Post #106612 by Sabina on Fri, Aug 6, 2004 2:10 AM

Well, I can't tell you much, coming on the scene late and all, but what little I can tell you about my experience- Kahiki, from the 70's until well, I don't know if today counts or not- hmmmmm.

I can't put my finger on my first Kahiki experience, but it would have been early 70's, perhaps 74- 75? (I would have been well under 10 years old, if that gives one any idea.)

Kahiki was a place you only went for special occations. It was expensive and a very upscale establishment. It may also have been one of my first encounters with valet parking- which left a real impression. From the moment you were helped out of the car you were treated like royalty- and kids were given special treatment!

I remember being small and everything being big, dark, and mysterious. There were so many sounds, smells, and colors- from the tropical fish tanks to the parrots on the rainforest side. Drinks like the smoking eruption wafted dry ice 'smoke' across the table while the flame from a puupuu platter flickered. (Parents of course had to help with food involving fire- but it was like a mini campfire at your table!)

Mugs, the swizzle sticks, backscratchers, etc were just part of the meal. And if we, even as kids, got the non-alcoholic drinks they still came in a coconut, a headhunter mug, or a skull mug. The way you got mugs or swizzles, or even plastic leis (since we were kids) was by having a meal there and taking the souvenirs home.

But better yet, Kahiki was a restaurant with a gift shop! At some point after the meal, on the way out we would always plead with Mom and Dad for a few moments to find cheap plastic goodies, flower hair clips for my hair, a t-shirt, shell hanging planters, small statues, or coloring books of hula girls. Much of what was in the gift shop was cheap and gaudy and rejected by parents with too much good taste.

Over the years though, things changed. Valet parking disappeared. The gardens were no longer so well kept in summer. There would be fountains with hesitant or even failed water jets. The birds in the rainforest seemed fewer and fewer. The thunder and lightning soundtrack and lights flashing seemed to get out sync, and some of the rain jets on the rainforest windows seemed clogged. Little things were falling though the cracks. The mugs were no longer the sharp crisp casts. The merchandise in the gift shop seemed- at least to my now older eyes- less neat- more jewelry (which they had always had) and less Kahiki specific merchandise of intrest.

The restaurant seemed no longer as crowded and 'hopping', tables replaced areas where there had once been musicians, it no longer seemed quite as 'fashionable'- as see and be seen. Steel drum band brunches seemed to have replaced some of the music I remembered.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that some of the details seemed to be slipping. Maybe I was just older, but it no longer seemed quite as 'classy' a joint. Still expensive and amazing, don't get me wrong! But somehow it felt less cared for in some of the details.

The large staff seemed to have shrunk down to just a few people by a weeknight at the near end (after the impending demise had been announced.)

I did not love or appreciate with wonder the Kahiki one bit less! It still held every bit of magick for me- but now felt quieter, less populated, and less focused on every little detail to perfection.

I like it both ways, the Kahiki of my childhood where ever detail was attended to almost before you could so much as think a desire, and the later, more awed, hushed toned, regulars holding on to every minute possible there, with all it's imperfections.

But objects? What tiny bits we had, being land locked cental Ohioans, were what many cental Ohio households had, a shelf with several mugs from our various trips to Kahiki and a drawer with a few swizzles. Not as everyday objects, but as souvenirs of fond Kahiki memories.

Years later, my parents gave the mugs to my brother when he left for college. They went into a box and were for the most part forgotten until he moved into his first house. By then the Kahiki was preparing to close, so he held onto them.

Around that time, I stumbled into Tiki Central and began babbling feverishly about Tikis... Kahiki...there are other people also obsessed!... I'm building a bar in my basement...so some time later still, out of nowhere, my little Bro passed all remaining mugs from our childhood on to me- as he thinks that's where they belong. Now they're not just amusing clutter with fond memories, they're part of the great 'how I got here'. But the important thing about them is that in all those years, no one in my family got rid of them.

[ Edited by: Sabina on 2004-08-06 02:19 ]