Urban archeology--- Mr. Hess' Gorgeous Tiki backyard that Kirby stumbled onto

Kirby's mom called him the other day and told him she saw a yard sale and the guy had a bunch of bamboo and tells him he should check it out. Kirbs drives over there and meets Mr. Hess and mentions to him that he's got a tiki room. Mr. Hess then invites Kirby inside to see his tiki room and back yard he's had for 30 some odd years, and Kirby is awestruck. He tells Kirby he should meet his son, Dean who also has a tiki bar and is selling some stuff.
The next day GROG ride with Kirby and meet Dean's wife and she shows us their tiki patio with bar. Dean was at an art show selling some of his metal work sculptures, so we didn't get to meet him that day. Kirbs and I purchase various things, and head over to Dean's dad's house, and Kirbs introduce GROG to Mr. Hess, who is an awesome metal work artist. He took us inside to see his Tiki bar and back yard and on the way through the house showed us this incredibly beautiful motorized carousel he worked on for 35 years. We then went on to see his tiki room and backyard, and various tikis he had about the house, including a fern tiki he had bought in Hawaii many years ago and had shipped to the mainland for $5 (at that time). He said the back yard has changed over the 30 years he's had it. The two tierd yard has beach sand in the bottom part wheras it used to be in the top part. GROG and Kirby not have cameras, but Mr. Hess was kind enough to lend GROG some of his pics to scan and post on TC. These are from earlier on when the sand was in the upper level, so it's a bit different now. Enjoy.

This is the upper part when it had the sand.

And this lower part is where the sand is now (less tracking sand in the house)

Some guests enjoying themselves at one of his luaus. Recognize anyone?

Maybe a closer shot of these two will help.

GROG looking forward to going back to return the pictures and visit a little more.
Mr. Hess is a really kind man and very gracious to show us around and lend GROG
some photos to post on TC.
GROG not sure, but GROG thought that Dean' wife say Dean is member of TC, if so then---
BAD DEAN!! Why you hold out on TC and not post pics of your dad's wonderful 30 year old tiki backyard paradise?
Shame on you!
Heres a link to their metal sculpture sight: http://hessoriginals.com/home

Vote for GROG' niece:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=32112&forum=15&9

[ Edited by: GROG 2009-04-29 18:51 ]

[ Edited by: GROG 2009-04-30 08:44 ]

ooOOOooo aaaAAAAAaa wooooOOOooow

Wow! What a hidden treasure.

Holy Guacamole... The "Club 33" of Tiki palaces! (Exclusive Membership in evidence, too.) Oooo.

Wow, what an awesome backyard!

Their metalwork sculptures are impressive too

[ Edited by: hewey 2009-04-29 20:04 ]

The Hess' are a great family with great tiki taste, They all ended up hangin with us at the rumpus room this tuesday and we had a great time..I look forward to hangin again real soon.Hopefuly we can get some more pics and update you more on Mr Hess' great tiki paradise. I also think it would be great to have an article in Tiki mag about It..Another interesting coincidence Is that I happened to go to school with MR.Hess' other son mark, small world. I m so happy my mom happend upon his yard sale..

Awesome!

Cool pics and story...thanks Grog.

thank you to Kirby's mom.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Sweet Spread!!

It's also wonderful to see the kid following in Pop's footsteps...Pop's there is one damn fine metal smith...you all need to follow links to his work.

Very cool stuff.

Kirby was hassling GROG about the thread title, so GROG change it.

A classic backyard Shangri-La!

WOW!! That's freakin cool!!

Holy Cow !

Mr Hess and his son were really cool peeps...I was chatting with them at the Rumous Room.

Wow!

Beautiful!!!

Wish I could spend some drinking time there....

Wow!!!

Thanks for posting guys!

A treasure unearthed indeed. Grog lucky to post these heirloom photos.

I guess this the first vintage tiki environment (re) discovery for 2009?

Kirby - I salute your ability to follow-up on leads so quickly otherwise we may not have been exposed to this beautiful work.

I hope to meet Mr. Hess someday at the Rumpus Room. Mr. Hess - Please post something!

Cheers!

Grog, Kirby, great find!!!!! This was great!

Amy

Hey GROG great article on my dad's place! This past week has been great getting to know some great new tiki friends. Of course I would have shared this with everyone but believe it or not I was not a TC member (just signed up today!). I look forward to getting back to my tiki roots through this site and will post some photos of my bar (The Sneaky Tiki) soon!

[ Edited by: TikiTorch 2009-04-30 14:26 ]

TikiTorch!
Welcome to TC!
Always fun to unearth hidden Tiki Treasures!
Thank you,your pop,Kirby's mom, and Ernie
for sharing this with us all!
:)

Welcome aboard TikiTorch! Post, and post often... you are surrounded with Ohana.

Wow! It's pretty wild to stumble on so much Tiki outside of Tiki Central...

Wow...that is some fabulous yard of tropical splendor!!! Thanks for the link to the sculptures, very talented.

What an unreal place!! I can only imagine how you must have felt checking it all out for the first time! What an experience! It seems to go on and on with collectibles and cool stuff all over. So nice of Mr.Hess to do the invite and lend out the photos. Awesome!

Welcome aboard TikiTorch!

TabooDan

What can I say, Kirby?

Well, how about "GOOD FRICKIN' WORK", for starters!

What an awesome find! Sort of a 'Land That Time Forgot' experience, eh?

And a hearty "Aloha" to TikiTorch! (Hard to believe THAT username wasn't already taken, isn't it? Good choice, Dean!)

NOW let's see if we can persuade his DAD to be part of a So Cal Tiki Crawl, eh? :wink:

And Kirby -- I DO write for Tiki Magazine and I'd LOVE to do a piece on Mr. Hess' backyard paradise & tiki bar! So if Nick Camara gives the idea a greenlight, I'll be all OVER it! (Hopefully with JonPaul and his photographic equipment in tow!)

Cheers & Mahalo :drink: :tiki: