Welcome to the Tiki Central 2.0 Beta. Read the announcement
Celebrating classic and modern Polynesian Pop

Tiki Central / Locating Tiki / Clark's Islander Restaurant, Tacoma, WA (Restaurant)

Post #789770 by tikicoma on Fri, Sep 7, 2018 1:32 AM

You are viewing a single post. Click here to view the post in context.
T

Hi Kinitiki it's good to hear from you! Of course I know who Walter Clark was, a big time restauranteur in Seattle but before he started opening restaurants there he had worked in (or owned) restaurants in Tacoma. There are a few errors in the book you mention first the Islander opened in early 1951 not 1956. There are newspaper articles and ads supporting this date... so it had been open 6 years before Clark bought it. Clark did only have it for 3 years before he sold it but as for "the only change made... were in the service and in the menu" well all I can say is it took 2 months between his buying it and opening it under his name. I've also seen the redesign blueprints he had made by a well known designer from Seattle... it was a complete redo, fabrics, wall treatments, bar and floor placements. I'd have to say less exotic then the original and more "tasteful". Glad you're here anything more you know we would be glad to here about!