at the Moon Islander after my junior high school prom circa 1967. I recall drinking faux pina coladas (alas, too young to be served rum) from hollowed out pineapples and snacking from a pu pu platter.

The name of the old Asian gentleman who owned the restaurant, accurately described in appearance and habit by Moonman, was Moon Lueg, as I recall. SSDI records indicate that he was born in 1908 and passed in 1984.

In one of life's odd coincidences, our occasional pet sitter (a retired nurse) was a bar tender at the Moon Islander in her youth. She gave us a tiki lamp that originally adorned a table at the Moon Islander. I've included photos here. We'll have to do some spelunking through memorabilia to see if there's anything else to add.

[ Edited by: TikiTomD 2009-09-20 06:43 ]

Our pet sitter mentioned in the previous post, Carol, went deep diving into her closet and uncovered Moon Islander artifacts from her days as a waitress and bar tender there. One item was a post card showing exterior and interior scenes, as well as a description and street address, 3575 South Washington Avenue, Titusville, Florida.

If you look closely at the lower left post card photo, you may be able to see tiki table lamps like the photos on my prior post. Other unearthed Moon Islander artifacts include three small hula girl ceramic cups with "Import by Otagiri Co" and a seal "OMC Japan" on the base where OMC represents I believe Otagiri Mercantile Company, a larger dark brown hula girl ceramic bowl imprinted with "Orchids of Hawaii Japan" on the base, and a pineapple mug with a yellow and gold seal "OMC Japan" like the small hula girl cups.

Carol stated that the Moon Islander's owner, Moon Lueg, had a previous successful restaurant at Ft Pierce, Florida, but he closed it and moved to Titusville to start the Moon Islander after one of his daughters was struck in the head by a mirror on a passing truck and killed while walking in front of the Ft Pierce restaurant. She believes that this was in the early 1960s. Carol began working at the Moon Islander circa 1979; her daughter was already working there as a waitress. She stayed about five years, leaving in the early 1980s along with much of the existing staff a while after Moon Lueg sold the restaurant to a local realtor. The restaurant closed within a year or two after the sale. Moon Lueg built a home and moved back to Ft Pierce, where he passed away in 1984.

According to Carol, the elder Asian gentleman who frequently walked up and down along US Hwy 1 in Titusville lived above the restaurant and was a family friend or relative known as Uncle Louie; he had a special fondness for shoes and would buy and wear them even when they were many times too large. He more or less looked after the restaurant facility. The owner, Moon Lueg, lived with his wife about a block away at 231 Narvaez Street.

Among Carol's unearthed treasures was a spiral bound set of index cards containing the Moon Islander drink recipes and prices. I've attached several examples, including the "Islander Special" ($3.10), "Mystery" ($7.50 for two, $9.00 for three, $10.00 for four), "Tahitian Punch" ($3.10) and "Witch Doctor" ($3.25):

Welcome aboard TC TikiTomD. WOW!! you have struck Tiki Archeology gold with this little discovery. Just shows how a few questions can open up a treasure trove of info. That index with the recipes is very very cool. I would love to see some more of those posted. Great story and information. Thanks for sharing.

Uncle Trav, it is indeed a rare treasure to come across the actual drink recipes of a successful tiki bar, however original or classic they may be; I'll definitely share with you and the other tikiphiles of Tiki Central the balance of these as I have time to scan these in the weeks ahead.

Here's two more that I scanned this afternoon for the Moon Islander's Fog Cutter ($3.10) and Ko Ko K?? ($3.25):

Great to see all the recipes and how they differ from place to place. I look forward to seeing more and hearing more about the place. Thanks again for the scans. I'll be trying some of these out for the fun of it.

Thank you TikiTomD!

You've gone above and beyond in your research and posts. :)

From Carol, the former Moon Islander waitress and bar tender, comes the following anecdote: the Moon Islander's owner held strong beliefs regarding spirits and, in this context, I'm not referring to ethanol, the spirit of the drink. So when Uncle Louie, the elder Asian caretaker who lived above the restaurant, became seriously ill, the owner requested that he move out so that, in the event of his passing, bad fortune (death) would not become a resident at the Moon Islander. Carol stated that the owner was quite a nice person, so this was not reflective of a lack of compassion. Uncle Louie, sharing the same culture, no doubt understood perfectly.

Several posts ago, you saw a picture post card of the Moon Islander, allowing you to visualize what once was. Now, I'll share a digital photo of what is: a contemporary, upscale row of riverfront patio homes, previously described in words by Moonman.

Alas, there is no remaining classic Polynesian restaurant/bar in Titusville, Florida. We do have local motels and other establishments with "tiki bars", a local entrepreneur of the Neon Tiki Tribe (children's action hero products) and a semi-tropical setting with dreamy Indian River Lagoon vistas. You can also order Mai Tais at many of the local establishments, and they will serve you something that at least vaguely resembles a Mai Tai. The best of these in my experience is at Paul's Smokehouse, right on the lagoon about a block south of the old Moon Islander site. They serve a colorful, strong drink that, after several, will evoke an illusion of Bali Ha'i as you gaze across the water, though it's really just the VAB at Kennedy Space Center. But drink purists would blanch even at this Mai Tai, as it contains Grenadine.

Titusville is not without its tiki spirit. Where necessary, we just create our own tiki environs. Here's a portion of mine:

BTW, the tikis in the photo are creations of Ed Volonnino of Ed's Heads in Melbourne, Florida.

And it's great that, even in Titusville, we can travel a short distance to the Tiki Central Forum and connect with others of the tiki spirit around the globe.

Here's a few more of the actual Moon Islander drink recipes and prices from Carol's bar tender index cards, including the Mai Tai ($3.10), Papette Treasure ($2.50), Scorpion ($3.25), Zombie ($3.25) and Yellow Bird ($3.10):

great info on moon islander, thanks for posting the drink recipe's i thought i would show some of the mugs and bowls from inside the menu that the different drinks came in.

Lovely waterfall, and thank you for all the scans of the recipes and menu! I think that Chinese belief of keeping your home/business clean of spirits as told in the story is now known and popular as Feng Shui.

But Titusville is the home of the Neon Tiki Tribe!? That is a hard one to live down, they were (are?) pretty much the epitome of "Un-Tiki"! :)

nice work uncovering this gem! ko ko k? = KO KO Kiss.
thanks for sharing and scanning!

Amazed that you have menu pictures to match up with the drink recipes, pa'akiki! As sneakyjack points out, that decodes the "KoKo K??" recipe as "KoKo Kiss" and it also suggests that the "T&L" adjacent to the Scorpion recipe corresponds to "Thunder & Lightning." The prices seem a bit lower than Carol's cards, so the menu must have been from an earlier time.

I have no good answer to bigbrotiki's observations on the Neon Tiki Tribe, other than to admit it's true...

In the meantime, I have scanned some more Moon Islander drink recipes; it would be great if pa'akiki could corroborate with any matching menu items.

Here's the Moon Islander Pina Colada ($2.75), Planters Punch ($2.75), Polynesian Dream ($3.10/$3.60), Port Light ($3.10), Sunrise ($3.10) and Suffering Bastard ($3.10):

Here are some more drinks from the menu that match up to your recipies.

I do not have a match for yellow bird or pina colada/chee chee or planters punch. but the menu has the following, hawaiian frozen daiquiri, coffee grog and navy grog. the navy grog, mai tai and the tahitian punch look like the same photo was used.
I have also scanned an intro page from the menu that tells you about the entrance to the restaurant. sorry for some of the quality of the scans my scanner is old and this menu is oversized.

oops forgot one...

Man, isn't Tiki Central the greatest! I mean, no matter how esoteric and hidden a place may be, eventually photos, artifacts such as the lamp and the mugs, the cocktail menu illustrations -even WITH matching stained recipe book- all wash ashore here, all that together with personal background information that fleshes out the story of yet one more strange little Tiki island! :)

Here's the 1969 line up from Otagiri that shows some of the mugs used at the Moon Islander:

Very eloquent recap, bigbrotiki! I offer several postscripts.

Carol, the former Moon Islander bar tender, excavated more items from her closet, the last of her Moon Islander booty, she believes: tiki drink mugs with "Orchids of Hawaii Japan" imprinted on their base. The brown mugs were additionally imprinted with "R-74" and the green one with "R-5." These don't match up with any of those shown in pa'akiki's menu photos, but, as noted before, the prices suggest that the menu came from an earlier time than Carol's tenure, though it's also probable that there was an array of different mugs stocked at the bar, with continual turnover from breakage and souvenirs.

Many thanks for the additional menu scans, pa'akiki. Looking at those photos, long dead ingredients on age and drink stained recipe cards seem to reawaken to their past splendor as enchanting cocktails (or possibly I've sampled a wee dram too much). And that atmospheric aloha message at the front of the menu evokes flashbacks to some 42 years ago when my prom date and I had our initial rendezvous with the Moon Islander, now a distant memory fading like myself into tiki archaeology.

The Moon Islander drink recipe for the "Banana Frozen Daiquiri" ($2.95) aka "Hawaiian Frozen Daiquiri" and the "Singapore Sling" ($2.25):

And some less exotic drink recipes of what was evidently a full service bar: "Irish Coffee" ($4.00), "Spanish Coffee" ($4.00) & "Bloody Mary" ($1.65):

Here is a very cool matchbox that popped up on a ebay a while back. It went to one of the big spenders but I grabbed the images.

Looks quite a bit different than Grog's composite sketch.

DC

I'm awed by the more or less constant flow of new findings by TC's extraordinary urban archaeologists that include the likes of Bigbrotiki, Dustycajun, Sabu, Uncle Trav, Swanky and others. So it inspired me to engage in a bit of armchair Indiana Jones stuff on the Moon Islander.

In the archives of the local Florida Today newspaper, the following article appeared 40 years ago this month on March 23, 1971:

From the Nov 23, 1969 edition of the same newspaper, an ad appeared in the entertainment and dining section:

A bit earlier, on June 1, 1968, a classified ad sought Moon Islander waitresses (cocktail and otherwise):

[ Edited by: TikiTomD 2011-03-30 03:05 ]

Buried in the news archives of Florida Today was this gem of an article dated October 27, 1974 about Moon Lueg, the owner of the Moon Islander. It seems that the Moon Islander story is a tapestry with threads back to California and China, as well as to New York. I never had heard that there was a local 50-acre farm for growing fresh vegetables to be used at the restaurant and in a Long Island store…

For online readability, this article is sequenced in expanded sections below:

[ Edited by: TikiTomD 2011-03-31 05:01 ]

Here are additional Moon Islander ads in the entertainment, leisure and night life sections of Florida Today...

September 28, 1969

January 21, 1968

August 2, 1968

October 29, 1978

February 8, 1980

Re-opening after some remodeling
August 1, 1973

New Year's Eve Party
December 28, 1973

Closing for more remodeling
August 30, 1974

Re-opening after remodeling
October 6, 1974

Thank You Tom D for your continued research and contributions to this thread, adding depth and dimension to the story of the Moon Islander - even if it did not turn out to be as space age rocket Tiki as I hoped. :)

I wonder what those mysterious "Welcome signs" on the Tikis' faces were, which are mentioned in the menu text, and again in the 1971 article you just posted. Perhaps just an "Engrish" typo for "Welcome grins" which was copied verbatim in the article. :)

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2011-03-30 15:58 ]

Well, Sven, there are some space age intersections with the Moon Islander, though they be coincidental to the epoch and proximity of the Apollo launch complex. Consider the two Florida Today articles below...

July 15, 1969

July 11, 1975

After posting this, I realized the print in the second article was too small to read, so expanded sections are sequenced below. BTW, the acronym "ASTP" is "Apollo - Soyuz Test Project"... this was the last Apollo mission, the first joint US/Soviet space flight, and the last US manned space mission until the first Space Shuttle flight on April 12, 1981. The launch mentioned in the article actually occurred on the afternoon of July 15, 1975.

[ Edited by: TikiTomD 2011-03-31 05:31 ]

In the space program boom-and-bust cycles, local businesses had to attract customers in a variety of ways in order to survive the lulls between launches. Here is one such way that the Moon Islander approached it (all articles below are from Florida Today archives)...

September 23, 1969

Expressing the anticipation of more business with coming attractions...

April 30, 1968

When Walt Disney World first opened near Orlando on October 1, 1971, many businesses including the Moon Islander had high hopes that the Magic Kingdom would bring new customers, even to the coastal towns...

October 2, 1971

The Moon Islander was an attractive location for club meetings, and apparently enjoyed a steady business in that regard from its original opening; many of these clubs were associated with aerospace companies...

April 25, 1968

May 3, 1968

August 15, 1968

April 15, 1969

May 20, 1970

October 4, 1970

July 17, 1976

February 28, 1978

March 8, 1978 (note the reference to Wayne Coomb's Mai Tiki Gallery)

Trouble at Titusville’s tiki palace: it’s hard to imagine why Moon Islander management went to the mat over a $4.50 steak, as the negative publicity carried costs orders of magnitude higher...

Florida Today June 23, 1970

Didn't find a follow-up article on the outcome of this, but I'll bet it settled out of court.

I tried the Polynesian Dream last night. It was indeed dreamy.