Post #16463 by tikifish on Sun, Dec 15, 2002 6:30 PM

Here's the relevant part of the article. Very interesting!

Chin Tiki 2121 Cass, Detroit

Twenty years ago, Marvin Chin turned the key at his Polynesian-themed Chin Tiki restaurant and lounge and hasn't reopened since. The building, a couple of blocks behind the Fox Theatre, is a Detroit time capsule. Meal orders still hang in the kitchen and opened bottles of liquor sit behind the bar. So when the script called for Jimmy and his friends to go to a Chinese restaurant late one night, Chin Tiki was the spot filmed both inside and out. "They used my upstairs banquet room," says Chin. "They moved the 5-foot tikis, anything of an art nature up there."

For local rigging electrician Spike Simms, lighting the place proved a challenge because electrical wires had to snake through crumbling vents and ceilings. Chin, who first opened Chin Tiki in 1967 and still plans to reopen someday, says he was paid $20,000 for the use of the building over two weeks. Now he is seeking additional money because stainless steel kitchen fixtures disappeared from his alley. "Anything removed from the building was supposed to be stored in a trailer," Chin contends, "but then the guard said someone from the city hauled it all away."