Post #511593 by Formikahini on Wed, Feb 17, 2010 9:53 AM

I think perhaps Texas was never the haven of tiki because we were already tropical? Maybe?

Then again, Florida is tropical and you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a tiki hot spot at one point there. Houston had many good tiki restaurants in its heyday (Dobb's Luau, Trader Vic's, Don the Beachcomber, and 3 owned by the same Cantonese fellow), but the home tiki bar thing, as far as I can tell, was never huge. Maybe we were just too into the Mexican thing? And still are?

Thus, I don't feel like I see the amount of tiki out in the wild (or the antique stores) as I do on trips to California. Maybe Texans flew to the Caribbean for their vacations, and not so much to Hawaii?

Estate sales here are impossible. There are a couple of professional estate sale companies, and to get in first, you have to show up at midnight the night before to sign the list that allows you to have a place in line the next AM at 8:00 (a Friday). Most of us work on Fridays - duh. Thus, only dealers get in first and get the good stuff, and they're not looking for tiki and MCM 'cause they collect it! The estate sales companies also usually let in their friends who have antique stores first, even before the sign-up list action. Grrr...

Thrift stores in town are almost pointless. I troll the local antique malls and thrift stores way outside the Loop, therefore, as well as the antique malls in the towns just outside of Houston. I score my best stuff that way - ignorant dealers who know it's cool, but don't know what it is specifically enough to look it up on eBay and thus ask an exorbitant price.

The Leilanis for $30 get my goat...

And I too see nicely dressed women in the thrifts now in a way I did not before, but only looking at clothes.
Gone are the days of the Shaheen in the Goodwill anyway.