Post #747415 by Architourist on Sun, Jul 19, 2015 6:39 PM

On 2014-12-04 20:46, Tattoo wrote:
Excellent eye Cavemoai!!! Nice to have found an actual Tiki bar/menu connection for that mug. Interesting that Vermonde apparently made pieces for Don the Beachcomber and the Tonga Lei. So, is the one at the Tiki Ti from the Tonga Lei? And if so, is there some connection between Ray Buhen and the Tonga Lei? Also, looking at that menu I feel that I have seen that fog cutter mug somewhere...

Anyhow, I recently found this odd mug from Doc's Town & Country in Toronto, Canada:

An obvious "tribute" :wink: to the Trader Vic's Fog Cutter mug. Okay, after some research there is some oddities to this mug. It is obviously from "Doc's Place Town & Country"

Whose only other mug I have found is an all ceramic copy of Trader Vic's Voodoo Grog glass:

There's a pattern here. But here's the curve ball, Doc's Place is located in Toronto, Canada. However, the bottom of the Doc's Place Fog Cutter mug is marked Westminster Hotel:

And guess what, The Westminster Hotel in British Columbia also had a Tiki Bar - the Tapa Room.

So, is this Doc's Place Fog Cutter mug from the Tapa Room or Doc's Place??? What is the connection between these two places that are so far far apart???

Too many questions, too little rum...

[ Edited by: tattoo 2014-12-05 10:45 ]

Tattoo, I can help you…

Just picked up this mug outside of Toronto at a Thrift store:

And, since I'm a Toronto guy who only knows of the Trader Vic's that used to be here (in a downtown hotel) and the Bali Hai Room at the Ports of Call (which was in mid-town), I'm always on the hunt to learn if this city had any more tiki bars, since, sadly, it has exactly ZERO right now. So, I can confirm for you that there was a Westminster Hotel in Toronto:

And there was a "Town and Country" room inside of it:

But, a-ha! The Westminster was listed to be at 240 Jarvis St. (now demolished), and, as you can see from the matchbook, which shows a low-rise building, the Town and Country is at "Mutual and Gould"…if you check a Google map of Toronto, you'll see it all works out, geographically, as that intersection is right behind the old hotel. So, old 1920s hotel gets a new low-rise building in the 1950s, and puts in a restaurant. MY GUESS is that Doc's Place was a little room within the Town & Country….but so far no pictures of that have come up for me. Only this one of the dining room:

The other thing to note is that this would have been about a 7 minute walk from Maple Leaf Gardens (where the Toronto Maple Leafs used to play), so it was a hopping neighbourhood at one time.

BTW, I am an architecture journalist, so it's in my nature to sleuth these things out.

Cheers,

Architourist

PS: my mug didn't say "Westminster Hotel" on the bottom, only Japan, so your mug helped solve the mystery!

[ Edited by: Architourist 2015-07-19 18:53 ]