Post #588155 by aquarj on Fri, May 6, 2011 6:03 PM

Yippee! Great to see some new content here, especially the front door photos. All the more interested to see that slide you've been telling me about for years, Sven! A little more comment, speculation, and rumination...

First off, about the second location. DC - we were just talking about it on the previous page. That's what we were referring to as "Lanai 2.0". And bigbro, I think you meant 80s as opposed to 60s, for that location, right?

On 2011-01-31 14:08, aquarj wrote:
...here's a pic I took in 2002 of the "2.0" location when it was a Chinese buffet. I used to eat there for lunch with co-workers sometimes, and they had a little fountain area in the back by the restrooms, but no other signs of a polynesian place.

Somewhere I have a more recent photo - it looks even more bland now, with all the lava rock facade gone.

Now, I was trying to orient this with Sven's pic...

On 2011-05-06 15:22, bigbrotiki wrote:

This place was in the corner of said mini mall on the Foster City side of the 101. Besides the lava rock and the door, it was very plain, as you can see by the sliding glass window. But the interior was all bamboo-ed out, with a little waterfall, and ONE Tiki ...

Looks to me like that photo shows that the Lanai 2.0 entrance door was off to the right side of the exterior in my 2002 photo. So the entrance moved. But it really makes sense because just inside that door is an area of the building that had a rock waterfall / fountain thing. With the China Harbour floorplan though, that was just kind of an empty unused back area that you passed through on the way to the restrooms, and it looked kinda stripped down, unused, and out of place. But now it's clear that with the Lanai 2.0 entrance over on that side of the building, you would have entered straight into the area where the fountain thing was.

As to where the doors were on the original Lanai (1.0), I would assert that they were quite definitely at the front entrance. DC, please note that the picture you referenced is not showing the front entrance at The Lanai... :down:

On 2010-10-17 00:28, aquarj wrote:
This closeup is from that construction / remodel photo, looking at those poles again, and also the door. The front door famously had the logo tiki carved into it, but this probably is not the "front" door since the main entrance would appear to be under the next turret. :down:

Although I don't have any photographic evidence of that door at The Lanai front entrance, it was often referenced. Even the dinner menu (which I can post sometime unless someone beats me to it) refers to the tikis carved in the front doors. My impression is that there were two.

Finally, as for the style of that tiki, it sure is odd, isn't it? bigbro, I've got no insights to add to yours. I've often thought that this unusual style may have been because of the early timing in the poly-pop evolution, since it was most likely carved around 1950. Anyway, really great to finally see that door!

BTW, the person who was once selling this tiki from the Lanai interior actually did not sell it at the time...

On 2010-10-15 08:19, Dustycajun wrote:
This Tiki sold on ebay and was said to be from the Lanai.

It was fun talking to him a while ago, and he said he was involved in the construction of the Lanai 2.0. He may still have that tiki for sale.

-Randy

[ Edited by: aquarj 2011-05-06 18:07 ]