Tiki Central / Locating Tiki / The Tiki, Madison, WI (restaurant)
Post #636839 by kenbo-jitsu on Wed, May 16, 2012 11:48 PM
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Wed, May 16, 2012 11:48 PM
The Tiki was opened in the spring of 1962 by Sicilian-American Matt Pelletter in a building owned by one of his brothers at 906 Regent Street in Madison, Wisconsin. The building had once been Jimmie’s Spaghetti house, a popular Italian restaurant owned by another Sicilian, Jimmie Puccio. Pelletter’s ideas for The Tiki were accumulated during his visits to Chicago. The Tiki’s menu featured “Polynesian” food and tropical drinks including the Mai Tai, Scorpion, and a house drink Pelletter created himself called “Varoom” – a drink so powerful he supposedly refused to serve customers more than two. It was a rather strange place to open a Polynesian restaurant. Located in the Italian Greenbush neighborhood of Madison, the intersection of Regent and Park streets was nicknamed "Spaghetti Corners" by Truax Field servicemen in the 1940’s. It’s not surprising then that The Tiki did not last long. In the Spring of 1964, only two years after opening, the building and restaurant were sold to yet another Sicilian, Josie Magnasco Schuepbach who replaced The Tiki with… wait for it… Josie’s Spaghetti House! Josie’s actually became a fixture in Madison staying open all the way until July 2004 when a fire finally caused it to close. The building remained vacant for a few years until being demolished in 2009 making way for the Park Regent Apartments building. The Tiki was not Matt Pelletter’s first attempt at a Polynesian restaurant in Madison. Prior to opening The Tiki he had The Beachcomber at 724 W. Washington Ave. It had once been The Fox Den, a restaurant owned by his parents, Joseph and Magdalena Pellitteri (Matt Pelletter changed the spelling of his last name). The venture ended when the city of Madison decided to razz the building as part of a big urban renewal project. Matthew F. Pelletter: Sources: [ Edited by: kenbo-jitsu 2013-08-28 16:33 ] |