Polynesian Restaurant's in La Crescenta, Ca

After looking in the Thomas Guide Link Paola's Outrigger is actually in Glendale on the city border with La Crescenta, just south of the 210 freeway. The Kona Kai Inn was a few blocks away, just north of the 210.

Maybe someone has an exterior or interior shot (Sabu.....Puamana......)

IS in Glendale or WAS in Glendale? Am I missing something? I certainly don't want to miss something.

Has to be WAS, because it is never mentioned as IS anywhere on TC.....

Hey guys - actually - I live here! I used to live in Montrose (right off Honolulu), Montrose is a small city nestled in between Glendale & La Crescenta. Honolulu runs sorta kinda parallel to the 210, becoming the Montrose Shopping Center (which has the nicest little "retro" small town Christmas Parade every year - it feels like something out of 'A Christmas Story').... But I digress...

If anyone would like me to swing by those addresses & take pics of whatever building may or may not still stand there, I'd be happy to...

O.K. So I went by these addresses today to see what's there.
Didn't have my camera, sorry.

3034 Foothill "The Kon Kai" is to the right of a big fenced in vacant lot which is in turn next to an Office Depot. HOWEVER...There are a couple of small closet sized buildings. A bakery and a liquor store, but right where 3034 probably was is a very small (fenced in again) building (about Tiki ti size...maybe goes back a little farther. To get to the front door you have to cross a sort of wood bridge. Nice entrance for a small a tiki bar. Other than that, no clues. The front door looks like a garage door, but may have been added later. Bunch of autos stored in the back. No one around there seemed to know anything, but said to come in the morning and talk with a sales person in the liquor store who had been around for years. Will do

2831 Honolulu (Link Paola's Outrigger) is a sort of mini mall now. That exact address is a hair and nail place. However, the main part of the building was a good sized Mexican restaraunt, now closed. I seem to remember it being open not too long ago. Nothing remarkable about the place except for the stairs leading to the restaraunt. They now are stucco and mexican tile, but have planters of palm trees on either side. Hmmm. The manager of the building has been there 8 years and knows nothing of it's history, but said he would put me in touch with the previous owner who may have some info.

Of course the fantasy is for the guy to tell me the basement is full of polynesian crap that he wants hauled away, but we'll see.

Hopefully someone will turn up pics of the places.

I should also mention that a cruise down that section of Foothill is interesting in that developers have only started ruining things in the last few years. There are still buildings that at one time must have been theme restaurants and a great old motel that looks like a set from a noir, not to mention other relics that are not so much in disrepair as just old and forgotten. Check out the bowling alley on Honnolulu not to mention Fayes womens shop.

With all that searching for lost tiki places, you missed the best part of montrose today...In the same lot as the Mexican restaurant lives my all time favorite place to eat..its called "yakis" the original teriaki bowl.. dont let the name give you any preconceived ideas... this place is great... they are known to have the best teriaki bowls around but the hidden items on the menu are completely original like the bulldogg which is a hot dog rapped in a spring role and deep fried, and you dip this in an sauce called froggy sauce which is there yaki sauce and thousand island dressing...then there is the yako,a hamburger with a chicken breast on top with the same froggy sauce..And then for desert you have the yakisiito which is a cinnamon custard wrapped in a spring role and deep fried, no dipping this one though...Its set up like a beach front greasy spoon...And to top it all of I think the owner has hawwian heritage..If you get a chance hit this place up its just good food..

spy-tiki wrote:
O.K. So I went by these addresses today to see what's there....Of course the fantasy is for the guy to tell me the basement is full of polynesian crap that he wants hauled away, but we'll see...

Wow thanks for "spy-tiki'ing" that for us! That fantasy you speak of won't become a reality unless you check these things out! If some long lost/forgotten treasure turns up, then it will be well deserved for your time taken to investigate the locations current status. Do let us know of any further developments.

Kirby, that food sounds interesting and I'd be up for trying it. The names they pick ("yaki","yako" & "froggy" sauce), must be an immediate turn-off for newcomers to the place, haha!

Thanks for checking it out spy-tiki!

Hmmm - Kirby, I thought Yaki's was in La Cresenta on Foothill... not Montrose! Am I confused?

Also Kirby - I think I've seen your paintings at the local Antique Store here in Sunland!

Tangaroa, the first yakis is in montrose a newer one is in lacresenta.. and yes I have some pieces up in that store...Kenny the owner is a great guy and he has a lot of cool vintage stuff...I take it your a fellow foothillian like me...I live in sunland..mabey we will cross paths sumtime...

Yep! Sunland it is (despite Virani not believing that is a real name for a city... where is he anyway?).... We should hook up sometime!

Very cool that you guys are checking this out.......I am a former resident of Sunland-Tujunga .......Apperson Street Elementry School.......aloha....

Cool thread! I guess I should check in too since I was a graduate from Crescenta Valley High School.

I grew up in Montrose, just down the block from Honolulu on Las Palmas. I went to Fremont Elementary (just 7 houses away) Rosemont Junior High and Crescenta Valley High. Good to see a fellow Falcon, Haka!

Been busy with other things, but still on the case...Got a nice surprise a few days ago. Bob from Oceanic Arts emailed me to tell me he had supplied 25 tiki table lamps for the Kona Kai back in the mid 60's.

I googled Vince Dundee (the proprieter) and came up with a Middleweight boxing champ back in the mid 30's. Timing could be right. Retired boxer in his 50's opens a tiki bar in small California town...

Any of you guys who who grew up here remember this place? I'll have some more time to investigate later this week.

O.K. I had some time to do some poking around and this is the latest.

Vince Dundee the boxer was indeed the owner of the Kona Kai Inn. The building is the red one that's still there, but apparently there was a fire once and the place is just used for storage now. Vince Dundee may still be with us and his family is still in the area so there's still a chance of an interview.

Link Paola was a custom car guy with a shop here in Glendale and was indeed the owner of the Outrigger. He is deceased now (maybe about 2 years ago) and the family does not seem to be in the area.

I have contacted the Crescenta Valley Historical society to see if there are any photos or what not.

One interesting thing that came up is that there may have been another polynesian restaraunt/bar in south Glendale (not Damon's) Somewhere on south Central or therabouts. I remember an old closed and delapidated building on San Fernando that had the right look. Does this jog anyone's memories?

“One interesting thing that came up is that there may have been another polynesian restaraunt/bar in south Glendale (not Damon's) Somewhere on south Central or therabouts. I remember an old closed and delapidated building on San Fernando that had the right look. Does this jog anyone's memories?”

It sounds like you found the old “Sea and Jungle” building, I used to live just around the corner (quite a while back) all that was left then was the building and a few giant clam shells. It was on the North side of San Fernando, right around that area as I recall.

My very best alohas,

Bosko

That's it! Know anything else about it? Was it a bar/restaraunt or just an interesting looking real estate office?

Sea and Jungle was a tropical outfitting shop, much like Oceanic Arts. There's a great picture of it in the BOT on page 234.

Haven't turned up much more, but I have been in contact with someone who had a brother who worked at one of the places.

This sign is in front of where the Kona Kai was. The actual building may be the one that's at this address or may have been on the left of it and burned down sometime ago.

Kind of sad, but this is all that's left. I'm not sure the sign was for the restaurant, but I have it on good authority that the lava rocks at the base are from the Kona Kai.

On 2005-12-20 10:40, spy-tiki wrote:
This sign is in front of where the Kona Kai was. The actual building may be the one that's at this address or may have been on the left of it and burned down sometime ago.

Spy-tiki,

I lived just down the street in Montrose from 1998 - 2002, and I remember this sign having something on it (I think a BBQ joint?) - but nothing Polynesian.... I recall a building being there as well, but that's about it! Sorry I didn't take a pic...
Have you though about contating the Crescenta Valley Historical Society?

http://home.pacbell.net/wcweiss/HSCV/history.htm

I'd bet they might have something....

Yeah, that's actually where I got some of the info. Hopefully the guy that worked there will have some more info. I don't think the sign was for the Kona Kai, but the rocks at the bottom were from it. Just sad that that's all that's left.

On 2005-12-20 11:51, spy-tiki wrote:
Yeah, that's actually where I got some of the info.

Duh! That'll teach me not to read the rest of the thread!

On 2005-09-06 21:57, kirby wrote:
With all that searching for lost tiki places, you missed the best part of montrose today...In the same lot as the Mexican restaurant lives my all time favorite place to eat..its called "yakis" the original teriaki bowl.. dont let the name give you any preconceived ideas... this place is great... they are known to have the best teriaki bowls around but the hidden items on the menu are completely original like the bulldogg which is a hot dog rapped in a spring role and deep fried, and you dip this in an sauce called froggy sauce which is there yaki sauce and thousand island dressing...then there is the yako,a hamburger with a chicken breast on top with the same froggy sauce..And then for desert you have the yakisiito which is a cinnamon custard wrapped in a spring role and deep fried, no dipping this one though...Its set up like a beach front greasy spoon...And to top it all of I think the owner has hawwian heritage..If you get a chance hit this place up its just good food..

I love YAKI's ... When I lived in Rancho Glendale, there was one there as well. Now I live in Sunland, about 10 minutes away. The Aloha Bowl is my meal of choice there. I only wish they had TIKI decor to go along with it all...it would really ice the cake.

I live in La Crescenta and didn't realize there was such a cool place here at one point. I saw a great article in the local community facebook about this place.

http://www.crescentavalleyweekly.com/viewpoints/06/25/2015/treasures-valley-mike-lawler-83/

Great picture too of it back in the glory days

So cool! I've lived in the area since 1986 and had no idea!
Wish we had a place like those now!

from my post back in 2005: "right where 3034 probably was is a very small (fenced in again) building (about Tiki ti size...maybe goes back a little farther. To get to the front door you have to cross a sort of wood bridge. Nice entrance for a small a tiki bar."

Fantastic to see an actual photo... with the bridge! nice work Carolinacoconuts! And the area is STILL fenced in and undeveloped although I think even more of it has been demolished since 2005.