Tulsa Jade East Tiki statue rediscovered

The picture is here:

http://tulsaTVmemories.com/tulstiki.html#tikigods

[ Edited by: tulsatv on 2003-11-12 08:25 ]

What an exciting discovery! I love that Trade Winds West photo on your site. It makes me pine for the old days when such establishments existed in abundance.

On an inspriring note, the Caliente Tropics in Palm Springs completely possesses that same spirit and far from being a neglected relic, it has been totally remodeled and is the standard bearer for tiki preservation.

Caliente Tropics...a reader at my web site recently sent me a note about it. Definitely an upcoming vacation destination. This year: a Hawaiian cruise.

very cool!

now if we can just track down the tiki masks from the KonTiki in Phoenix..

Outstanding find!!! Congratulations.

...and then track down the designer of those masks (of the Kon Tiki Hotel in Phoenix), I love his style.... He also made those masks for Del Webb's Ocean House in San Diego, you can see them in the 1967 Jerry Lewis movie "The Big Mouth", which also has a Polynesian restaurant scene in it (that albeit looks like it is a set).
One or two Tikis can be glimpsed during the chase across the hotel grounds, also the Polynesian mural at the beachside of the hotel, which I heard is still there. Otherwise the place, which is now the Mission Bay Hilton, is totally de-tikied, including the ship's prow Jolly Roger restaurant.

We just ate at the former Jade East, now Tokyo Garden in Tulsa. Not much the same except for that walking bridge over a koi pond, and water cascading down a rock wall. But the food was fantastic, though not Tiki food.

On our way out to Tiki Oasis, we stopped for dinner at the Tokyo Garden. As has already been pointed out, there is little in the way of Tiki left. However, you can still find several exotic drinks on their cocktail menu (It's in the main menu, not a seperate menu, look past the "oriental-ish" cocktails to the main cocktail section).

Otherwise, I guess the main thing is that I'm glad this former Tiki treasure is still a place one can wander- unlike those boarded up and left abandoned or worse, razed. The comparisons with the pictures on Tulsa TV's site are sad, but you can still just make out the bones of it in it's new form.

All that said, the former Jade East has made the transition to Japanese very well. The sushi is excellent and the atmophere still immersive by today's standards. It still has a small bar area at the rear of the main habachi room, and a sushi bar in a side lounge that might once have been a full bar.

The only other remaining feature is the wall fountain- still fully operational with a small bridge just in front of it.

I just now got our few pictures into and album and up, here;

http://www.sevenpleasures.org/gallery/Tokyo-Garden

(the full description of the album and a link over to the Tulsa TV site can been seen on my main page- http://www.sevenpleasures.org/gallery/albums.php