Post #453840 by bigbrotiki on Thu, May 14, 2009 6:44 AM

Wow Mo, you are piecing together Florida Tiki history one by one! Kailuageoff, are you reading these posts? This is becoming enough material to write a book just about Florida Tiki!

Ha, I thought all along that it was odd that someone would open a Polynesian restaurant in a small town as late as 1968! So Volcano Girl's mom's memory was somewhat incomplete, she failed to remember that it was already a POLYNESIAN paradise when her husband (forced by the necessity of his dad owning the property where the Tiki Lounge had defaulted), became a restaurateur:

On 2007-02-17 21:35, Volcano Girl wrote:
One was that my grandfather did own all the property that encompassed that block when he had the house built in the early 40's, but began selling off parcels around 1959 or 1960 to some group (she didn't know what group), which eventually turned those things into the "Haven Hotel", Nick Rubas'(?) Greek place (which she said was originally on Park St), the Continental Can Company, possibly a drugstore,....

....as well as someone else who began to turn Dad's former home into a restaurant. Apparently, whoever it was who started with the restaurant theme defaulted on the loan before renovation was completed, and the lot with the restaurant/house on it returned to my grandfather's possession..... .....It was at this point that my father became involved in continuing in the effort to transform his old home into the Volcano (1967?). I don't know how long he spent in the planning stages, but Mom says she thinks they may have officially opened in early 1968, possibly January, but possibly a few months later. She said that the name was Dad's brainchild, because she remembers him thinking a lot about how to market a restaurant when it wasn't his expertise at the time. She does think that he traveled around to some places where there was a Polynesian theme, and she is sure that he had seen the place in Ft. Lauderdale at some point.

The Jean Higgins article on page 10 of the Volcano thread mentions that the place was "Partially constructed and then abandoned a few years ago..."

That Roy Beasley must have been a real dreamer but lacking business talent, for the Kahiki/Tiki to only have lasted 3 years --or perhaps the size of the place was impossible to be supported by a small town like Winterhaven- yet he seemed to have gotten a whole group of financiers involved (part of which was Volcano Girl's grandfather). The allure of TIKI was strong in those days! :)
Wish I could get a full shot of that "dancing Polynesian couple" mural you can see behind the band in one of the ads. Wonder if there were any postcards/matches/menus made....

Would be interesting to see where that "New Management" ad fits into the time line date-wise, obviously the first sign of economic troubles. If I read the ads right, they had "Polynesian Atmosphere" first, and only later "Tropical cocktails"? Gotta love "Music by the Blalas" and "Dances by Tida". Some local talent who had to come up with a name fast? :)

I recommend everyone to check out The Volcano thread, especially from the point when Volcano Girl got her mom's memorabilia:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=10483&forum=1&start=75

It is one of the great success stories of Tiki Central, to have found and inspired a descendant of Restaurant owner to dig further and come up with all this great material, and being supported by the research of so many inspired TCers! :)

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-05-14 07:01 ]