Royal Hawaiian, Laguna Beach, CA (restaurant)

The Royal Hawaiian in Laguna Beach has been there since 1947. Members of my family and my wife's family have been going there since the 1940s. It is still open, although forgettable now that the new owners have ruined it. Here's a review of our recent visit:
Update on the Royal Hawaiian in Laguna Beach:
My wife and I have been there two times since the new owners
took over. Both our families have been regular visitors to
the RH for fifty years. JR and his sister (the old owners
whose parents started the restaurant) are sorely missed.
Only one half of the restaurant is now open (the side with
the bar), the other side is closed for renovations. The
atmosphere is ruined; from the street it looks like heck,
but since we are old friends we had to go check it out. On
Sunday, April 22 (our anniversary) we went and were much
disappointed. The price of the signature ribs dinner is so
high now that our two meals, with a bread basket but no
appetizers or alcohol, topped out at fifty dollars. Service
was lousy, I couldn't find anyone when it was time to pay
the bill. No Hawaiian music, no island-style interior, and
it looks like they have made zero progress on the remodel
since last summer. We won't be going back. sigh Now I know
why JR sold the place. It had horrible termite damage, the entire old structure needs to be rebuilt, the roof is wood shake and must be replaced, etc. JR would not have been able to afford to do everything necessary to satisfy the City of Laguna Beach building codes.
My wife and I fondly remember Christmases of the past, when JR's sister would play Polynesian songs on a piano brought in for the occasion. A priceless treasure is lost. The new owners apparently don't care about the traditions of the old restaurant.

Anyone want the recipe for the delicious "Ono Ono" salad dressing? Here ya go:

ONO-ONO SALAD DRESSING

1 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 or 2 cloves garlic, minced
1 or 2 teaspoons Coleman's Dry Mustard
1/2 cup Best Foods mayonnaise
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup gorgonzola or blue cheese, crumbled, plus additional for garnish
Chilled lettuce, such as Bibb lettuce or Hawaiian Manoa lettuce

Procedure:

1. Mix all ingredients except cheese and lettuce in food processor.
   Blend thoroughly.
2. Place mixture in bowl and gently add the crumbled cheese. Cover and
   chill well.
3. Serve on Hawaiian Manoa lettuce with an extra sprinkle of cheese on top.

Enjoy!

IT'S BACK!!!

STARTS ON PAGE 11

Bamboo Ben
Tiki Bars I've designed/built. TikiCat, Kona Club, Forbidden Island, Kon Tiki Tucson,
Don the Beachcomber, Tiki No, Royal Hawaiian, Frankie's Tiki Room, Pacific Seas, Longi

[ Edited by: RevBambooBen 2017-05-06 08:48 ]

Ben is on a rampage.
look out everybody.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

It lives...

[ Edited by: Joe Banks 2007-10-16 08:16 ]

On 2007-03-11 21:05, WooHooWahine wrote:
It's time to pull the cord and let the Memory and Spirit of The Royal Hawaiian R.I.P

:(

Its coming back.

Why the RIP?

It will be different... but its coming back.

The new owners had a full shipment of Teak furniture delivered for the dining area last week.. I dropped off 7 of the bamboo resin lamps..

the decorator Im working with has been a regular customer at Oceanic Arts purchasing many lamps there as well.

Not sure what the final look and feel will be but they have been buying a lot of really nice stuff to put in there.

time will tell... its not dead yet

I'm crossing my fingers.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

It...is....ALIVE!

SoccerTiki, MakeDaMug, and I were there a week ago for dinner. There is still
A Lot of work to be done.

I hear they're gonna have a gay night.

It would be cool to see it come back, as long as "gay night" is not saturday night!.Unga said it....

On 2007-11-04 19:35, WooHooWahine wrote:
SoccerTiki, MakeDaMug, and I were there a week ago for dinner. There is still
A Lot of work to be done.

Aloha, Woohoowahinie:

What did you think of what had occurred so far?

On 2007-11-11 23:41, christiki295 wrote:

On 2007-11-04 19:35, WooHooWahine wrote:
SoccerTiki, MakeDaMug, and I were there a week ago for dinner. There is still
A Lot of work to be done.

Aloha, Woohoowahinie:

What did you think of what had occurred so far?

Nothing has occurred except all the Old Tiki Stuff has been replaced with Brick Walls. It's not a very pretty site inside :(

Mahalo for the update, WooHooWahine, as disappointing as it is.

[ Edited by: WooHooWahine 2007-11-13 20:28 ]

My recent visit to the Royal Hawaiian is what brought me back to this board after a long absence. I had to complain to people who might understand. Not surprisingly, quite a few of you beat me to the punch.

While the Oceanic Arts light fixtures are quite nice, almost all of the old look and feel of the RH has been destroyed. Now it looks like the sort of place where every menu item is uber-expensive and "infused" with the "essence" of something weird. What a loss.

I'm hoping I'll have a better experience when I make the pilgrimage back to Sam's in a few weeks.

On 2008-01-02 20:54, SpaceAgeCity wrote:

I'm hoping I'll have a better experience when I make the pilgrimage back to Sam's in a few weeks.

Mmmm, don't count on it, Read the threads on here. $15 hamburgers, bad service and bad , overpriced drinks seems to be the unanimous rating here. We were all very hopeful too.

So here's the bottom line as I understand it, and then I'll leave the Tiki aficionados to make the call as to whether it's a good or bad thing, or in between.

The Royal Hawaiian was in horrible shape physically, and given the realities of remodeling (access, ABC and use permit restrictions/controls, historic building issues, NIMBYism) there was no way a minor remodel could happen. The place needed a new roof, was molding and smelled horrible, etc. etc., and Laguna Beach is one of the most restrictive cities for doing about anything.

So the choices were basically close it, level it or try to play the system a little. But there was really no practical way the much-loved Hawaiian would remain as was.

So what the owner did was stall for time. He kept the bar open, while much of the remaining structure was behind drywall for a year or two, maybe more (the owner, who drinks a bit, pushed the envelope on several instances, my favorite being the discontinued body shot contests on the bar—previously from a very attractive server's belly button).

When that drywall was removed what was revealed was a modern interpretation of a tiki bar...oh hell I won't go that far. It's a new bar/restaurant with some Tiki touches. Some of the kitsch remains: the odd little glassed in terrarium-like displays, for example.

On the plus side, the exterior looks great; my understanding is the palms and original tikis that had to be removed for construction will be returned. Not sure about that, though.

He is keeping the classic feel of the menu (which was pretty horribly prepared for the last decade or so) and more importantly to many, including me, the classic Tiki drinks. It's exactly the same drink menu.

So that's the plus. The major minus is that because of the disability laws the great old bar will go. To be replaced by bathrooms, of all things—the existing ones are up stairs and inaccessible to the disabled. I really, really wish this weren't so, that some space had been taken off the new section for the facilities while retaining the old bar, even if it were an adjunct, like maybe a sushi bar or something. But I didn't put up the cash to buy the place, remodel it and fight the city every step of the way, so it wasn't my call.

So now many long-time lovers of the Hawaiian are boycotting, giving it up for dead, which is too bad..OK it drew it's fair share of skanks and n-er do wells, but also was a surfer and locals hang out. And now the crowd will likely take on the CdM/Quite Woman/Tommy Bahama vibe.

But for now, the drinks are still strong and tropical, the ribs and shrimp combo rules, and at least the place isn't a Yard House or bad art gallery.

Reporting from Laguna Beach...

[ Edited by: OC editor 2008-02-12 10:46 ]

I can only hope this is true. I will stop in a verify on my next trip out there (Oasis?).

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STARTS ON PAGE 11

Bamboo Ben
Tiki Bars I've designed/built. TikiCat, Kona Club, Forbidden Island, Kon Tiki Tucson,
Don the Beachcomber, Tiki No, Royal Hawaiian, Frankie's Tiki Room, Pacific Seas, Longi

[ Edited by: revbambooben 2017-05-06 08:46 ]

Nope.
Too late for me. They wrecked it. There are ways of redesiging and rebuilding without turning it into what they have turned it into. Everything is beginning to look the same. There is this huge homoginization that is going on in our part of the country, especially southern California, where land with history is much like it is in Vegas.....just not as valuable as the property that it sits on.
Good to hear they bought some lamps from OA. At least that's kinda trying..... The bamboo from the pitures looks like its from a Sharkey's. Ugh.

They should just change the name....

Last week, I went to my favorite Mexican joint for whenever I drink at the Tiki Ti, called El Chavos. It is two doors down, and it was classic 60s/70s Mexican kitsch: Black-lit sombreros glued under the ceiling over the bar, rod iron work and colored glass dividers, A giant photo of Dolly Parton behind the bar...anyway, it had lots of character.

Now a while back the old owner wanted to retire, and sold it to the owner of the Edendale Grill. I asked, and was reassured that everything would stay the same. So last week the entrance to the main room was still locked, and food was only served in a small side room on the other side of the kitchen. Me and my urban archeologists friends snuck past the restrooms and found a door that was open to the old dining room. We lit it with our cell phones:

It was completely gutted! The walls were torn down to the lattice work, there was not one shred of the old place left.... There seems to be a misunderstanding that renovating a place by completely stripping it and then rebuilding it exactly like it was is the same than just leaving it in its original state. IT IS NOT!

The patina of original fixtures and the combination of furniture and design elements cannot be replicated once taken apart. The mana is gone. "Time" is not a paint hue.

Sven, I am so sorry to hear this. I went there many a times in the past and it was fun.

Amen Sven. Exactly what I'm getting at. Just like how they 'improved' the Peppermill in Vegas...At least that wasn't fully gutted or anything. But at the Peppermill, having plasma screen tvs in every booth is not an improvement to me.

I'm so upset to hear about El Chavo. My wife and I crawled over there many times after one too many at the Tiki Ti and we loved its odd/fun vide.

between the RH and El Chavo news I want to put a gun in my mouth.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

...and so it goes....remodel everything, raise the prices on the menu, make the yuppie hipsters feel like they live in a "great nighborhood".

At least there is El Cid just down the street, and the other great Mexican place in SilverLake on Hyperion (I forget the name right now) if you want the old school mexican vibe.

Has anyone else noticed how all your favorite restaurants have all raised their menu prices in the past year or so ?

It always amazes me how a pasta dish in an Italian restaurant can be $15.95 for something my mom used to say was considered "peasant food"....I mean 16 bucks for some spaghetti, broccoli, garlic and oil....C'Mon !

That's the way it's goin down around LA right now.

Sorry, a little non tiki rant...resume topic.....

On 2008-02-13 08:36, Digitiki wrote:
I'm so upset to hear about El Chavo. My wife and I crawled over there many times after one too many at the Tiki Ti and we loved its odd/fun vibe.

I know. I had to sit outside and swallow my frustration before I could go back to my friends' table and order my customary Chicken Mole. While sitting out on Sunset Boulevard, I philosophized a little about WHY it is always so upsetting to me to loose an authentic vintage place...all the while it seems to be the order of the day that these places disappear.

Thinking of my friends, we all had in common our passion for mid-century modernism and the feeling of loss when a place went down, and we all had in common that we were born during that period, and grew up in it. But we also shared a common history of having separated from our parents and family by choice, either by geography (me) or by consciousness (some of my gay friends) to the degree that we really did not have a family in our daily lives. I concluded that these vintage places were a kind of a substitute for our family, a refuge which we wanted to continue to exist as something we could depend on, something with history and memory, our home away from home.

Let's not get into the denial of our own mortality, and how each dissappearence of a vintage location is a little death, I don't wanna get too depressing now. :)

But there still is the very real sense of the loss of quality, care, style and class that these old places contained, and that is lacking most of the time (with exceptions) in today's new places that replace them. I mean all psychoanalysis aside, that is a fact...isn't it?

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2008-02-13 09:24 ]

Character.

That is what these places have and what is oft lacking today. And it cannot be recreated. I've been to plenty of places that had the faux diner thing going. Ick. And the chain places with old stuff on the walls that has no context. A sad attempt at character. These old places have character and that's why we love them. Some new places have it too. I don't think it has a thing to do with age, though a lot of great places are old(er).

With Mid Century Modern places, it's definitely the exciting architecture. Those places just evoke a certain something....they're just so COOL.
The walls of windows, the expansive angular lines, the materials used...Lava and Flagstone walls, juxtaposed with mosiac tiles, abstract shapes and wall hangings...combine that with tiki and it's magical....hell, Sven wrote an entire book about it.

The positive, forward movement of the architecture, that makes you feel like you're "going places"...That's what is so great about Mid Century Modern, but sadly, other than the enthusiasts, no one seems to really embrace it.

So, they tear it out and put bland, unimaginitive decor, fixtures, and signage (let's not forget about how boring signage has become---oy vay) and America is getting more homogenized every day.

so true:

On 2008-02-12 23:59, bigbrotiki wrote:
... there was not one shred of the old place left....
There seems to be a misunderstanding that renovating a place
by completely stripping it and then rebuilding it exactly like it was
is the same than just leaving it in its original state.
IT IS NOT!

The patina of original fixtures and the combination of furniture
and design elements cannot be replicated once taken apart.

The mana is gone.

"Time" is not a paint hue.

the problem with character, is that it takes time for it to build in order for it to be genuine....places that try to create a faux atmosphere always ultimately come off as feeling fakey and staged like a hollywood movie set....sadly, you just can't recreate character overnight...

On 2008-02-13 13:13, Tipsy McStagger wrote:
....places that try to create a faux atmosphere always ultimately come off as feeling fakey and staged like a hollywood movie set...

You mean like Tiki Bars? :lol:

Sorry, Dave, that set up was just too good to resist! :D
I know what you mean, that's why I take an original, dingy, run-down Tiki joint any day before a new shiny retro Tiki bar...
(With exceptions like a certain bay area hideaway, of course.)

Well,
The one thing they can't take away, are the great memories.

These modern cookie-cutter places are a bit Orwellian.

Oh........and those tikis that they put up after all the others were stolen were horrible. See above picture. It's like attack of the tree people or something......

This happened before they closed?
The picture was taken about 5 months before closure.

Yes, just two years (+/-) before they closed, Junior Cabang decided to replace the stolen Bumatay Tikis out front. Unfortunately, he chose these Tolkien Tikis carved by some forest woodcarver up North.

The original Tikis were stolen one by one during the 90s, first there were four, I got to photograph them when there were three, then two than one.
They were a GREAT example of midcentury modern Tiki stylization ! :

How could I forget those?
Oh I know why, Lapu Lapus.

Thanks for rejuvenating my memory Sven.

On 2008-02-12 10:41, OC editor wrote:
[T]here was no way a minor remodel could happen...

So the choices were basically close it, level it or try to play the system a little. But there was really no practical way the much-loved Hawaiian would remain as was...

So now many long-time lovers of the Hawaiian are boycotting, giving it up for dead, which is too bad.

[ Edited by: OC editor 2008-02-12 10:46 ]

This reminds me of the theory of Plato's boat (or is it Aristotle's boat?), which postulates that if you construct something original and then replace most of the parts over time, is the thing still the original entity or is it something completely new?

This seems to be the same in the case of the Royal Hawaiian. If they removed just about everything, replaced it with new stuff, but kept the name and (updated) theme, then is it still the Royal Hawaiian?

And at the risk of digressing, what is wrong with NIMBYism? If, for example, some toll road company wanted to run a 6 lane concrete freeway behind what was once pristine wilderness behind your home, is it bad that you are a NIMBY? I'm not bashing you OC, but I don't see NIMBYism as being a bad thing.

Good, bad, or ugly...the Royal Hawaiian just doesn't feel like a tiki bar anymore. The kitsch factor is gone. Its true that the place had seen better days before the renovations - it was dank and had a peculiar smell that I wouldn't exactly call "pleasant." Still - the pufferfish lamps over the bar and the drinks made it worth while.

It bums me out, because it was one of my favorite places for drink when I lived in Laguna Beach. Every visiting friend from LA, NorCal, or the E. Coast had to come to the Royal Hawaiian for a Lapu Lapu, because it felt like an authentic bit of old SoCal. Unfortunately, that's just not the case anymore. Oh, well - at least I can say I remember it as it was.

Are there any Tiki's remaining?

How can tikis as large and distinctive as those Bumatay carvings just disappear? Where do they go? Are there secretive tiki hoarders?

yes.there are many tiki hoarders out there.the best part about that is when they sell their stuff most people have never seen it before.

Time for the Tiki-Squad to raid the Long Beach neighborhood's backyards and dens, and check for unregistered Tikis without a license!
Can someone here design a Tiki-Squad BADGE, please? :D

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2008-02-26 18:48 ]

If anyone is planning to go to the Royal Hawaiian right now for anything other than their food, prepared to be let down. The renovation is mostly complete. I don't know what else they are going to do, but it now has great lighting fixtures, and bare beige walls. While I was there the owner was covering up as much of the bare walls as he could by stapling photos of patron printed on plain white 8.5x11" paper. He did say the fish are coming back, but if that's all, I won't be.

The Mai Tai was so-so. The Navy Grog was weak. The ribs were good but nothing special.

I was there a week ago and the place was very shiney and sparse. Not at all like a tiki bar. A few Oceanic lamps here and there...but that's it. The hip-hop music was loud and there was very little feeling of the old Royal Hawaiian.

However, though nothing was served in bowls or mugs, the bartender did tell me that they had purchased all of the drink recipes from the previous owner. I ordered the Lapu Lapu, and it was great. So...unless they really bring in a lot more decor...the bottom line is-

No, there is no tiki lounge in Laguna.
Yes, there is a place to get a tiki cocktail in Laguna.

(On the plus side, a lot of people in the bar seemed to be drinking a Lapu Lapu...though the bartender told me that most people are just ordering it because it has a lot of booze)

(On the plus side, a lot of people in the bar seemed to be drinking a Lapu Lapu...though the bartender told me that most people are just ordering it because it has a lot of booze)

There you have it, the real reason we all love tiki. :D