Post #600560 by TikiTomD on Tue, Aug 2, 2011 6:17 PM

Lotus Restaurant photo postcard posted by DustyCajun...

Finally, we come back to the central mystery of the Lotus Restaurant posed by DustyCajun’s original post: How did the giant moai and the oriental clam face adorning the front of the Lotus Restaurant come to be? Was it another of Lewis Van Dercar’s fanciful works, as speculated by DC? Recall that Van Dercar’s creative range included the Luau tikis in Miami Beach, Annie the Dragon on Merritt Island, the giant mermaid-clamshell-King Neptune fountain at the Anchor Inn Restaurant in South Melbourne Beach (perhaps those mermaids still adorn Wayne Coombs garden), and the weird alien-looking idol of Pagan Island (see http://www.somethingweird.com/cart.php?product_id=37859&target=product)...

The bottom line up front: I couldn’t find a shred of archival information to conclusively end this mystery. But I did find some interesting connections to several well-known mid-century Florida Polynesian Pop establishments. My speculation is that there was a cross-flow of tiki “DNA” from one or more of these connections to the Lotus Restaurant, to include ideas and possibly tiki artisans.

First, I’d like to introduce you to another member of the Lee family who worked at the Lotus Restaurant in the late 1950s, the venerable Ho Lum Lee, also known as “Papa” Lee. I stumbled onto this article about Darryl Lee, a Lee family entrepreneur who opened the Rickshaw Restaurant at Deltona in 1984. Over the course of the interview, Darryl reveals that his father, Ho Lum Lee, worked several years as chef at the Hawaiian Inn in Daytona Beach and then moved on to be chef at Tiki Gardens, retiring after 20 years there...

The Daytona Beach News-Journal November 5, 1986

What can we infer about the chronology of the Lotus Restaurant tikis? Well, DC’s photo caption says “established 17 years in Daytona Beach.” Given a restaurant opening circa 1950, that would suggest the tikis were already erected by 1967 or 1968.

The Hawaiian Inn opened at Daytona Beach in 1965. I found this small real estate announcement from early 1967 that confirmed Papa Lee’s employment as chef at the Hawaiian Inn...

Daytona Beach Morning Journal January 25, 1967

Then, there was this article about the 1970 opening of the new Trader Frank’s restaurant at Tiki Gardens in Indian Rocks Beach, featuring a smiling Chef Papa Ho Lum Lee...

The Evening Independent May 20, 1970

And here’s a Trader Frank’s ad from the period...

The Evening Independent August 25, 1972

Note that native Tahitian-born Teva Lucas was named as restaurant manager and cited for his artistic influence on the décor, as well as his earlier instrumental role in decorating the Mai-Kai in Fort Lauderdale... perhaps Swanky might have something to offer regarding this individual’s Mai-Kai contributions?

To conclude this, I ran across this 1989 article of remembrance...

The Daytona Beach News-Journal February 4, 1989

DC, my mission has come to an end. I offer these posts as my report to you.

-Tom