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Tiki Central / General Tiki / Waikiki Tiki; Art, History and Photographs OFFICIAL THREAD

Post #546538 by Phillip Roberts on Wed, Aug 4, 2010 4:38 PM

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Aloha,

On 2010-08-03 22:06, christiki295 wrote:
Was this the last one? Were they all on Hawaii?

Yes, the Hawaiian Hut was the last of the Spencecliff Corporation's restaurants. Most were located in Hawaii, and You know many of the names of these showrooms. (The Tahitian Lanai, Trader Vic's-Hawaii, Coco's Calabash bar, and Tiki Tops in Kaneohe were all run by them.) Many others (Tahiti by 6, the South Seas Villages, Top's Clown Room, the Hob Nob, etc.) are lesser known whom the Weaver brothers oversaw dining operations for. (Cliff was his brother, hence SPENCE CLIFF btw.) In 1956, their restaurants were serving around 10,000 meals a day grossing around 5 Million dollars annually.

Spence Weaver decorated many (not all) of his restaurants with relics collected from Tahiti and his travels in the South Pacific. He continued to work with Airlines to promote South Seas Tourism.

As the Queen's Surf and Barefoot Bar's lease was lost (and the grounds condemmed by the city to make way for Queen's Beach,) the company decided to create a show room at the Ala Moana Hotel for Travana's troupe of Polynesian entertainers and the other staff from the restaurant. This was the last project for the company that started with 6 hot dog wagons called Swanky-Franky in 1939. Before the Spencecliff Corporation sold their dining empire to a Japanese investment group in 1986, he sold the Hawaiian Hut to his loyal employees. Spence the restauranteur retired to the "Les Tropiques Hotel" he'd bought from Donn Beach in 1957.

There is a rumoured book coming about the Corporation by Spence's daughter Chantel...

Here's another out-take from "Waikiki Tiki."

Bamboo Ben came to Oahu on vacation long ago, and mentioned to me that a tiki was in the service passageway below the Royal Hawaiian and The Sheraton Waikiki Hotels. I bribed a worker $10 bux to take me to the trash compactor where it stood... The photo didn't really come out well so I didn't use it in the book, but there it is in 2004 (ish?).