Black Pearl, St. Petersburg, FL (restaurant) - Locating Tiki

M Mo-Eye Member Taboo Island, USA Joined: May 17, 2006 Posts: 646	M Mo-Eye Posted posted on Sat, Apr 25, 2009 1:23 PM It gets even better, here is a large article about the couple that designed the place, from the May 9, 1959 St. Petersburg Times: Their Business is Polynesian Culture Hungry, you say? Here's just the meal for you: lomi lomi kamano (cooked over an imu) accompanied by kaona and uwala, and washed down with a coconut shell ful of hua inu. For desert there's a choice - haupia or mai a. Taneo Kumalae can whip up this Hawaiian feast faster than you can say Oahu. And while she does she'll explain what it is: massaged salmon cooked over an underground pit oven, corn on the cob, sweet potato, fruit punch and coconut pudding or baked banana. Taneo and her husband Kali, both half-blooded Hawaiians, have made a business of food, crafts, customs and dances of other lands, particularly those of Polynesia and the Middle East. TV Shows Rather, several businesses, Mornings over Miami's television channel 10 Taneo discusses American and international homemaking arts; Tuesday afternoons Kali joins her in a TV show of Polynesian dancing; and once a month they produce a TV "Festival of the Month" combining food, arts and music of a specific culture or nation. Recent shows have dealt with Hungary, the American Indian, Polynesia and Mexico. Amazingly, they also find time to run a private catering service, outfit and train a dance troupe of eight, and supervise costuming, food, decor and entertainment for restaurants and night clubs. the restaurant they're overseeing now is the Black Pearl, scheduled to open about May 30 at the site of the former Reef Restaurant, Treasure Island. Operator will be Vincent Auletta, ex-manager of the Colonial Inn's Plantation Room. Besides decorating and planning menus, the Kumalaes are teaching Black Pearl waitresses to make their own flower leis. "I can dance, sing and cook in 13 languages, and speak middling well in seven," Taneo said. "The Black Pearl will be Polynesian, of course, but there'll be food from the East Indies also. I look after the food and entertainment; Kali's been making black light paintings and carving statues of island gods. "See that dried blowfish and those conch shells? They're going to be lamps." Another recent Kumalae effort was the Ivory Tower atop Miami Beach's Saxony Hotel. A newspaper describes it thus: "A bevy of harem clad beauties to serve you exotic liquor concoctions, wondrous coffees, gourmet delicacies as you dance barefoot on our plush oriental carpet... glide heavenward in our Crystal Ball, the remarkable outside elevator..." Hawaiian Wedding Taneo and Kali were married last year by a kahuna (high priest) in a traditional Hawaiian wedding, believed to be the first held in the United States - excluding, of course, Hawaii itself. "I use to live in Palm Springs, Calif." Taneo said. "Then I visited Miami. One day I was walking down the beach, when suddenly this fish net engulfed me. That's how I met Kali." Both Kumalaes were born into their profession, although neither was born in Hawaii. Taneo's birthplace was New York. "My mother was a singer," she said, "so I learned to sing and dance very early - most Hawaiian girls do." "I've been dancing professionally, in fact, since I was 14. When I was 17 I started lecturing for Pearl Buck's East and West Association. She saw me perform at the Ethnological Dance center in New York, and since she didn't have a Polynesian lecturer, she asked me to join her group." As for Kali, he was born in Montana. His father sold ukuleles throughout the South Pacific and America, and is now, Kali says, the oldest pureblood Hawaiian living in the continental United States. Kali's grandfather was in the last Hawaiian king's Cabinet. Singing Prodigy As a child Kali was a singing prodigy and traveled across the country with a Hawaiian troupe. He can play all percussion instruments, bass, guitar and, naturally, ukulele. "No, we don't travel to pick up background on other cultures," Taneo said. "We've learned most of what we know from artists of other lands who come to this country." "However, we're going to move to Hawaii Permanently one of these days. We're happy about statehood, of course. We feel Hawaii's culture will remain the same regardless of politics and that all changes will be for the better - roads, utilities, things like that." "First though, we'd like to visit South America. We're amateur archeologists too, you see. I guess you might say neither of us believes in being a stick in the mud."

It gets even better, here is a large article about the couple that designed the place, from the May 9, 1959 St. Petersburg Times:

Their Business is Polynesian Culture

Hungry, you say? Here's just the meal for you: lomi lomi kamano (cooked over an imu) accompanied by kaona and uwala, and washed down with a coconut shell ful of hua inu. For desert there's a choice - haupia or mai a.

Taneo Kumalae can whip up this Hawaiian feast faster than you can say Oahu. And while she does she'll explain what it is: massaged salmon cooked over an underground pit oven, corn on the cob, sweet potato, fruit punch and coconut pudding or baked banana.

Taneo and her husband Kali, both half-blooded Hawaiians, have made a business of food, crafts, customs and dances of other lands, particularly those of Polynesia and the Middle East.

TV Shows
Rather, several businesses, Mornings over Miami's television channel 10 Taneo discusses American and international homemaking arts; Tuesday afternoons Kali joins her in a TV show of Polynesian dancing; and once a month they produce a TV "Festival of the Month" combining food, arts and music of a specific culture or nation. Recent shows have dealt with Hungary, the American Indian, Polynesia and Mexico.

Amazingly, they also find time to run a private catering service, outfit and train a dance troupe of eight, and supervise costuming, food, decor and entertainment for restaurants and night clubs.

the restaurant they're overseeing now is the Black Pearl, scheduled to open about May 30 at the site of the former Reef Restaurant, Treasure Island. Operator will be Vincent Auletta, ex-manager of the Colonial Inn's Plantation Room.

Besides decorating and planning menus, the Kumalaes are teaching Black Pearl waitresses to make their own flower leis. "I can dance, sing and cook in 13 languages, and speak middling well in seven," Taneo said.

"The Black Pearl will be Polynesian, of course, but there'll be food from the East Indies also. I look after the food and entertainment; Kali's been making black light paintings and carving statues of island gods.

"See that dried blowfish and those conch shells? They're going to be lamps."

Another recent Kumalae effort was the Ivory Tower atop Miami Beach's Saxony Hotel. A newspaper describes it thus: "A bevy of harem clad beauties to serve you exotic liquor concoctions, wondrous coffees, gourmet delicacies as you dance barefoot on our plush oriental carpet... glide heavenward in our Crystal Ball, the remarkable outside elevator..."

Hawaiian Wedding
Taneo and Kali were married last year by a kahuna (high priest) in a traditional Hawaiian wedding, believed to be the first held in the United States - excluding, of course, Hawaii itself.

"I use to live in Palm Springs, Calif." Taneo said. "Then I visited Miami. One day I was walking down the beach, when suddenly this fish net engulfed me. That's how I met Kali."

Both Kumalaes were born into their profession, although neither was born in Hawaii. Taneo's birthplace was New York.

"My mother was a singer," she said, "so I learned to sing and dance very early - most Hawaiian girls do." "I've been dancing professionally, in fact, since I was 14. When I was 17 I started lecturing for Pearl Buck's East and West Association. She saw me perform at the Ethnological Dance center in New York, and since she didn't have a Polynesian lecturer, she asked me to join her group."

As for Kali, he was born in Montana. His father sold ukuleles throughout the South Pacific and America, and is now, Kali says, the oldest pureblood Hawaiian living in the continental United States. Kali's grandfather was in the last Hawaiian king's Cabinet.

Singing Prodigy
As a child Kali was a singing prodigy and traveled across the country with a Hawaiian troupe. He can play all percussion instruments, bass, guitar and, naturally, ukulele.

"No, we don't travel to pick up background on other cultures," Taneo said. "We've learned most of what we know from artists of other lands who come to this country." "However, we're going to move to Hawaii Permanently one of these days. We're happy about statehood, of course. We feel Hawaii's culture will remain the same regardless of politics and that all changes will be for the better - roads, utilities, things like that."

"First though, we'd like to visit South America. We're amateur archeologists too, you see. I guess you might say neither of us believes in being a stick in the mud."

Post #449653 by Mo-Eye on Sat, Apr 25, 2009 1:23 PM