Post #375796 by tobunga on Wed, Apr 23, 2008 8:46 PM

I would like to join the chorus of MAHALOs to Tikicleen for this excellent bit of research!

I grew up in Stockton, and remember seeing the Islander as a wee tyke from the back seat of the family car. I never went to the restaurant myself, but I distinctly remember being afraid of the big tiki mask sign out front. This was probably due to the fact that my older cousin told me that it was a cannibal island restaurant, and they served human flesh there. Too bad I was such an impressionable youth, I would have loved to have memories of the inside of such an historic site! (But then, I used to be afraid of the Mobil Oil Pegasus as well... I thought it was a giant horse fly, and a bug that big was frightening to me.)

I was actually quite flabbergasted to find out that one of the locations mentioned is literally around the corner from the house where I grew up (and my parents still live). The Minnies at 140 Harding Way I always knew as Gong Lee's. I was in Stockton this week, took a stroll up the block to Gong's, as it is now called, and snapped a pic.

puamana~ yes! definitely take a picture of that minnie's menu and post it on here. too bad there isnt a date....i never could get a firm answer as to when gong lee took it over.

The sign says "Established in 1957" hopefully this is at all helpful!

I've just been bitten by the tiki-bug, so I'm relativley new to this whole world, but I can feel myself becoming obsessed with the Islander!

Thanks again!