Post #434573 by Sabina on Mon, Feb 16, 2009 12:29 PM

Be forewarned, this may be about my longest post ever, and very picture intensive, but you've hit on one of my favourite topics. Dioramas, particularly those that change night to day, or have elements such as the thunderstorms that would "rain" alongside your table in places such as the Kahiki are an absolute inspiration to me.

Murals also add that extra special touch that make a place really sing. I love seeing them across the room, or peeking out from behind tiki poles, as you'll see below in my picture from Sam's. I also love what lightboxes can do when worked into a space with care, as you'll see in my pictures from the Honolulu, it's a very different style from say the lightboxes at Chan's Dragon Inn in New Jersey or the Bali Hai in Massachusetts.

As my home bar is named for the lounge that was once part of the Hawaii Kai, we'll start there-

These treasures are pulled from an oversized postcard we scanned and enlarged from the Hawaii Kai in New York City (you can find the original here-http://www.sevenpleasures.org/gallery/Hawaii-Kai) the descriptions are from the back of the card. Somewhere, perhaps in the cookbook, I have a written description of the diorama behind the bar but it's not at my fingertips at the moment.

"The Waikiki Outdoor Waterfalls: Overflowing with the exotic flowers of the Islands"

Note the diorama enticing foot traffic in off the street.

And the lovely diorama behind the bar, making a pleasant place to sit and "look out the window" while sipping a cocktail.

(Is it just me or is there a mannequin's torso hanging strangely above the bartender?)

"The Okole Maluna Bar with Diamond Head diorama: Scenes from Dawn to Dusk in realistically colorful settings"

Here's a sadly inadequate picture of the mural from Cheng's Pacific Restaurant that closed recently in Virginia:

A few treasures that were preserved despite repainting in the Men's washroom at the Waldorf hotel in Vancouver:

and

they provide quite the contrast to to more upscale murals in the other rooms of the Waldorf. Others have been already been covered in the thread, but I wanted to pull these two photos of the Savage mural from the Polynesian room for you:

Also note the "fishtank" dioramas built into the wall:

Blacklight lovelies from the Alibi in Portland, Oregon:

Foreground fading into murals at the former Sam's Seafood in Huntington Beach, CA (Now Kona):

and Sam's murals

and note the Tiki

From Sam's bar, look to the back wall

going directly to the back

Glimpses into the Royal Hawaiian's former indoor/outdoor glassed in spaces in Laguna Beach, CA, such as at the back of the room here-

or here-

or here-

Lightbox murals from the now gone Honolulu in Virgina, created by the Chan's daughter-

and the full effect, looking from one end of the restaurant towards the other, with another lightbox mural at the far end glowing softly behind the decor-

Mural from the outside of Vera's White Sands near Lusby, Maryland (now Vera's beach club)

with the artist's signature-

The mural survives, but clearly with the shift to "beach club" certain things have shall we say "changed"

if you think that's Tiki-gone-awry, the new murals inside are even more confusing

none the less many artifacts from Vera's day survive, but I digress... .

(We now return you to your regularly scheduled content.)

Here's a small tucked away Tiki mural painted on a door from the Islander that was once in Seattle, Washington

Check in at the Hawaiian Inn Daytona Beach, Florida-

Outrigger mural in the lobby

close up, note how the doorway to the elevators becomes a thatch hut

And finally just another of the many murals around the property, Wahine's bidding you Aloha!