Don The Beachcomber, Marina Del Rey, CA (restaurant) - Locating Tiki

MAM mike and marie Tiki Socialite Sunken Studios \| The Current Year Joined: Jun 24, 2008 Posts: 442	MAM mike and marie Posted posted on Sun, Mar 20, 2016 9:07 PM On 2014-08-22 14:43, Dustycajun wrote: Glad I got to see it a few times before the remodel. I sure hope someone saved those front doors. We did! And we can't believe it's taken us so long to get back on this thread, but hey, these last years have been nonstop urban archeology out in the field -- no time to post or catch up, we'll save that for retirement! Saving the doors was a must. To think of all the tiki greats who walked through those doors ... Paul Page, Donn Beach, and who even knows who else ... and besides that, we just flat-out loved this place. Even though we never knew it as an operational restaurant or when the doors actually opened to somewhere. It was our favorite site of "abandoned tiki" anywhere and we always made time for it. JOHN-O's Westside Nautical Bar Tour caught it all at a perfect moment. DtB was still long closed, but the remnants were there, and there wasn't any talk yet of "revitalization," which is sure to incinerate every last piece of historic interest or character in the area... Marina del Rey in its 60s/70s heyday was right up our alley ... Paul Page in one of several area lounges including Pieces of Eight, Burt Hixson hanging up the World Famous Restaurants International plaque in the lobby of The Warehouse, location shots being made for shows like Mannix and Fantasy Island, and the "marina swinger" style as described in BOT was in full swing. Very cool. So those plans posted earlier in this thread made us uneasy -- we knew that chances were very slim that something good was going to come to this. We got out there about a day after bigbro posted about its end, and sure enough the scene was horrific: All the concrete 'spider legs' were gone, all the walkways gone, even the dock pilings gone... But, spotted right there in the wreckage: The door! We talked to some of the workers who thought we were crazy but eventually they did get the foreman. And the foreman, upon hearing that we were from his home state of Ohio, said that he'd do us a favor -- and in a moment we were on our way with the last chunk of the door: We ran into the groundskeeper Domingo (whom we'd interviewed before because he knew DtB back in the heyday and is full of great stories), who eyed us suspiciously as we tried to figure out how to get this huge chunk of wood in the back of the car. "Are you sure you're allowed to be doing that?" he asked. We told him yes, we just talked to the foreman. He too walked away thinking we were crazy -- but he admitted that I was wearing the right shirt for the job! We brought it out to Bob and LeRoy at OA and talked to the guys about when they first built it. LeRoy remembered the pickled cedar that he used for the door. They arranged to ship it back to us via freight along with a daggerboard LeRoy had carved... As it turned out there was dry rot in the wood and it took a whole lot of Git Rot to fix it ... and then coats and coats of marine varnish. Luckily no teenage hoodlums discovered our garage that summer because the smell was pretty constant: All done and in the Treasure Island Room:

On 2014-08-22 14:43, Dustycajun wrote:
Glad I got to see it a few times before the remodel. I sure hope someone saved those front doors.

We did! And we can't believe it's taken us so long to get back on this thread, but hey, these last years have been nonstop urban archeology out in the field -- no time to post or catch up, we'll save that for retirement!

Saving the doors was a must. To think of all the tiki greats who walked through those doors ... Paul Page, Donn Beach, and who even knows who else ... and besides that, we just flat-out loved this place. Even though we never knew it as an operational restaurant or when the doors actually opened to somewhere. It was our favorite site of "abandoned tiki" anywhere and we always made time for it.

JOHN-O's Westside Nautical Bar Tour caught it all at a perfect moment. DtB was still long closed, but the remnants were there, and there wasn't any talk yet of "revitalization," which is sure to incinerate every last piece of historic interest or character in the area...

Marina del Rey in its 60s/70s heyday was right up our alley ... Paul Page in one of several area lounges including Pieces of Eight, Burt Hixson hanging up the World Famous Restaurants International plaque in the lobby of The Warehouse, location shots being made for shows like Mannix and Fantasy Island, and the "marina swinger" style as described in BOT was in full swing. Very cool.

So those plans posted earlier in this thread made us uneasy -- we knew that chances were very slim that something good was going to come to this. We got out there about a day after bigbro posted about its end, and sure enough the scene was horrific:

All the concrete 'spider legs' were gone, all the walkways gone, even the dock pilings gone...

But, spotted right there in the wreckage:

The door!

We talked to some of the workers who thought we were crazy but eventually they did get the foreman. And the foreman, upon hearing that we were from his home state of Ohio, said that he'd do us a favor -- and in a moment we were on our way with the last chunk of the door:

We ran into the groundskeeper Domingo (whom we'd interviewed before because he knew DtB back in the heyday and is full of great stories), who eyed us suspiciously as we tried to figure out how to get this huge chunk of wood in the back of the car. "Are you sure you're allowed to be doing that?" he asked. We told him yes, we just talked to the foreman. He too walked away thinking we were crazy -- but he admitted that I was wearing the right shirt for the job!

We brought it out to Bob and LeRoy at OA and talked to the guys about when they first built it. LeRoy remembered the pickled cedar that he used for the door. They arranged to ship it back to us via freight along with a daggerboard LeRoy had carved...

As it turned out there was dry rot in the wood and it took a whole lot of Git Rot to fix it ... and then coats and coats of marine varnish. Luckily no teenage hoodlums discovered our garage that summer because the smell was pretty constant:

All done and in the Treasure Island Room:

Post #761186 by mike and marie on Sun, Mar 20, 2016 9:07 PM