Kona Inn, Kona, HI (hotel)

Name:Kona Inn
Type:hotel
Street:Alii Drive
City:Kona
State:HI
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct

Description:
One of several hotels owned by Inter-Island Resorts of Hawaii and one of the originals. I don't know when it first started, but I've seen brochures dating to the 1930's. The other hotels were: the Walaka Lodge, Naniloa, Kauai Inn and the Kauai Surf.

Defunct since the early 1980's, now there is the "historic" Kona-Inn Shopping Village where the hotel once was.

[ Edited by: Polynesiac 2008-10-09 08:56 ]

Drink menu from the 1970's. I love the cover (and the little drawings for the drinks):

Cover:

Page 1:

Page 2:

Back cover:

I found this image on the internet from one of their stock certificates - the interisland resorts had a great logo:

That orange fisherman's god cover was always one of the visual treasures in the Oceanic Arts menu collection for me. I just hesitated to incorporate it in my books so far because of the irritating "Wines" header, but it will surely make it into the Tiki shirt book, because of its pattern character.

On 2008-10-09 09:22, bigbrotiki wrote:
That orange fisherman's god cover was always one of the visual treasures in the Oceanic Arts menu collection for me. I just hesitated to incorporate it in my books so far because of the irritating "Wines" header, but it will surely make it into the Tiki shirt book, because of its pattern character.

I was thinking how that pattern and color combination would make a great shirt. Do you know if the resorts ever made this pattern into shirts for their employees?

I know! But I don't think so, or I would have come across it in my years of research. Doesn't mean it can't be done today!

Kona Inn's current restaurant is very nice. I haven't had the drinks (next time, I'll know better - I wasn't into tiki then). For antique fan nuts, the joint has a bunch of very weathered Snediker & Carr (Casablanca) belt-drive ceiling fans dating to the late 1970s, with some unusual belt layouts. And lots of gas tiki torches, though these are all over Kona.

Beware that Uncle Billy's Kona hotel is across the street, meaning after dark the creeps and thieves pop up near there.

On 2009-04-15 21:27, TorchGuy wrote:
Kona Inn's current restaurant is very nice. I haven't had the drinks (next time, I'll know better - I wasn't into tiki then). For antique fan nuts, the joint has a bunch of very weathered Snediker & Carr (Casablanca) belt-drive ceiling fans dating to the late 1970s, with some unusual belt layouts. And lots of gas tiki torches, though these are all over Kona.

Beware that Uncle Billy's Kona hotel is across the street, meaning after dark the creeps and thieves pop up near there.

That's the one bummer about Ali'i Drive. Those sketchy tweakers who hang around. Too bad because Uncle Billy's is a cool piece of Mid Century architecture, but it's a run down sh*tbox of a hotel.

Run-down hotel? Yeah it is. A few rooms boarded up - room service/cleaning use shopping carts - I am NOT kidding! Mid-century cool, though absolutely.

The Uncle Billy's in Hilo looks like it's been abandoned for 20 years from the outside but, no, it is in use. Uncle Billy (he's real) is a paraplegic or similar in a wheelchair, and is known locally for buying businesses, then running them into the ground by never spending a cent - the local legend is that family members bought his electric chair for him, as he refused.

My father bought an Uncle Billy's hot dog (that sounds disgusting, "Uncle Billy's hot dog") at a stand in Hilo. Said it was quite bad.

Here's some stuff from the late sixties. Just goes to show what Sven says rings true that Tiki was more a mainland phenomenon.
Hotel lobby

Brochure


Table ad card scanned flat and top image flipped for your viewing pleasure.

"Anyone who has ever seen them is thereafter haunted as if by a feverish dream" Karl Woermann

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2009-04-22 14:59 ]

Some outriggers in action at the Kona Inn

The Buffet

The Bar

Still no tiki.

DC

On 2009-04-22 14:57, uncle trav wrote:
Here's some stuff from the late sixties. Just goes to show what Sven says rings true that Tiki was more a mainland phenomenon.
Hotel lobby

Brochure


Table ad card scanned flat and top image flipped for your viewing pleasure.

---

"Anyone who has ever seen them is thereafter haunted as if by a feverish dream" Karl Woermann

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2009-04-22 14:59 ]

Funny, but that ain't the case now...Kona has tikis everywhere now....It's a beautiful thing.

That room is as tiki as it gets without having any Tikis in it. How cool is that place ?

Do you have your TIKIYAKI ORCHESTRA CD YET ?
http://www.myspace.com/tikiyaki
http://www.tikiyakiorchestra.com

[ Edited by: tikiyaki 2009-04-23 20:39 ]

I just don't understand...WHY would it be "as Tiki as it gets", when there is no primitive art in it? It might look like it would have LENT itself to be Tiki style IF...! This simply is tropical mid-century modern, or Polynesian pop, or Hawaiian modern.

Sorry, but this incessant need nowadays to term anything that is Hawaiian/Polynesian style as "Tiki" is misleading.
I will never tire of this: Tiki is characterized by the use of the Tiki image, and especially by the juxtaposition of primitive and (mid-century) modern style in ONE place. If it ain't got that, it's not "Tiki", it is what it always was, BEFORE the Tiki revival got people obsessed with the term: Hawaiian, or exotic, or nautical, or..... and so on.

And the reason that there are more Tikis in Kona and Hawaii nowadays is in large part because of the commercialization of the Tiki revival. I visited the big island, Oahu, Maui and Kauai during the 90s, and found less than 10% of the Tiki population that the mainland could boast. And about 8% of those were exact copies of authentic originals. It was simply not cool to use them.

On 2008-10-09 09:01, Polynesiac wrote:
Drink menu from the 1970's. I love the cover (and the little drawings for the drinks):

Cover:

Nice post, Polynesiac.

Funny, isn't the Tiki of Marquesan descent, as opposed to Hawaiian?
I wonder why the Kona Inn didn't use some of the indigenous Kona Tiki from the Place of Refuge?

[ Edited by: christiki295 2009-04-24 00:43 ]

It's a Cook Islands fisherman's god. And for every exception to the rule I can give you ten examples that prove it.