Club Kona, El Cerrito, CA (restaurant)

Name:Club Kona
Type:restaurant
Street:303 San pablo Avenue
City:El Cerrito
State:CA
Zip:94530
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct

Description:
My Grandparents Henry and Dolly Molino owned the Club Kona in the 30's and 40's. My brother and I have very little of the club other than a photo mailer and menus. We don't even have photos of the club, no matchbooks, postcards, glasses........ nothing...............and we are desperately looking for Club Kona memories. Any out there?

[ Edited by: theClubKonagene 2007-11-14 00:47 ]

[ Edited by: theClubKonagene 2007-11-14 00:48 ]

[ Edited by: theClubKonagene 2007-11-14 00:49 ]

Puamana opperates Arkiva Tropika. She is here on TC. Here are pics and a link to the site.




http://www.arkivatropika.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?item_id=164

email the historical society. They may have info.
http://elcerritowire.com.whsites.net/history/

HA!! "Just around the Kona"

Thanks for taking the time to post the menu and links. We have that menu (the owner is the guy my Grandfather sold the club to) and an earlier one. The El Cerrito historical society was not much help in the past. Sigh.....

Gene-
I was interested in this location because I live literally right around the "Kona" (heehee) from where this was located.
I found a lot of pictures by doing a Flickr search for Club Kona. (Mainly located here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/esfulkerson/sets/72157603971729877/ )
Here are some of them with the Flickr captions. Unfortunately I really cannot personally verify the captions are accurate:

Party in Club Kona

Kona Matchbook

Kona Photo Folder

Kona Palm Menu

Club Kona Christmas Card

Henry and Dolly in Club Kona

Henry and Barbara Softball Uniforms

I hope you and your brother enjoy these! I sure did...

[ Edited by: Pakalolo Man 2008-08-07 18:22 ]

Hi! My name is Steve Fulkerson, I am the grandson of Henry and Dollie Molino two of the original co-owners (along with my great Cousin Phil Molino. and the brother of theClubKonagene.

Many of the images in the previous post are from my Flickr site.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/esfulkerson/sets/72157603971729877/

I am always happy to share info about the old "Kona Club".
I am slowly going through the old family albums and scanning in any photos of the club I can find. We even have some 16mm film of the floor show that I will have transferred to DVD.
We are very interested in collecting ANY memorabilia from the Club. We have been able to find about 5 photo folders on ebay and a matchbook cover and two menus (one with my grand fathers handwriting on it!) I would be willing to discuss a trade for some of the photo folders.

Here is a scan from the Oakland Tribune of 19APR38 annoucing the re-opening of the rebuilt club after a fire that destroyed the original club.

Anyone got any more Kona Stuff?

Steve - I enjoyed looking at the pictures on Flickr. I copied some old newspapers from the Oakland library a while back. I'll see if I can find anything on the Kona Club.

Steve-
Thanks for gathering all those pics - I was wondering if you were related to Gene...

Can't wait to see the video of the floor show - make sure to post a link here when it's ready!

The Club Kona Menu in Mr. NoNaMe post above can be dated to from February 1948 to February 1949 when Lloyd Johnson leased the Club while the Molino's were "On Vacation".
Actually the Molinos were "on probation" for a year as the result of a gambling charge.

Here is a page from the Program for El Cerrito's 1948's Fiesta del Cerrito, note that it is listed as "Lloyd Johnson's" Club Kona.

I have also posted some more scans on my Flickr site from the Oakland Tribune, some Ads, a very rough interior picture of the New Club Kona and a picture of one of the floor show acts.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/esfulkerson/sets/72157603971729877/

BTW I have some of the bar stools pictured in the interior photo and the small "portable" bar that was used in the "back room" for private parties.

Steve Fulkerson
[email protected]

[ Edited by: esfulkerson 2008-08-27 11:53 ]

On 2008-08-07 17:48, Pakalolo Man wrote:

Party in Club Kona

What's cool about this pic is that when you blow it up the only drink name that you can read on the menu (at dead centre) is the house specialty cocktail, the Zombie:

Slightly bigger here:

https://flic.kr/p/HDES5e