Ghosts of Tiki Bars Past... Wisconsin... Update! - General Tiki

LS Lake Surfer Tiki Socialite Milwaukee, WI Joined: Oct 21, 2002 Posts: 3417	LS Lake Surfer Posted posted on Sun, Dec 7, 2003 4:02 PM I'd like to post up on "Finding Tiki" so I was hoping James could paste in the info he had on Mai Kai on his pages... I'll share the photos... Anyway... this deceased tiki bar was located in the city of West Allis, WI on 57th and Lincoln Avenue... the Mai Kai Lounge... its now a nasty sports bar and I have no idea what they are trying to do with the outside... or not trying to do... West Allis is in a bit of a blight these days... Luckily there are still traces of the Mai Kai... the "burned in" image of the mask and letters of the sign... The great entrance still exists too with the torches... Like I said, I have no idea what they are going for with the exterior... the blue paint...? A scarey man on his phone came out and started yelling at me for taking pictures... he demanded to know what they were for... I just said they were for a book and had to do with architecture and the bar that was there previously... I remember as a youngster seeing the outside of this bar in the 80's and my mom had gone there many times while she was in nursing school in the late 60's... So close but so far... Here's another long lost tiki establishment... it was a Polynesian themed hotel and eatery... I can't nail down the name of it but it was in Wauwatosa, WI on Bluemound Road... once again, in my younger years I remember the huge tiki torches sticking out from the pool building and large tikis and masks on the exterior... It was sold to Days Inn and it looks like any old motel except for subtle traces of tiki architecture... The back of the motel... The old eatery was gutted and redone to its current form as Bluemound Gardens and it has no tiki what so ever these days... the existing frame of the building is for the most part still what the old eatery was if I remember correctly, but like I said that was at least 15 years ago I think... I'd love to do some digging but I don't know how far I'd get... but just thought I'd share some pictures with you... [ Edited by: Lake Surfer 2006-09-30 23:17 ]

I'd like to post up on "Finding Tiki" so I was hoping James could paste in the info he had on Mai Kai on his pages... I'll share the photos...

Anyway... this deceased tiki bar was located in the city of West Allis, WI on 57th and Lincoln Avenue... the Mai Kai Lounge... its now a nasty sports bar and I have no idea what they are trying to do with the outside... or not trying to do... West Allis is in a bit of a blight these days...

Luckily there are still traces of the Mai Kai... the "burned in" image of the mask and letters of the sign...

The great entrance still exists too with the torches...

Like I said, I have no idea what they are going for with the exterior... the blue paint...?

A scarey man on his phone came out and started yelling at me for taking pictures... he demanded to know what they were for... I just said they were for a book and had to do with architecture and the bar that was there previously...

I remember as a youngster seeing the outside of this bar in the 80's and my mom had gone there many times while she was in nursing school in the late 60's... So close but so far...

Here's another long lost tiki establishment... it was a Polynesian themed hotel and eatery... I can't nail down the name of it but it was in Wauwatosa, WI on Bluemound Road... once again, in my younger years I remember the huge tiki torches sticking out from the pool building and large tikis and masks on the exterior...

It was sold to Days Inn and it looks like any old motel except for subtle traces of tiki architecture...

The back of the motel...

The old eatery was gutted and redone to its current form as Bluemound Gardens and it has no tiki what so ever these days... the existing frame of the building is for the most part still what the old eatery was if I remember correctly, but like I said that was at least 15 years ago I think...

I'd love to do some digging but I don't know how far I'd get... but just thought I'd share some pictures with you...

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer 2006-09-30 23:17 ]

Post #63698 by Lake Surfer on Sun, Dec 7, 2003 4:02 PM