Post #306570 by PremEx on Tue, May 15, 2007 6:08 PM

Here's my review with some photos from a visit last night, that I lifted/edited parts of, that I posted in another thread. There are goods and bads about the place. Generally was disappointed overall.

IMHO, it looks just like the old Circa 55 "W Hotel"ish lounge (that I had drinks at on several occasions) with a light tropical/tiki overlay.

To me...except for one or two very small sections of the indoor portion...it was very sterile. But especially outside. Pretty much your standard upscale hotel patio furniture and some space heaters. Inside there were a handful of thinly scattered artifacts (a mix of newly acquired and from the old Trader Vics), a few booths and wall panels from Vic's...and the rest still had the old Circa 55 "new-age" look to it, IMHO.

Here's a view of the inside portion:

Here's the main row of booths:

I was told the far carving on the left is from the old Traders...the other 3 (only 2 shown above) are newly acquired.

Here's looking the other direction at the rest of the booths. All 3 in this shot are the newly acquired pieces:

This one booth sort of sits apart from the others, and has some of the wall paneling from Vic's behind it:

A view of the bar from where first I sat, looking out to the patio:

And another shot of the bar. In the foreground is Alfie (a talented bartender from the original Trader Vic's) working his magic:

A shot of the indoor tables, and the few token tidbits hanging from the ceiling:

Now on to the totally generic outdoor patio of Trader Vic's Lounge:

And another view:

Snore.

As evening comes...darkness, some lighting, good company, and brain function impairment :) ...might help hide some of the flaws and shortcomings of the whole set-up. YMMV.

Best place to be for any tiki/Traders vibe there might be...is indoors, IMHO. Outdoors is just the same old Beverly Hilton pool lounge, as nice as that might be. Except for the drinks if made by one of the talented bartenders from the old Trader Vic's. Which transitions my review from the physical place itself...to the staff, bar, service, and food.

I have to be very delicate here...as I know some might read these boards and think that some of the staff may have talked to me and pushed their opinions or agendas upon me. Let me state that I deliberately didn't chit-chat with any of them. I wanted to review and report my experiences from strictly how I observed them. And observe them I did.

In my hour and a half at the bar...I (and another total stranger sitting near me) noticed a distinct attitude on behalf of some of the newer younger TVL staff...towards the older Trader Vic's staff. I don't know what's going on...perhaps the younger ones are senior because they worked at the bar when it was Circa 55, and could even be a union thing. But there was noticeable looking down the nose and rolling of the eyes on the part of some of the newer staff, when they interacted with the older. The older ones were sooooo going out of their way to please both customers and their fellow workers, that I wanted to lean over the bar and tell Mr. HandsomeBartender/Lead, "These guys are ARTISTS buddy. YOU should pay attention to how THEY work! At least show them some respect!" :(

It probably didn't help that almost every time Mr. HandsomeBartender/Lead asked someone if he could help them, that the usual response was, "I'd like to wait for Alfie." So, so, so, many of the customers knew the old timers and wanted their services. So I can kinda see why Mr. HandsomeBartender/Lead would be frustrated. To the point that for much of the night, it looked like some of these talented older artists were assigned support duties like fetching ice and supplies, to where it became rather difficult to catch them when they could work their magic. At no time did these older workers complain or show the slightest body language that they were anything less than pleased to do whatever was asked of them.

And magic the old timers did work! Fantastic drinks and a pleasure to watch them create them. From these talented artists...the drinks are worth the price. :)

I ordered a spare-rib pupu, and it was excellent and very much like those from the old Chinese ovens. No disappointment there either.

Service was excellent all around. Judy the Assistant Manager was warm and friendly. Eve noticed my Reyn Spooner Trader Vic's shirt, and commented "I know that shirt!." I've never seen so many black suited hotel executives and management hover around a place in my life. Some stayed constantly. Others came in an out...new faces all the time. These "suits" outnumbered the customers! And that's not to mention the emotionless Security dudes all over the place. I swear this one guy must have been wearing Depends! He didn't move from his post one time in the 5 hours I was there! :)

But of course the real reason I stayed 5 hours and dropped over a C Note into the hotel and Trader's coffers...was the company. Good company can lead to a great time at even the most mundane of places. I'm not saying Trader Vic's Lounge was mundane. It was a very nice hotel and pool bar. But the company I met that night is really what made me enjoy myself and stay much longer than I normally would in such a place.

:)

So that's my review. Great drinks IF you get the right guys. So-so to downright dull on the decor inside from a tiki point-of-view. Virtually no change from Circa 55 Lounge on the outside. Unless you count the nighttime surf video being projected on one wall and the glow from the Trader Vic's Lounge neon sign. Expensive. Like...really expensive. From some previous reports I read here...I was expecting it to be better than I actually found it. IMHO...it was not.

But to those that never knew or could appreciate what the old Trader Vic's was...they'll probably never know the difference and/or will likely think this "Trader Vic's Lounge" is the best or even better than the original at the Beverly Hilton.

There is much room for improvement on the tiki/poly front, IMHO. I hope they do. If you dig that sort of upscale Hollywood poolside thing and look at it from that point of view alone...it's a good spot suck down a few. But from a tiki and traditional Trader Vic's decor point-of-view...it still as a ways to go. IMHO.

Also hope some of the staff work out whatever friction some of them seem to be experiencing. Or at least take it "backstage" to where the average customer doesn't pick up upon it.

:)

For reference outside this forum...some other reviews and photos can be found in this thread in the General Tiki forum:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=23970&forum=1

[ Edited by: PremEx 2007-05-15 18:31 ]