Post #29264 by donhonyc on Thu, Apr 3, 2003 11:35 PM

Wow Sabina! Thanks for posting the card and the enlargements. That place looked seriously ass-kicking!! Too bad it's gone. Shee-it!! New York City could use a high caliber tiki joint like that right about now.

I was just actually just talking about Hawaii Kai today with a biz-associate of mine who is a native Manhattanite . I had brought up mixing drinks from Grog Log & Intoxica and various other Tiki obsessions and she mentioned the Hawaii Kai and how cool it was and that she remembers it closing in the early 70s. I was also just eyeing some cool Hawaii kai items on Ebay.

Hmmm. 50th and Broadway. I think there's a giant office building there now. Not sure which corner Hawaii Kai was on but I'll check the address that is shown on your postcard and go up there and see what it is now. I'll get a photo of whatever the lame building is there now and post it. I do know that the famous club The Latin Quarter was in that 50th and Broadway area at one time as well as the Brill Building better known as 'Tin Pan Alley' where alot of the early 60s pop hits by Neil Sedaka, Carol King, and Neil Diamond were written. Currently the Brill Building houses alot of feature film post-production offices. The last time I was in there (about 10 years ago) I saw Martin Scorcese (probably my favorite American film director) coming out of the men's room. I think he was there editing 'Cape Fear' at the time. Damn that guy is shorter than I had thought.

Jeez...I'll betcha Scorcese went to Hawaii Kai once or twice being a native Manhattanite himself. Perhaps he, DeNiro, and Harvey Keitel went there and had production meetings for "Mean Streets" over a couple of Mai-Tais and Zombies. Do ya think?............Nah.....

Okay...going off on a non-tiki tangent here. Thanks again for posting the HK stuff. If you come across anymore, let me know!!!

Mahalo! :drink:

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2003-04-03 23:44 ]