Post #47844 by Sabu The Coconut Boy on Thu, Aug 14, 2003 4:33 PM

Well, we aim to please...

Here's the report. Tikibelle and I stopped by after our appointment with the wedding caterer yesterday afternoon. It's so nice to have a fiancee' who's up for a little spur-of-the-moment tiki exploration, (as long as it includes dinner).

No one was upstairs at the restaurant, so we snuck up the staircase, into the dimly-lit bar, and everthing that Chris said was true. There were two beautiful big bars, and tikis everywhere and the feel of the place was definitely of a long-undiscovered tiki grotto. We began snapping photos, both of us excited because it looked too good to be true. Unfortunately it was.

Downstairs, we met the head chef of the restaurant who was very nice and not at all upset that we were taking pictures unattended. In fact, he even encouraged it. He said that the tikis and Polynesian decor had been carted in about a month ago in a huge truck. The corporation that bought the Angler's Choice evidently has a corporate style for its restaurants that includes, (at least in this case), tiki decor. He did not know the name of the corporation though, nor the chain of restaurants that it owns. He even wondered if we were the new owners, checking up on him clandestinely.

Here's the bad news. The decor is really wonderful and it would make a stellar new hangout for Tiki Centralites, but unfortunately, the whole upstairs restaurant and bar area has been created as "Club Narain" - an expensive Mediterranean restaurant that requires reservations and becomes a dj-run dance club after 10:00pm. There will be belly-dancing on the weekends. You will still be able to order seafood from the downstairs menu if you sit upstairs, but looks like the bars will be serving typical bar drinks. Nothing tiki, I'm afraid.

Here are some pictures of the interior. Which will probably only make you sad, as this will not be a tiki-bar befitting the decor.

So what's the opinion, Bigbro? Are these all current Oceanic Arts pieces? Or were they salvaged from an old tiki bar? Does anybody recognize these tikis? The giant tiki in the last photo is hollow (fiberglass?), as is the stone moai face in the first photo.

I'll go ahead and add this restaurant into the Locating Tiki forum as well.

Regarding Floratina's idea - I would definitely be up for a trip to the Warehouse. We drove by it after Angler's Choice and it looks really wonderful. I've always wanted to see the inside.

I also snapped this photo of Shanghai Red's in the same general area as Angler's Choice. It has the same chunky Polynesian Piling facade that the old Castaway chain of restaurants used to have, though not quite as peaked-roofed as the Mark Thomas Outrigger or the Tonga Lei.

Nice bridges and koi-ponds within, but definitely not tiki. Two-Wheelin', do you know what type of restaurant this is?

Sabu