The Tiki's of Palo Alto Trader Vic's

I ducked into Trader Vic's Palo Alto (had to work till 10, damn) and saw all the happy folks on the Tiki Crawl. But it made me wonder if all the Tiki's inside and out were new (when it opened a few years ago), antiques from an oceanic art source, or from an old Trader Vic's (before the warehouse purge)?

p.s. It was cool to see Hanford, Humuhumu et al across the room. Now I can put a face to the post.

It's my understanding that most of (or all of) the PNG artifacts are from the personal collection of the owner of that particular Palo Alto Trader Vic's franchise. He is supposed to have a very large and vast collection of PNG art, and it's all the real deal.

Oh hey, you stopped by during The Crawl? You should have popped in and said hello! A bunch of us meet at Trader Vic's Palo Alto about once a month or so, you should come and hang out the next time we're all there.

Hey let me know the next time you go. I would love to meet up with some folks from Tiki Central.

Will do. We'll try to post, or something, the next time we go. Some times it's spur of the moment, some times it's planned.

I was just amazed walking around Palo Alto Vic's. Every time you turn a corner
there's another beautiful PNG piece. Not as extensive as the collection at the
De Young, but it's almost really like going to a museum. Not to mention they
don't have mai tais at the De Young.

From what I was told by the Manager, Radeem, that the entire collection was owned (I say was as he has recently passed away and therefore I would assume his estate now owns it) by the owner of Trader Vic's Palo Alto and is valued at roughly five million dollars. It is the real deal and includes original paintings by Vic himself. Check out the wall in the main dining room and above the stairs going down to the restrooms.

Hey SuperEight, I'll PM you next time we go, usually on Wed. evenings. Maybe even post as a topic as there were a few other South Bay TCer's I met on the Crawl that were also interested. Stay tuned...