Post #173869 by Riptide on Thu, Jul 21, 2005 9:20 PM

The Sperm Whale & The Whale Rider got me this mug last month when they were on Oahu. It really is a nicely detailed mug. I was surprised to have not heard about it prior to their trip here on TC or on the Tiki Farm site.

As to the Buffett connection- I know there are plenty of people here on TC that will dislike something purely because of the "Buffettization" of tiki. But for those people in particular, that is one reason why you should really want this mug. You see, Buffett actually sued the two ladies that own the "Cheeseburger" restaurants a few years back for copyright infringement.

Here is the "short" version as I know it:
Two ladies from Newport Beach go to Maui on vacation, find they are craving a cheeseburger but can't find a good one. Decide they will open "Cheeseburger in Paradise" on Front Street in Lahaina. It turns out to be a big success, they open another in Mexico, and one in Waikiki. These are all called "Cheeseburger in Paradise". They then decide they want to build one in their hometown of Newport Beach, which coincidentally, is the same time Buffett is considering building a restaurant in Orange County. He then sues them and tells them they must change the names at all of their restaurants. The ladies do not back down and decide to take it to court. This goes on for about a year when they finally settle the case. The settlement is that they can continue to use the name at all the restaurants that have already been opened. All new restaurants must be called something else. (Which is why there is "Cheeseburger at the Oasis" in Vegas, and the newer one on Maui is called "Cheeseburgers, Mai Tais, and Rock & Roll"). Meanwhile, Buffett sells the name to The Outback Corporation for $1 million and stock. They have already opened a few CBiP restaurants in the Midwest, with plans to open something like 70 more next year across the US.

So, in the end, these ladies stood up to the Buffett empire and won. (Was that really the short version?)

Also, this story may be totally inacurate in the timeline and what actually took place. This is just what I have been told on several occasions over several years of going to the CBiP in Lahaina.

So, all the Buffett-haters out there can now go out and buy a mug and get a great burger while in Hawaii or Vegas, and feel that you are doing your part to take that parrothead down a notch. Everyone else that never really cared one way or the other can also do whatever they were going to do in the first place, but I say Holden and everyone else at Tiki Farm should be proud of this signature mug that they produced.

[ Edited by: Riptide 2005-07-21 21:22 ]