To Big Bro......

I was interested to know if when the two Trader Vic's recently closed in the early 90's, did the majority of the decor (doors, carved railings, tikis, etc.) go back to "corporate" or was this stuff, too sold for salvage. I in my antique dealings have occasionally dealt with resturaunt chains (Cracker Barrel, Zaxby's, Longhorn Steakhouse, etc.). I know that when they close or relocate, the majority of the equipment is sold at auction but all of the decor goes back to a central corporate warehouse where it is retagged for another unit. I am really considering that salvage angle now....(Oliver quote) "I want more"...."DID HE SAY MORE!?"

I am unclear about that with Trader Vic's.
I know that they have a warehouse, but when I was there during research in the mid-nineties, very little Tikis could be seen.

It seems a lot of their franchises did own the stuff, I know of people scoring Tikis after the Washington closing, and I know that individual places threw their lamps away...

But then SOME of the Portland, Vancouver and Seattle stuff must have been returned to them. I think it varied in degree....

If TV would have gotten ALL of it returned all the time, they would not have to go to Asia now to have new ones carved. I don't think they would let go of ANY splinter of Tiki carved wood right now....

I was interested to know if when the two Trader Vic's recently closed
in the early 90's, did the majority of the decor (doors, carved
railings, tikis, etc.) go back to "corporate" ?- Basement Kahuna asked.
When I visited the Trader Vics wharehouse a few years back, I was show some of the tiki's that were from the Vancouver location as they were being readied to be shipped to Beirut and Bahrain to decorate those Trader vics. So they did save some things from the Vancouver location.

When I went to visit the old Trader Vic's here in Dallas that's now rented out as a party space, the lady that is in charge of reservations was so stunned by my interest in the history that she gave me the last remaining hand-carved logo tiki candle lamp from storage. Most of the stuff there, including the hand-carved doors, are still in place. The large moai tiki out front, however, was stolen a year or so back.