Post #691781 by kenbo-jitsu on Wed, Aug 28, 2013 5:00 PM

I made some corrections to my original post above and now I have a few new things to add – mostly newspaper advertisements.

First, recall that before The Tiki, Matt Pelletter owned an earlier Polynesian restaurant called The Beachcomber and that he had to close this restaurant when the city of Madison wanted to buy (and demolish) the building as part of a city redevelopment project.

(Madison) Wisconsin State Journal, June 22, 1962
This early ad shows that The Tiki is really just Matt Pelletter’s Beachcomber restaurant, moved and renamed.

Here is the location. The structure was built in 1941 to be Jimmie’s Spaghetti House so there is nothing Polynesian about the architecture. Whatever tropical décor The Tiki had was likely limited to the inside. I could be wrong about that I guess. It would be nice to see a photo of The Tiki when it was open but I’ve had no luck finding one yet.

This photo is from 2008 so keep in mind that the building you see here has been gutted by a fire and then has stood vacant for four years. You’re not seeing it at its best.

(Madison) Wisconsin State Journal, September 1, 1962
“Touch ‘O the Island” Dining
The word “Beachcomber” is kept for a while.

(Madison) Wisconsin State Journal, October 20, 1962
I think this is my favorite. The logo tiki starts making appearances. Anyone care to speculate from where the tiki graphic might have come?

(Madison) The Capital Times, December 3, 1962
Note the Italian food specials. This is The Tiki adapting to business in “Spaghetti Corners”.

(Madison) Wisconsin State Journal, March 29, 1963
“... where the lure of fabled island enchantment awaits you!”

(Madison) Wisconsin State Journal, August 16, 1963
No more “Beachcomber”. It’s just “The Tiki” now. There was live entertainment and dancing on weekends.

(Madison) Wisconsin State Journal, February 21, 1964
The ads got simpler toward the end. The Tiki always had “Fish on Friday” specials and it was often closed on Sundays.

(Madison) Wisconsin State Journal, April 25, 1964
This last little ad seems almost desperate. Not only are potential diners informed The Tiki has Italian and American foods, they’re reassured that it has nothing else! Never mind all that “Touch ‘O the Island” stuff we were talking about last year. The Tiki closed within weeks of this ad.

We know that the tiki bar/restaurant concept started in Los Angeles and that it spread first to other population centers – notably San Francisco, Seattle and later Chicago. We know it eventually came to permeate the mainland where coast-to-coast a tiki bar/restaurant might be found even in many smaller towns. I consider Matt Pelletter to be a great example of this expansion. He encountered the Polynesian restaurant concept by seeing the Chicago Don the Beachcomber, or perhaps the Palmer House Trader Vic’s, and he was inspired to try bringing the idea to his own home town. Obviously, not everyone so inspired would succeed. Restaurants are a tough business even in the best of circumstances, and I think The Tiki’s biggest problem was just its location. People went to Spaghetti Corners for, well, spaghetti. And even though The Tiki had Italian food, and even though their Italian food was probably excellent, the tropical name and theme just put it at a disadvantage there. If it had been located elsewhere in Madison, perhaps it would have lasted longer.