Post #250550 by PremEx on Thu, Aug 24, 2006 1:57 PM

(Arriving late to this thread as I just found it during a Don The Beachcomber's Search)

Posted: 2003-04-22 16:53

I remember being at a place that I think was called Davy Jone's Locker in Honolulu when I was a kid. I remember being on the second floor eating lunch and that the floor was covered in peanut shells(which I thought was pretty cool). Am I remembering the name of the place correctly, anyone? Does this vague description sound about right.

There was another "Davy Jones" in Waikiki that was mainly a rib joint. But if you were in the infamous "Davy Jones Locker"...I think you'd remember it for another reason.

Davy Jones Locker was underground at the main pool of the Outrigger Reef Hotel. It was famous (and infamous) for having one of those great 60's huge windows behind the bar looking in at all the swimmers as if they were in a giant aquarium. Like a lot of those old Florida Coco Beach hotel/bars had in the early NASA Mercury days. :)

Long gone to the public (I believe it closed in the mid '80s), but it's still down there beneath the small poolside "Chief's Hut" restaurant/bar. Sadly, the window has been long ago plastered over on the pool side. I had a nice Security Manager take me down there for an "old times sake" nostalgic visit. Some of the bar stuff is still down there collecting dust, and it's just used as a storage room now with boxes and equipment piled everywhere. The Security Manager and I swapped some great stories of our "adventures" down there in it's hey-day. I bet if someone put the window back, and reopened it as a new-age-retro bar, it would be a huge hit with the younger crowd.

Here's a couple of postcard shots of it:

As you can sorta tell...it was not so much of a "Tiki" place as it was a general "Nautical" place...although they did have a few Tikis. Mainly glass balls and fishing nets and dive equipment and that sort of thing.

Swimming girls (and I'm sure a few guys) were always exposing themselves to the bar patrons (voluntarily and sometimes involuntarily with an "assist" from a friend), which may have lead to it's eventual closure in the later "PC" years.

A shore leave excerpt from a Submariner's diary (USS Tunny), that pretty much sums up one of the attractions of this once famous, but still infamous bar:

Briefly, the story about pig is that he got some gal naked and took her in the swimming pool at the chief's hut bar. The side of the pool that he backed her up against was glass...In the bar downstairs (Davy Jones Locker) the back of the bar was a glass looking into the swimming pool...need I say more...

:wink:

Regarding the Waikikian and it's Tahitian Lanai Restaurant...both were favorites of mine in the 60's and 70's, and we stayed there and dined there often. That was such a great place. True Hawaiiana at it's best! :) I was there during it's last days when the staff was still holding out hope that it would be kept open. They taped a Miss Hawaiian Tropics contest there that year, and somewhere I've got it on VHS tape. It has some great video shots of the hotel and restaurant on it (not to mention the ladies!). Hope I come across it someday.

A lot of the Tahitian Lanai "regulars" relocted to the La Mariana Sailing Club after TL closed. It was another really great Tiki Bar:

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2001/Jul/16/il/il01a.html

Don't know if it's still in business or not. Last time I drank there was in 2003, I think.

Here's a web site that's been around for a long time on the Waikikian and Tahitian Lanai:

http://members.tripod.com/gregg-n/waikikian_tiki_gardens.htm

Miss all those old haunts of mine. :(

[ Edited by: PremEx 2006-08-24 14:00 ]