South Pacific, Arlington, VA (restaurant)

Name:South Pacific
Type:restaurant
Street:4200 Wilson Boulevard
City:Arlington
State:VA
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct

Description:
I have the matchbook from the South Pacific Restaurant located in Arlington, Virginia. Turns out that this is the South Pacific that the mysterious SP Hula Girl mug came from - and not the more famous South Pacific in Hallendale, Florida. The mug is shown on Page 88 of Tiki Quest and was recently posted by Johnny Dollar who is going to add it to this post as well.

Now here is a cool little twist I learned today. There was ANOTHER South Pacific Restaurant located in Silver Springs, Maryland. I just lost out on this matchbook on ebay today. Given that Johnny Dollar's Tiki goods are coming from the Maryland area, I am guessing that this is where his mug is from.

DC

as mentioned in the South Pacific thread for Hallandale, Florida, this location in arlington is now called the Ballston Common Mall, but originally when built in 1951 it was called the Parkington Shopping Center: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballston_Common_Mall

so maybe there was a chain with on located in Silver Spring, maryland as well? wow, guess everyone and their mother was opening tiki joints back then...

anyways, here is the mug for the South Pacific - be it from arlington, va, or silver spring, md.

a friend of mine received a boxful of these mugs from SP along with equal amounts of Luau Hut mugs, from a polynesian performer who performed at least along the east coast. my friend gave me this one.

Just noticed that this matchbook from the Fiji Island Restaurant is a dead ringer for the South Pacific Matchbook.

TTT

DC

i wonder if:

On 2004-10-05 15:12, WillTiki wrote:

The "sister" restaurant in Charlottesville is the place I first remember seeing anything Tiki. I was born in Charlottesville, but we moved away when I was 2. When we would return to visit relatives, we almost always went to this place for Chinese food since it was such a treat then. You see, we lived on the "Eastern Shore" (Delaware+ Maryland+ Virignia = DelMarVa) which at the time had only your basic local seafood and steak restaurants. I was fascinated by the decor, the drink mugs etc.

The waiters here did not seem to even know that ID should be checked let alone do so.
We had an absolute blast and went back for repeat performances throughout college even though beer reigned supreme otherwise during those years.

was called "south pacific" as well? if so that would suggest that "south pacific" was a chain specific to virginia. on the other hand, with the arlington and roanoke locations being named south pacific and fiji island respectively, the charlottesville location could have been called something different but as above, used the same matchbook / menu graphics...

too bad willtiki has kind of disappeared... he might have remembered...

Now here is a cool little twist I learned today. There was ANOTHER South Pacific Restaurant located in Silver Springs, Maryland. I just lost out on this matchbook on ebay today. Given that Johnny Dollar's Tiki goods are coming from the Maryland area, I am guessing that this is where his mug is from.

does that say 901 thayer avenue, silver spring, maryland? if so, at that location there isn't any existing building that looks like a suitable location to me.

Picked up a different matchbook type from the South Pacific in Arlington. Another one of the gold foil types that is hard to scan.

DC

nice! i love the SP logo...