Post #303849 by Kon-Tiki Viking on Thu, May 3, 2007 4:32 PM

Read most of the entries on this topic but I still don't know if the old Trader Vic's bar crew will be mixing at this new poolside bar - if they're not and all you get is the usual bland , sugarery "tropical" cocktails that most bars do then what's the point of going ?
In the end though, it's sad that, like most developers, the new owners of the Beverly Hilton have no idea whatsoever of the cultural importance of the building's they destroy. Trader Vic's had only a small footprint on the overall Hilton layout and it wouldn't have required much imagination to have incorporated TV's into the new development but property developers aren't exactly known for their imagination I guess (just look at some of the eyesore malls thrown up all across Southern California in the last twenty years.)
And picking up on another point made earlier on the thread, I don't think the new owners' nationality has anything to do with their destroying of an American cultural landmark. Back in the UK there was the great Beachcomber Bar at the Mayfair Hotel (possibly one of the greatest Tiki bars in Western Europe) which was gutted by it's UK owners in the mid-1980s to make way for a bland conference centre. Property developers and corporations worldwide don't really give a damn about "cultural landmark's" or popular culture in general.