Post #286400 by Kenike on Sun, Feb 18, 2007 10:10 AM

From todays Dallas Morning News:

**Full-tilt tiki

The tiki gods are demanding just a few more days of construction and a little more paperwork before the old-new Trader Vic's opens at the Hotel Palomar on Mockingbird. Right now the owners are looking to open to the public on Feb. 27.

But every day, things are looking more tiki-fied.

Last week, the backlit Trader Vic's sign, in the faux Polynesian Trader Vic's font, went up on the side of Hotel Palomar above the recently installed big tiki statue.

Eve Bergeron, granddaughter of Victor "Trader Vic" Bergeron, has been in Dallas helping to train the staff.

Grandfather Victor opened his first restaurant in 1932 across the street from his parent's Oakland, Calif., grocery store. He named it Hinky Dink's. And even after he changed the name to Trader Vic's, old-timers like San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen referred to themselves proudly as the "loyal sons of Hinky Dink."**