Tiki Archaeology - Rummy's Polynesian House, Monocacy & Douglassville, PA

Here's a few pics of a recent menu find, from Rummy's Polynesian House, in PA:

The back of the menu lists 2 locations, in Monocacy, PA ( on Route 422, between Reading & Pottstown ) and on Route 2 in Douglassville, PA :

It copies all sorts of imagery from other tiki bar menus ( cover from the Kon Tiki ) and the first inside page with tropical drinks:

.... which copies the Hilton Hawaiian Village drink menu.

Another page of the drinks menu :

And the inside last page has some food listings and "Say it in Polynesian" translations:

Also, a matchcover from Rummy's, which only lists the Monocacy location :

It was interesting to find such an elaborate menu, from such a obscure place and location. I don't have any other info on this place, has anyone else heard anything about this spot ?

Thanks for those nicely-presented scans! Very nice menu...

Sweet find. Never heard of the place.

It would be nice to find places with prices like that still too.

Hmmm... You know what's odd? I went to Yahoo to see if I could uncover any references to Rummy's and came up with nothing. But then I did a search for "tiki Monocacy PA" and came up with a place named "Tiki Bar" in Boyertown. After a quick Mapquest search I found that the distance between Rummy's Monocacy location and this modern day "tiki bar" is only 15 miles.

Next I went back to Paumana's images and noticed on the back of the one menu it mentions what looks like a second location on Rt. 2 in Douglassville PA. So I did another Mapquest search to figure out the distance between Monocacy and Douglassville and it's only 3.77 miles - 12 miles from Boyertown.

Now this is why I'm finding this whole location very odd... and I begin by saying I can't vouch that "Tiki Bar" is actually a tiki bar... what are 3 tiki/Polynesian restaurants/bars doing in such a close proximity in the middle of Lancaster County? Lancaster County, for those who aren't familiar, is chock full of Amish farms and communities!

Now this is going out on a limb... but what if the surviving "Tiki Bar" in Boyertown had something to do with Rummy's? What if the decor was rescued from Rummy's before demolition and snatched up by the owners of Tiki Bar? Why in the hell was Lancaster Pennsylvania a tiki hotspot? Perhaps we've stumbled upon an Amish owned and operated, authentically decorated tiki bar hiding in the middle of nowhere!

Shit! I should have let this post go for a little while to keep us theorizing before I called the number listed for "Tiki Bar" on Yahoo. I got a perky young woman answering the phone with a hearty "Hello, Tiki Bar." I cut through all formalities and asked her straight up if the Tiki Bar was in fact a tiki bar. As expected she didn't understand what I meant - I explained simply that tiki was a Polynesian or Hawaiian style that was first popular in the 50's. She answered back quickly "No, our place is more like a mix of Key West and New Orleans...” If I wasn't prepared for such a big letdown I probably would have vomited from such a bastardization of themes.

In conclusion - thanks for posting Puamana! I enjoyed doing a bit of daydreaming...:)

One of the few places to serve Mai Tias (is that a Mai Tai with Tia Maria?)

I used to go to one of these locations when I was a kid. My grandfather (Pop-Pop)used to take me there. He lives in Pottstown, PA. It was a great restaurant. Blowfish lights, big fish tank, bamboo, and of corse TIKIS. The place is now a strip club called Sugardaddies or Sugarbabies, something like that. I have not been there to look around for any tikis outside. I doubt there are any inside, but if there are, they are probably smiling.

Thanks johntiki & NuAku for the posting that info. I'm originally from PA, and its always good to find something out about any of the places that were there. It seems like that area in particular was an odd spot for a Polynesian restaurant... all the better for escaping to a tropical atmosphere, I suppose ! Thanks for the info.

[ Edited by: puamana on 2005-05-24 08:23 ]

A strip club. Sounds like this needs investigating.

Rummys Polymesian House is no more. This is what it looks like today.

It now called "Baby Dolls" and has been stripped inside and outside of any vestages of its former tiki glory. Locals told me it closed up in the early 1980s when the owner died. Probably about 1984, then remained unoccupied for several years, it then reopened as a regular bar, and a few years later as this place.

It is right along Route 422, the confusion about the location continues, some say its in Douglassville other say Monocacy. Its exact location is 40° 16.212 N, 75° 46.060 and has always been at this exact location it never moved.

I also visited the other "tiki bar" up the road, no tikis from Rummys or anywhere else ended up there, 'cause they don't have any.

It's a nice place, Here is what it looks like.

I had a good if not somewhat expensive meal there. Only one tikidrink, it's a hurricane mixed up with some pineapple juice in it and it was pretty good.

I've been researching this place for TRT2, and the most curious part of it all is that there is no Route 2 anywhere in the vicinity that I can find.

It is possible that Monocacy was the biggest town around when this place was built, so the owners listed their location as being in Monocacy (you'll notice they just say 'route 422', but don't give actual address). Later on, Douglassville may have become a bigger burg, and being closer to the restaurant than Monocacy, confusion arose.

Still doesn't explain the owners printing Route 2 on their menu - this might have been the name of a local road that was also later changed.

Cool menu puamana!!!

Thanks for posting the awesome pics!!!

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

This place has always confused the bejeezus out of me (it's true! I'm bejeezus free!). Adding yet again to the confusion:

William Byrne just added this nifty little zippo to Critiki. It's confusing because... ah, dang, I've already forgotten why it confuses me... oh yeah! I thought that one location was on 422 and the other one was on route 2, but this makes it sound like 422 IS route 2, but then of course it doesn't actually say "route 2" it says "R. D. 2" and probably doesn't have anything to do with route 2. What would that stand for? Anyway, it's sort of neat, if a little plain. A cool find.

R.D. means 'rural delivery'

On 2008-06-16 21:39, Humuhumu wrote:
it's true! I'm bejeezus free!

Wow! The seamstress is back!

You've been missed.

I enjoyed seeing the memorabilia from Rummy's. I grew up in the area, and we used to eat there often as little kids. My sister and I would fight over who got to sit in the peacock chair if we got a corner table!

I wanted to correct a few errors and address some questions:

1. Rummy's was in Berks County, not Lancaster County. There aren't any Amish people for 30 miles from where Rummy's was.
2. There was only ever one location. Route 422 in Monocacy was the physical location. As someone else pointed out, RD 2 means rural delivery, route 2, from the Douglassville post office, so that's the postal delivery address.
3. Rummy's was there starting in the 1940s, not the 60s as reported in one post. My parents were married in 1952 and went to Rummy's well before that, as did other relatives.

:down: I saw the matchbook up on eBay, right now; adding the pics. :down:

This is what Rummys looks like today according to Google street maps.
They fixed it up a little, but it is still a strip club.

I tried for this matchbook from the Rummy's in Monocacy on ebay a while ago. It provides a nice rendering of what I am assuming was the sign outside the restaurant.

Another one of the shield/Tiki/Torch combos. Would be great to find a photo of this bad boy.

Back of the book.

DC

I finally got the postcard from Rummy's Polynesian House.

Some close ups confirm it had all of the classic Poly Pop elements - bamboo, lauhala, murals, Leetegs, Puffer Fish, fishnet globes and Tikis.

The outside was a little sparse, but the front doors did have two big Tikis.

The proprietor was Warren "Rummy" Steinle.

I found and article on-line about Rummy's wife, Marian Steinle, who was 101 years old in September of 2011. If contained the following information:

Rummy (a nickname alternately explained by his love of a card game, rum mixed in his cocktails or childhood stories) loved life, enjoyed people and decided to be in the vanguard of the Polynesian-themed restaurant craze of the '50s '60s and '70s.

"One time he went to a Trader Vic's (a popular national chain) and said, 'That's the kind of restaurant I'm going to have,' " Steinle said. "After that, he was always bringing back what he called his 'artifacts' from around the world to decorate the place."

What was once simply Rummy's Tavern (the business was open from 1941 to 1989) became Rummy's Polynesian House.

It was decorated with fish tanks, bamboo, tiki wooden statuary, blowfish lights and even a life-sized flexible manikin of an American Indian at the bar.

I also found some news print ads for Rummy's extending from the early 1960s to the late 1980s.

Here is an article about an attempted Tiki theft in 1972 with gun play!

And an article from 1989 when it sold. Opened in 1941 and switched to Tiki in 1961.

Nice to finally get some history on this one.

DC

Wonderful post and history, DC. Sort of the story of Polynesian pop in a nutshell.

What do I spy, with my Tiki eye?: The mural is classic Matson menu. The door post Tiki on the left could be a Guanko.

And the Tikis painted on the doors: On the left we have the Islander LA menu Tiki, and on the right one of the two Langermann's Luau Tikis. :)

A hula girl swizzle from the Polynesian House.

And Puamana's menu photos re-posted to counter the dreaded Red X.

Now where have I seen that drink menu art before?

DC

Got this really nice place-mat from Rummy's Polynesian House.

These place-mats are hard to come by, being fragile.

Some close ups.

The specialty drink

Rendering of the sign

The building. Looks like a Buddha was added to the front of the building.

Which explains the image on the matchbook.

DC

Wow, nice find! This drives home again the fact that paper place mats are potentially the most promising source of Tki Temple graphics after menus, yet they are the rarest one. While menus, postcards, matchbooks and even cocktail napkins were saved as mementos of a special night out, placemats were usually tossed, as due to their nature they ended up getting crumpled or stained during dinner.

Fragile indeed, they truly are "paper ephemera".

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2012-10-27 14:13 ]

I just got a cool die-cut menu from Rummy's with a blue Tiki on the cover.

Now where have I seen that before?

DC