Post #75653 by Sabu The Coconut Boy on Wed, Feb 11, 2004 3:33 PM

I'm going to post both these locations in the Locating Tiki forum, but thought you might like to see them together here as kind of a "driving tour" of some tiki sites in San Pedro.

The first stop is the Samoan Sea apartments at 661 N. Harbor Drive. These are a little hard to get to. You have to be travelling South on Harbor Drive. If you're travelling North, there's no entrance and you have to drive past several onramps for the 110 Fwy before you can turn around and head back. But once you get there, you're in for a treat:



These apartments are right up against the Harbor Fwy (110) on the back side and right against the harbor on the front. I found them in the phonebook and had been wanting to visit for some time. Tiki Steve, who lives in the area, also suggested I see them.

Here are the two fantastic cement tikis that still stand guard over the harbor:



They remind me of the Tiki Drums at Walt Disney World:

Here are a few more views of the apartments:

Inside the A-Frame, looking out at the cruise ships and the Vincent St. Thomas Bridge.

A side view of the A-frame.

Continue South down Harbor Drive and in no time you come to the entrance of Ports-O-Call village to the left. This is an old tourist stop full of Cape-Cod style shops and restaurants. Today, the local Latino community has made it their own and the adjoining fish markets are packed with literally thousands of families buying huge, freshly-cooked fish and shrimp dinners out on the bay-front patios. On a Sunday afternoon it's really a sight to see.

However, back to the reason for my visit. Among all the faux New-England architecture, my postcards show that there was once an exotic Tiki locale called the "Ports-O-Call Restaurant", surrounded by a Lagoon:

Here is the Ports-O-Call as it looks today:

The A-Frame is still there, but the glass floats are gone, as is the jutting beam at the top. The lagoon has diminished to a small stream with a bridge.


I don't know what the interior looked like in it's heyday, but nowdays it's a pretty typical carpets & brass restaurant (like an upscale Marie Callendar's), with banquet rooms for weddings or large gatherings, and not a single Polynesian item on the menu.

The only hint of the glory of the old days lies in the gorgeous collection of beachcomber lamps and glass floats in the main patio room:





There were also large displays of fresh tropical flowers throughout:
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I went to the bar and ordered a Mai Tai. The bartender said the old recipes for the rum drinks they used to serve 30 years ago are long-lost. His Mai Tai was strong with not too much pineapple juice, and fairly tasty:

If you're a fan of taxidermy fish, be sure to go over to the adjoining fish markets:

I did a little more driving around San Pedro and found this apartment building at 502 40th street. No Tikis to mention, and just a hint of Poly-pop architecture:



There's got to be other tiki sites in San Pedro, either alive or extinct. Is anyone else familiar with this area?

Sabu

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy 2005-09-26 10:14 ]