san francisco / monterey/ santa barbara report

Hit the tonga room on our trip and WOW!, what a joint.Sure the drinks are just o.k., but the decor is out of this world.I figured that I had seen it all, but this place rocked.In monterey, I found my old seafood place(the fish hopper) to have some good tiki drinks and oceanic decor, plus unreal food.Sunday night we hit chucks steak house in santa barbara which had torches-a-burning outside and a great carved front door......and 1 fish trap lamp, thats it!.The food did kick ass.the best part came on monday morning when we went to goleta and hit alphies for breakfast.This place is so beautiful I was blown away.It is run by a cool hawaiian family that had no idea they were in the tiki road trip book ,and they got a real kick about the write up.Unreal carvings all over by the husband and good food too.Oh yea, they had a cool STUFFED SEA TURTLE to boot!.Pics coming soon.TWT


keep the rubber side down ,the gas on and the commies on the run!

[ Edited by: twowheelin'tiki on 2003-07-15 20:25 ]

[ Edited by: twowheelin'tiki on 2003-07-15 20:34 ]

[ Edited by: twowheelin'tiki on 2003-07-15 20:39 ]

[ Edited by: twowheelin'tiki on 2003-07-15 23:51 ]

Hey TW,
I was at the Hopper and all around the Cannery friday night.I think I took a few years off my life in one night, but what a party. The bikes, woman and energy,etc.
The track wasn't as crowded as it was a few years ago, but what a great race just the same. Sorry we didn't connect.

unga, so sorry we did not hook up, but I zoned on your ph# location(it was in my tiki road trip!)and I did not find it till later on sunday night.Cannerey row was amazing!, so many rare bikes came out, I had a sore neck from gawking.Next t ime we will hook up.

Twowheelin' tiki:

Good review, but is Chuck's worth a trip to SB?

What is the decor like at Chucks?
Also, what is the typical entree price?

Thanks.

chucks is a great place to eat IF you are in S.B.The decor in chucks was boring as can be. Artsy weak hawaiian paintings and only 1 tiki item inside(the fish trap light)The food was maybe $20.00 per plate.I would go only if you are going to check out all the cool spots like state street and SAMBOS, the very last one. Alphies is worth a good look and made S.B. worth it.

[ Edited by: twowheelin'tiki on 2003-07-16 13:19 ]

My cousin told me about some tiki place in Sb that has just opened up? I think it is just a restaurant, no hooch. info to follow.

Chiki, I think that you are thinking about the Kahuna Grill in the El Caminio Market Place, Goleta. I love the place. They do have Tikis, a killer fish tank, vintage surf boards, posters, and other related ephemera. The food is also killer! I usually get the fish sandwich (sourdough bread toasted, grilled fish fillet not fried, shredded letuce, and a great home made tartar sauce with dill)and a Hawaiian shake (Vanilla Ice cream, coconut, pinapple, and hawaiian punch syrup)mmmmmmm. They also have a couple of TV's running vintage surf movies. Oh, the onion rings kick ass too! You can drink beer and wine there but no hard booze, I live around the corner, so that is no problem for me, I make the Mai Tais as needed.

Cheers,

KT

So, you guys are saying there's TWO great Tiki eateries, the Kahuna Grill and Alphie's, in little old Goleta?

Well, I'm just going to have to check out Goleta, that's all.

Santa Barbara...well...I do want to go to Sambo's. Grrrr! (patented tiger snarl, perfected at many a childhood Sambo's) Are there really, like, still silly Tiger things around and so forth? Is it orange inside at all? REALLY? talk about a nostalgia trip...I might sniffle...

tikitigervixen

Reg. Sambos:
The NAACP would love to hear that. I believe
they are the ones that got rid of them.

Sambos.....tigers???, Oh, you mean the P.C. sambos.I remember the change over when I was A kid.Public opinion changed things, not the naacp.They used to give away little black sambo punching baloons for the kids(the kind you hit and they come back up).Very bad taste .The place has goodies from all eras on display.The food is amazingly good.And I kid you not, when I found the place, I could not believe my eyes, there were people of color eating with there families!.

Now it's my turn but in reverse. Chongolia and I are leavin tonight for a weekend Surfin Safari (just in time for a little South swell!) We will be headin into Venice tomorrow for some surf and a BBQ. Then bopping around Ventura lookin for surf on Sunday. Monday we head home. Back up through Santa Barbara to hit Alphies for breakfast and possibly the Kahuna grill for lunch on Monday. We also will stop off in Pismo for some Taffy and to check out whats new at Pancho's Surf shop. That place is awesome and filled with all kids of surf, skate, hawaiiana decor. I will get some pics this time. Depending on the time we may cruise through Morro Bay. Isn't there some tiki stuff out in Morro Bay? If anybody is out checkin the surf down South and they see a GMC Safari with a Big Hawaiian stripe going around it. Thats us! Come say Aloha!

Chongolio

the only real tiki stuff in Morro Bay is the harbor hut, which has become less tiki over the years. they have three maybe four tikis out front of various sizes. the buildings style is interesting and might be worth a look at if your down that way. if you go to San Luis Obispo (SLO) there is a tiki carver behind some shops by the creek in downtown, he seems to be closed though every time i go so it might be hit or miss.

speaking of Sambo's i have a couple old match book covers somewhere, i have no idea where i got them.

[ Edited by: Octane on 2003-07-18 10:28 ]

Chongolio,
In Pismo, you can buy a cool t-shirt at the KonTiki Inn right off the Fwy.
http://www.kontikiinn.com/

Give my regards to rincon!

[ Edited by: Unga Bunga on 2003-07-18 12:39 ]

I dont even surf and that photo gave me WOOD!.

Well we are back in the Cruz from our trip and had a great vacation. Alphie's was very cool and the food was really good. They had a war club hanging on the wall that was MASSIVE and really bitchin'. We talked with the woman who owned Alphies and she was really sweet. Here name was Oni or Umi or something like that. She was pleased to hear we were tiki centralites and we found out about their place through T.C. (funny thing is that I used to live a few blocks away and never new it was a tiki place) I gave here a couple tiki decals and she was genuinely stoked. We didn't make it to the Kahuna Grill because we were In Goleta around 8:00 A.M and wanted to get more mile behind us before it got to late. Unfortunately Lake Rincon was ankle slappin when we stopped but we caught a few peelers in and around Venice and Ventura. We also saw a very interesting Polynesian style house on PCH near Topanga (across the street from Dukes up on the cliff) Sorry, no pic again cause I was drivin' My buddy said it was a fairly new structure. It looked like it was made from concrete and glass. It was a modern style, but you could see the Polynesian influence.
Here are a couple of pics I got of the big ol tikis at Pancho's surf shop in Pismo.


It seemed every surf shop in SLO had a few tikis in em' We looked around the Kon Tiki in Pismo but the only tiki we could find was the name. All in all we had a killer time and there were plenty of tikis popin up alll weekend!

Chongolio

-- I believe that our Heavenly Father invented the monkey because he was disappointed in man."
... Mark Twain

[ Edited by: Chongolio on 2003-07-22 13:06 ]

chongo, if only you would put a nice engine on your surfboard, even ankle slappers could be fun!.