Don The Beachcomber, Marina Del Rey, CA (restaurant)

Name: Don The Beachcomber
Type: restaurant
Street: 13530 Bali Way
City: Marina Del Rey
State: CA
Zip: 90292
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct

Description:
This was a full Don The Beachcomber restaurant and bar right in the marina area of Marina Del Rey, California. It was in a large round building that apparently is still standing. See the round structure in the middle of this Google Map:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?J13922A2E

It was lushly landscaped with waterfalls, streams and lots of tikis inside and out. Killer drinks and tasty (mostly Cantonese) food at a great waterfront/marina location.

If anyone has any more info, stories, menus, pictures, or links...I'd love to see 'em. Thanks.

[ Edited by: PremEx 2006-11-15 19:33 ]

We used to go to this Don's all the time in the late 70's to the early 80's. We just loved the place!

But the only "artifact" that I have after all those visits is this Polaroid taken there in 1981 by one of those ladies that came by your table with a camera:

That's me on the left in the 3-piece suit and with the plastic lei! Ugh! :wink:

But other than that one photo...all I have are my memories of the place now.

Don't know what ever came after it. One day we just came there to dine and it was something else (a Mexican restaurant, I think). Really missed her!

[ Edited by: PremEx 2006-11-15 18:29 ]

Soooooo...

I was headed down the 405 freeway coming from the San Fernando Valley this afternoon, and I really didn't have to be back at the office for any particular reason...so I took the Marina Del Rey turnoff to visit the site and see if I could do a little detective work on this former location of Don The Beachcomber.

Afraid to report that based upon my success...it appears I'm not much of a Colombo. :wink:

Headed down Bali Way and nothing much has changed in the whole area except perhaps the palm trees have grown a bit taller. And right there was the building that at first glance looked just like the last time I had seen it over 20 years ago.

(Apologies for the crummy photo quality. The only camera I had with me was the one in my cell phone.)

The distinctive round structure with its nipple crown:

...and its Polynesian style influenced curved outward buttresses:

I then scoured the area looking for any artifacts of the old Don's, but there appeared to be none with no tikis at all and the little creek and pond filled in with just grass now:

But then at the far end I did discover one piece from the Don days...this now-dry lava rock terraced waterfall that used to be the start of the stream and koi pond feature:

...but again as you can see, the basin of the waterfall and ponds has been filled in. I did also spot part of the original recirculation system for this old water feature. I remember this area being so beautiful at night, with all the landscaping and lighting it used to feature. I could almost hear the sounds of the falls in my mind as I was standing there. This area was also viewable from inside the restaurant, though the windows.

What landscaping remains, is still being maintained to some degree.

The entrance to the restaurant had a paper sign taped to it saying that all deliveries should be made to the Marina Del Rey Hotel next door. There were new Venetian blinds on all the windows, but one had a gap in it that I peeked through and saw somewhat new currently unused office space inside, finished in gray-painted drywall with drop-ceiling tiles. All that great woodwork and vaulted ceilings hidden from view now. :(

I decided to walk over to the hotel to see if they could provide any info to what happened to all the tiki, or if they had any photos, or if anyone there even worked there back then that remembered it when it was Don's. The Front Desk turned me on to one of the maintenance guys that had worked there the longest, but even he didn't work there that far back when it was Don's. But he did remember when it was Don's because he said when he first moved to the area...he got drunk there at Don's bar when he was just 14 years old! :)

He then went on to tell me that some time ago they gutted the whole interior of the building and there is nothing left of any restaurant inside now. They finished off the interior as office space and they've put it on the market trying to find someone to rent the building for their business.

Walking back to Don's from the hotel, I snapped this shot of the backside where you can see where the kitchen section came off the back end of the main circular building:

Anyway...that's about it. I was hoping someone at the hotel had maintained a small archive or scrapbook of the hotel's history and perhaps Don's too, but they didn't have any. I don't know if the hotel owned the building when it was Don the Beachcomber. But they own it now, apparently.

Being there today really brought back a lot of fond memories. The place would still make a great location for a tiki bar and restaurant. :)

Good work, anyway, PremEx. Thanks for the time and effort and for sharing it.

I would like to photograph the interior and if anyone has a suggestion (other than breaking in) I would appreciate it. The building is standing empty next to the Marina Del Rey Hotel to which it is attached.

Thanks for the additional pictures! :)

I would like to photograph the interior and if anyone has a suggestion (other than breaking in) I would appreciate it. The building is standing empty next to the Marina Del Rey Hotel to which it is attached.

I would suggest simply calling the hotel and asking someone if it's possible. They do take prospective lessees through there on site inspections. On my impromptu visit, I asked about going inside and was told the person I needed to speak with was away that day, so that was that for me. But they all seemed very friendly and I got the feeling they'd be glad to accommodate a simple fan on a nostalgic re-visit.

As I said above, it's been converted to office space inside and they are trying to rent it to some business tenant. I was able to see in one of the windows that was partially open as I also mentioned above.

I am pretty sure it is completely gutted. This was the site of a legendary auction in the 80's, after its closure. Apparently quite a few artifacts had migrated from the original Hollywood Beachcomber to here (after ITS closure), and original celebrity chopsticks in their bamboo cases (BOT p.74) as well as original Leetegs (!) were sold off for a few dollars. I was still new in town then, and only heard about it afterwards...

I returned to photograph in better light yeasterday and made an interesting discovery. Behind this wall of bamboo were remnants of the original panels that were gutted.

[ Edited by: Ojaitimo 2007-01-06 22:27 ]

Wow! Thanks everyone who has gone to such lengths to share all these memories wth the rest of us! I'm really going down memory lane as this is where I took my prospective bride to ask if she would marry me back in July of 1982. Well, it worked as we will be celebrating our 25th this year. Don's was one of our favs, both Hollywood & Marina del Rey locations. Such atmosphere!

I'll let you in on a little secret about this restaurant. If you want to see the interior, rent a copy of "Loverboy" starring a little known young man at the time, Patrick Dempsy! (of Grey's Anatomy fame). It is actually a funny little show & I think you'll enjoy it. At the end of the movie, the parents celebrate with a party for something, anyway, they hold it at Don's & you'll see quite a bit of the interior before it was destroyed.

Enjoy!
Kahuna

Lets buy it, Open it up.

Believe me I'd like to reopen it but the Pacific Hotel group has other plans for the space. I was attempting to negotiate the space for a installation of Don's houseboat and bar but I was turned down. My brother had expressed an interest in turning the interior into an enviromental installation.
When I spoke to them about the space for a possible installation, the person had never heard of Don the Beachcomber or his history as the father of American tiki.
I can only imagine what they have in mind for that space but if someone was serious about reopening it they would probably listen, (I suggested that he research Don the Beachcomber on google to get a background on him)
I just wrote to Don's widow Phoebe and her husband Arnold today and invited them here with the link so hopefully they will weigh in on this if they read this.
Heres to Lt. Col Don Beach, this Febuary 22 at the Warehouse 4Pm to 9PM PST we are celebrating his 100th birthday celebration. I will have a display of images and I hope to see some of you there.
We will be making a side trip(Via taxi) to pay homage to Don at his old restaurant and toast him there. Thanks to Lee Spencer the owner of the Warehouse restaurant, who wants to honor Lt. Col. Don Beach along with us. Hope to see some of you there or online at that time. I will log onto Tiki Central & Tiki Shout and let you know what we are doing.
Big Kahuna, thanks for the tip about the interior.
( Grog, you can come but not with the club as Kenny won't be there if you bring it)

Tim Ojaitimo

All the world is a stage and all men and women merely players, they have their entrances and exits and one man in his life plays many parts. William Shakespere

Life is a state of mind

[ Edited by: Ojaitimo 2007-01-23 20:29 ]

I recieved this letter today from Phoebe Beach

(Quote)
Aloha Tim...

Thank you for your e-mail. We will check out Tiki Central on the
Internet.

We are glad you enjoyed our book, HAWAII Tropical Rum Drinks & Cuisine
by Don the Beachcomber. It was fun to put together, but most of the
Don the Beachcomber story unfortunately could not be included in the
book because it was orignally supposed to be a recipe book. We were
fortunate to have even a portion of his story included, and this
happened only because the girls at Mutual Publishing were fascinated
by Donn's accomplishments and his life's story.

Donn Beach - a.k.a. Don the Beachcomber - was a remarkable man. His
career took him all around the world, and his contributions to the
tourist industry throughout the nations of the Pacific Rim were
numerous. He may be best remembered for his many exotic tropical rhum
concoctions and his tiki theme restaurants, especially his favorite,
the original Don's Beachcomber restaurant on McCadden Street in
Hollywood where be became good friends with many of Hollywood's stars,
and the place where most of those drinks were invented. But Donn was
a visionary whose many ideas were far ahead of their time, yet, today,
they can be found in use at tourist destinations all all around the
world.

We will celebrate Donn on his 100th birthday here in New Zealand where
we are vacationing.

Thanks again for your e-mail.

Aloha, Phoebe and Arnold

Thursday February 22, 2007 is Donn Beach's 100th. A few of us are meeting at the Warehouse next to this former Don the Beachcomber and plan to head over at sunset to toast the father of American tiki. Please join us between 4:30 PM & 5:30 PM for happy hour at the Warehouse restaurant when we will carpool over to pay homage to him.

Cool postcard find there. Thanks! That's the kind of Don's Marina Del Rey location memorabilia I was looking for in my Post #1 of this thread!

Too soon for me to know if I'll be in town on the 22nd for this remembrance of Don's and Donn. But I'm gonna try like heck to be there! :)

For whatever it's worth (probably quite a lot, actually, in more ways than ONE) a very dear friend of mine was one of the fortunate folks who attended that legendary Don The Beachcomber auction and, as a result, still has a large amount of the interior decor of the Marina Don's! Currently in storage, he's got a number of float lights, a slew of the framed celebrity and party photos that lined some of the walls, and, coolest of all (among lots of other cool stuff), he's got a bunch of the towering, intricately carved wooden wall panels which Oceanic Arts made for the restaurant way back when! Amazing, or WHAT? Anyway, he seems open to the idea of selling his Beachcomber collection, though I'm sure it's gonna be for a heckuva lot more clams than it cost him at the auction when they practically couldn't GIVE the stuff away!

Mahalo, Castaway Clemens

ADDENDUM: Check out page 76 of the original hardcover edition of 'The Book Of Tiki' for a big, beautiful color shot of what is quite possibly the Marina Don's in all it's nocturnal glory, with torches ablaze and the waterfall cascading beautifully. You can clearly see what a classy and gorgeous environment it was. But not being able to locate any exterior pics of the Dallas D-the-B's (the OTHER UFO-shaped Don's), it hard to be sure, definitively, which one it is.

ADDED-ADDENDUM: I've since spoken to the Man, himself, SvenTiki, who told me that photo is of the D-The-B's in Texas, not SoCal. The tip-off is the upward-slanting end-tips of the spoke-like roof beams.

[ Edited by: KreepyTiki 2008-07-13 11:53 ]

Does anyone know if the building is still there and what's there now ?

On 2008-07-12 21:43, TraderJohn wrote:
Does anyone know if the building is still there and what's there now ?

Yes, the building is still there and it is now offices for the Marina Del Rey Hotel. This picture was taken two weeks ago.

I wonder if they would like to rent the space for a Restaurant ?????

[ Edited by: TraderJohn 2008-07-12 23:23 ]

Art Snyder is opening a DTB in Marina Del Rey and Las Vegas.
I took these photos the other day, looks like some improvements are being made, Maybe he is reopening here. Anyone know?

wow this will be very interesting.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Isn't Snyder the guy that bought the Don The Beachcomber name at the Palm Springs Don The Beachcomber sale? He supposedly has been trying to do something with the name ever since. It is unfortunate that he does not seem to see the value in the research of such Don The Beachcomber aficionados as Jeff Berry, who is certainly among those to be credited with having resurrected the name.

Snyder seems to be an "old school" kind of a guy, in the good and in the bad sense: A man who does things "his own way":

WIKIPEDIA says:

Arthur K. Snyder is a lawyer and was a politician in Los Angeles, California. During his time as a politician he was known as Art Snyder but later in life has taken to using his formal name.
Art Snyder joined Los Angeles City Council in 1967. He represented the Fourteenth District, which includes the communities of Eagle Rock, Highland Park, and Boyle Heights. He gained office upon the death of Councilman John Holland, whom he had served as Chief of Staff. Snyder was later elected and remained in office through re-election until resigning amid a sexual scandal involving his daughter and another young woman in January 1985, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Snyder occupied his seat at a time of demographic transformation, when the population of his district was rapidly becoming Latino-majority. In 1971, a state supreme court decision (Calderon v. Los Angeles) illegalized the city's existing scheme of dividing districts based on registered voters rather than eligible voters. In the wake of that decision, the Council voted almost unanimously (Snyder offered the only dissenting vote) to redraw the Fourteenth District to reflect its Latino majority.
Even without the benefits of gerrymandering, Snyder continued to represent the district. His constituent service and efforts to remain in contact with his changing district allowed him to survive politically as his district changed to become over 75% Hispanic, despite a number of challenges, two failed recall efforts, and lawsuits by Snyder against contenders.
Still, by the early 1980s his continued position seemed an anachronism. In the 1982 election that finally saw Latino politicians return to the council, challenger Steve Rodriguez nearly forced a run-off, failing primarily because he lacked strong support from other Latino politicians.
After the second recall, Snyder eventually resigned before the end of his term amid the scandal of a messy divorce from the second of his three wives, and claims of child molestation against him by his daughter Erin Marisol Snyder. During a hearing on those charges Snyder pleaded the Fifth Amendment dozens of times. a few years later, Snyder's daughter later recanted her accusations of molestation, and after a financial settlement with his second wife, lived with Snyder.
Snyder later became a lobbyist and in 1996 was found guilty of an elaborate money laundering scheme whereby various friends, relatives and associates made campaign donations to politicians and were then repaid with money from his clients. At the time the Los Angeles Times stated his fine by the California Fair Political Practices Commission was the largest ever. In 2001 he was temporarily disciplined by the California State Bar Association, and had to stop the practice of law for six months, as a result of his 1996 conviction.
Snyder is presently a semi retired lawyer and real estate investor with holdings in Las Vegas and Texas. He maintains his Eagle Rock home as a Law office serving his friends and former clients on a part time basis.

WOW, does this bring back memories!
I lived on my boat(s) directly in front of DTB's for about 15 years, and spent quite a bit of time there. Mostly Happy Hour time, as it was THE hangout for a lot of the boating professionals who lived and/or worked in Marina del Rey. Lots of celebrities would come in there too. The Polynesian Revue was very popular.
I remember all the blowfish lamps hanging over the bar. One of them fell one time and hit a friend of mine's hand, which got infected. Not sure if it was remnant blowfish poison or just the dust and muck on it. Those blowfish lamps are hard to clean. (g)
Last time I was at the site was around 1996, and it was closed up and looked the same as the photos here from a few weeks ago.
Thanks for the thread and the photos!

I have met and talked to Art before, seams like a stand-up guy to me. The landscaping at his is Eagle Rock house is impressive.

On 2009-01-17 23:26, Tiki Diablo wrote:
I have met and talked to Art before, seams like a stand-up guy to me. The landscaping at his is Eagle Rock house is impressive.

Very Aisan styled....good stuff!

On 2009-01-14 07:14, Ojaitimo wrote:
Art Snyder is opening a DTB in Marina Del Rey and Las Vegas.
I took these photos the other day, looks like some improvements are being made, Maybe he is reopening here. Anyone know?

p.s. i heard through the grapevine that this property is

going to become a "Trader Dick's".

are you people serious about this? i just drove by the place and it doesn't look like there is any work being done there. frankly i'm fascinated by the idea of this location reopening as a tiki bar/restaurant, so i hope there is some truth to this.

[ Edited by: mattesq 2009-01-28 14:12 ]

On 2009-01-28 12:40, mattesq wrote:
are you people serious about this? i just drove by the place and it doesn't look like there is any work being done there. frankly i'm fascinated by the idea of this location reopening as a tiki bar/restaurant, so i hope there is some truth to this.

[ Edited by: mattesq 2009-01-28 14:12 ]

Just pulling your wooden leg.... :wink:

The Style Network is showing Loverboy a few times this week if you'd like to get a small dose of the Marina Del Rey Don's.

Screen grabs courtesy of Mr. Bali Hai

Wow!

I was watching some episodes from Dexter (Showtime series about a Miami serial killer, awesome show!) over the weekend. I thought that show was all shot on location down in South Florida. But in Season 4 when Dexter crashes his car, he has to stop by the pharmacy. I thought the scene looked familiar, then here it was. They were using the old Don's in Marina Del Rey as the pharmacy when Dex gets out and explores around the exterior of the place for a few mintues (mostly digging in the dumpster).

Bora Boris,

Thanks for posting those screengrabs, great shots of the place in all of its glory.

I stopped by the building on Monday on my way to lunch at the Warehouse Restaurant which is right down the street. Happy to report that the building is still there in the same historic condition.

I saw this sign out front - a notice of an environmental impact report for development at the site which concerned me!

I went on line today to check it out. The Marina Del Rey Hotel, located next door, is applying for a major remodel, including the Don The Beachcomber building. The good news is the the building is not going to be torn down. Here is the site plan and elevations from the MND website.

The bad news is that the plans indicate that the DTB building is going to get a new tile roof and a coat of white paint, and is going to be used for offices and a spa.

If you haven't seen the old gal you should make a point of stopping by before it gets the make over. It is only a few minutes from the 405 and the lunch at the Warehouse was quite good. You can get the Rum Barrel and keep the mug for $10.

DC

Wow - thanks for the update DC... it's good news that this classic building will survive, but sad to know it will most likely be stripped of any remaining visible signs of its former self. I gotta add this to my socal tour I'm planning...

Here's the aerial view of the UFO from 1972 ~

On 2010-02-08 18:06, Bora Boris wrote:
The Style Network is showing Loverboy a few times this week if you'd like to get a small dose of the Marina Del Rey Don's.

Screen grabs courtesy of Mr. Bali Hai

Just saw this post on the previous page. Call me kuku, but that Tiki in the foreground looks like it's from the same prop smith than the three on the Waltons set (incl. the Peewee Tiki). No it is not the SAME than anyone of the three, but the style and fiberglass make me think that it was made by the same maker.

Oh, and this rendering belongs in this thread too:

Gone baby gone. On of the longest extant Tiki temple ruins, now a construction site. Last time I saw it, we had fun. Thanks John-0:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=39471&forum=17&start=90

Not completely gone, just remodeled. The "bones" are still there. I took this photo today...

Great thread.

John-O,

Thanks for the photo update. Glad I got to see it a few times before the remodel. I sure hope someone saved those front doors. Here is a really old aerial shot of the UFO building.

DC

On 2014-08-22 14:43, Dustycajun wrote:
Glad I got to see it a few times before the remodel. I sure hope someone saved those front doors.

We did! And we can't believe it's taken us so long to get back on this thread, but hey, these last years have been nonstop urban archeology out in the field -- no time to post or catch up, we'll save that for retirement!

Saving the doors was a must. To think of all the tiki greats who walked through those doors ... Paul Page, Donn Beach, and who even knows who else ... and besides that, we just flat-out loved this place. Even though we never knew it as an operational restaurant or when the doors actually opened to somewhere. It was our favorite site of "abandoned tiki" anywhere and we always made time for it.

JOHN-O's Westside Nautical Bar Tour caught it all at a perfect moment. DtB was still long closed, but the remnants were there, and there wasn't any talk yet of "revitalization," which is sure to incinerate every last piece of historic interest or character in the area...

Marina del Rey in its 60s/70s heyday was right up our alley ... Paul Page in one of several area lounges including Pieces of Eight, Burt Hixson hanging up the World Famous Restaurants International plaque in the lobby of The Warehouse, location shots being made for shows like Mannix and Fantasy Island, and the "marina swinger" style as described in BOT was in full swing. Very cool.

So those plans posted earlier in this thread made us uneasy -- we knew that chances were very slim that something good was going to come to this. We got out there about a day after bigbro posted about its end, and sure enough the scene was horrific:

All the concrete 'spider legs' were gone, all the walkways gone, even the dock pilings gone...

But, spotted right there in the wreckage:

The door!

We talked to some of the workers who thought we were crazy but eventually they did get the foreman. And the foreman, upon hearing that we were from his home state of Ohio, said that he'd do us a favor -- and in a moment we were on our way with the last chunk of the door:

We ran into the groundskeeper Domingo (whom we'd interviewed before because he knew DtB back in the heyday and is full of great stories), who eyed us suspiciously as we tried to figure out how to get this huge chunk of wood in the back of the car. "Are you sure you're allowed to be doing that?" he asked. We told him yes, we just talked to the foreman. He too walked away thinking we were crazy -- but he admitted that I was wearing the right shirt for the job!

We brought it out to Bob and LeRoy at OA and talked to the guys about when they first built it. LeRoy remembered the pickled cedar that he used for the door. They arranged to ship it back to us via freight along with a daggerboard LeRoy had carved...

As it turned out there was dry rot in the wood and it took a whole lot of Git Rot to fix it ... and then coats and coats of marine varnish. Luckily no teenage hoodlums discovered our garage that summer because the smell was pretty constant:

All done and in the Treasure Island Room:

Also for completeness, some shots of the interior when it was still a restaurant, circa 1989 (from Loverboy). They renamed it "Tiki Joe's" for the film ... a lot of big lamps and lights in the interiors, which give it the look. Also a tiki from the back of the building that we haven't seen before, and there's an area in the lobby with a big interesting tiki guy, a volcano that lights, and a hula girl mannequin:

Screen grab from Falcons Crest TV show with a giant clam shell drink shot at the Marina Del Rey Don the Beachcomber.

I remember drinking those for happy hour at the DTB in Santa Barbara.

DC

On 2016-03-20 21:23, mike and marie wrote:
Also for completeness, some shots of the interior when it was still a restaurant, circa 1989 (from Loverboy). They renamed it "Tiki Joe's" for the film ... a lot of big lamps and lights in the interiors, which give it the look. Also a tiki from the back of the building that we haven't seen before, and there's an area in the lobby with a big interesting tiki guy, a volcano that lights, and a hula girl mannequin:

The odd thing is that the interior looks like a set - especially compared to the Dallas interiors. Too many bamboo/rattan wall pieces, with no Tiki columns, too many palm fronts hanging about. All the Tikis, the lamps and the mannequin were rentals from Oceanic Arts, and then they got a bunch peacock chairs and rattan furniture to fill the space.

My guess is that they shot the film on location, but the restaurant had already been closed and denuded of all of its decor, and they brought in a truckload of O.A. props.

On 2016-09-04 23:28, bigbrotiki wrote:

My guess is that they shot the film on location, but the restaurant had already been closed and denuded of all of its decor, and they brought in a truckload of O.A. props.

Great theory! Next time we see them we will ask the guys if they remember that.

Mike and Marie, great job on the door and the coffee table, glad it went to someone who will appreciate it.

I found some more old photos of the Marina Del Rey Don's that gave me a hold-on-a-second moment. This photo from 1962 shows a different looking building than the round UFO dome we have all come to know.

You can see the same building outline in the aerial photo I posted a while back.

I guessing that is why the current version under construction looks like the original zig zag roof style.

The building got the domed roof retrofit the late 1960s.

Here is a photo of the bar area on one of the round sides.

DC

MnM- door/table/awesome....

D.C.- as always, nice pics...

Thanks, guys! We still wonder if anyone saved the wood planks with "Aloha" that was above the door, but at this point figure it's gone to dust...

Dusty, great pics as always!

One thing, though. We know we've seen this interior before. Doesn't seem right -- notice the walls are not curved. But it still feels like retro Marina del Rey. Wait, isn't this a pic of Pieces of Eight?

Oh yes it is ... some guy named 'Dustycajun' posted it three years ago! :lol:

[ Edited by: mike and marie 2017-04-09 15:21 ]

On 2017-04-09 15:20, mike and marie wrote:
Oh yes it is ... some guy named 'Dustycajun' posted it three years ago! :lol:

Aaah, take your pick.

Too funny.