Post #305160 by Humuhumu on Wed, May 9, 2007 1:01 PM

Name:The Breakers (or, Lenny's The Breakers)
Type:restaurant
Street:7728 Rt 14
City:Crystal Lake
State:IL
Zip:60012
country:USA
Phone:(815) 459-9860
Status:operational

Description:
Chinese restaurant, serves tropical drinks in tiki mugs. Was tiki at one point... maybe still?

I keep an eye out for tiki pictures on Flickr, and today these two pictures came up:

:up: From Future Pandemic's photo stream, labelled "Trés Tiki...er...& American...& Chinese..."

:up: Another from Future Pandemic, labelled "Cocktails at the Breakers" -- left is a Polynesian Chi Chi, right is a Mai Tai

My interest, it is piqued! The only thing tiki in these pictures is the new Tiki Farm mugs, but that sign is neat -- it does look like it could be a cool old place, even if not really tiki. Curious where this place could be, I set to Googling, and discovered it is in Crystal Lake, Illinois. Found this postcard on eBay:

Ding ding ding! It was at least mildly tikified at some point -- check out those smilin' Tiki Bob-esque tikis out front. It's not the snazziest tiki place, sure, but it looks neat enough. From the background on that cocktails picture above, it looks like at least some of the wall coverings might still be in place (check out that cool Chinese cabinet, too). And they're serving a Mai Tai and a Chi Chi -- can't help but wonder if at one point they had a bartender who had been part of the Don the Beachcomber fold...

Crystal Lake is at the northwest edge of the outer Chicago suburbs... has anyone been to this place?