Trader Vic's, New York, NY (restaurant)

Name:Trader Vic's
Type:restaurant
Street:The Plaza Hotel, Central Park South & The Savoy Hilton, 7 East 58 St.
City:New York
State:NY
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct

Description:
Don't know much about either of these locations other than the Plaza Hotel location was closed by Donald Trump around 1989-90. The Savoy Hilton location, I'm guessing was opened before that probably in the late 50s (?) I don't know if these locations existed simultaneously, but I'm guessing again that they probably didn't. The only relic I have of the Savoy Hilton location is a postcard, a vertical image, with their phone number listed as (212) ELdorado 5-2600. Other than that I haven't seen many artifacts outside of maybe a random matchbook with the 'taboo' Trader Vic logo. If anybody has any info or images to share...please do.

The following is a 1960's postcard from the Savoy Hilton NY Trader Vic Location. Listed as "7th East 58th Street".

Looks pretty damn nice to me!! I don't know too much info. about it so hopefully someone else can add something.

The next image is a Magazine Ad (Showing 2 different colors) advertising the different things to do while at 'The Plaza' which mentions the Trader Vic's Restaurant. It is for The Plaza's "Hot Spots" or entertainment, where you can see at the top left, a Tiki Statue holding a drink. This Ad dates from the 1970's.

The last thing I can find right now is a old lunch receipt/cheque from July 9th, 1968. It's kind of interesting and has the Vic's logo at top along with "Trader Vic's at The Plaza".

Mahalo, TabooDan

Just edited to repair pictures.

[ Edited by: TabooDan 2008-10-27 16:08 ]

On 2008-02-05 23:03, TabooDan wrote:
The following is a 1960's postcard from the Savoy Hilton NY Trader Vic Location. Listed as "7th East 58th Street".

Looks pretty damn nice to me!! I don't know too much info. about it so hopefully someone else can add something.

The next image is a Magazine Ad advertising the different things to do while at The Plaza which mentions the Trader Vic's Restaurant. It is for The Plaza's "Hot Spots" or entertainment, where you can see at the top left, a Tiki Statue holding a drink. This Ad dates from the 1970's.

The last thing I can find right now is a old lunch receipt/cheque from July 9th, 1968. It's pretty cool and has the Vic's logo at top along with "Trader Vic's at The Plaza".

Mahalo, TabooDan

Thanks for the post. I think I actually have that postcard as well, I'l have to look at my collection. Hm...so that check was from the 60s at The Plaza. wonder when they got rid of the Savoy location.

Said it a million times here already, but sometime in 1989-90, me and my girlfriend at the time went to the Trader Vic's at The Plaza which was in the basement of the hotel. I'l never forget; I think I saw a hint of a thatched entrance with a gate pulled down and a sign saying something like 'closed indefinitely'. I was so CLOSE to going in there, I was soooo disappointed!!!! Needless to say, despite our hopes, the place never opened again. There was no such thing as the internet or Tiki Central back then. How did I deal??

Donhonyc,

I have a few postcards from both of the NYC Trader Vic's.

This first one is a hard to find postcard from the Savoy Hilton. This is a great scene with the huge vertical Tikis, concave roof, puffer fish, bird cages, clam shells, etc.

This second one is the standard generic Savoy card - I posted it as the other images on this page are all small.

This last one is really cool - the only one I have seen from when Trader Vic's moved to the basement at the Plaza.

Would love to see a picture of the 54-foot outrigger from the "Mutiny on the Bounty" that hung in the lobby.

DC

yet another reason to hate Donald trump

Tikiyaki,

You are right, Donald Trump is BAD!
I found this article on the New York Times archive documenting the close of the Trader Vic’s at the Plaza.

“Trader Vic's, the Polynesian bar in the Plaza that has played host to generations of moneyed gadabouts, prep school students on R&R and fans of its Samoan Fog Cutters, has ''gotten tacky'' and will be closed, the hotel's owner, Donald J. Trump, said yesterday. ''Trader Vic's does not fit in with the image of the hotel that I want to achieve,'' Mr. Trump said.

Trader Vic's will be replaced by a health club, a restaurant featuring Chinese and Japanese food and - in an adjustment sure to give some solace to grieving patrons - a bar, under Trump ownership, that will serve tropical drinks. Mr. Trump could not say yesterday whether those drinks would include floating gardenias or bristling batteries of straws.
Mr. Trump, who bought the Plaza for $390 million in March, said construction would begin in three or four months on the Oriental restaurant and the athletic club, which will feature a Nautilus weightlifting circuit and will initially be open only to hotel guests. Pooh-Poohing the 'Pu-Pu'

More than a year ago, the restaurant part of Trader Vic's, which has occupied the basement of the Plaza for almost 25 years, was closed by one of the hotel's previous owners, the Westin Hotels and Resorts Chain. The 12,000-foot restaurant space has been empty since then, but the bar has remained open, offering its popular ''pu-pu'' platter - a variety of hors d'oeuvres - and a wide assortment of customer-staggering potions.
Clint Wade, a spokesman for the Trader Vic's chain in New York, said the company hopes to run the new Oriental restaurant. But Mr. Trump said he has ''no intention of keeping Trader Vic's'' at the Plaza. ''The Trumps want to get a new looking restaurant and that is also what we want,'' Mr. Wade said. ''Sure, Trader Vic's has gotten tacky, but that's because nothing has been done to it in 12 years.''

Didier A. Peyron, president and chief executive of Trader Vic's Restaurants Inc., said he was unaware of Mr. Trump's decision and was planning to meet with him this week. ''There will definitely be a Trader Vic in New York, even if it's closed at the Plaza,'' said a surprised Mr. Peyron from his office in San Francisco, where the company is based.
Trader Vic's, with its dim, cavernous rooms topped by thatched roofs and decorated with spears and dugout canoes, remained persistently chic after its opening in 1958 at the Savoy-Plaza Hotel, now the site of the General Motors Building. Trader Vic's moved to the Plaza in 1965.
Prep-school teen-agers were lured by its drinks, which had a rum base and names like Dr. Funk of Tahiti.

President Richard M. Nixon said it was one of his favorite restaurants, and he dined there during a visit to New York in 1972. Nixon Laments Its Closing ''My entire family will be very sorry to see it close,'' Mr. Nixon said yesterday through a spokesman. ''It was always our daughters' favorite restaurant, and it quickly became mine too.''

But the restaurant also had its critics. In the 1970's, Yul Brynner told his friends to stop eating at Trader Vic's after he ate spareribs there and suffered trichinosis. He sued the restaurant in 1974 for $3 million and settled out of court four years later.

It is interesting to read that President Nixon also liked this Trader Vic’s after seeing the picture of him at the Washington D.C. Traders in a previous thread on TC.

ikitnrev wrote:
The following is a photo of President Richard Nixon, leaving the Washington D.C. Trader Vics on February 13, 1973. His wife Patricia, and daughter Tricia, are in the background

On 2008-10-21 21:30, Dustycajun wrote:
Donhonyc,

I have a few postcards from both of the NYC Trader Vic's.

This first one is a hard to find postcard from the Savoy Hilton. This is a great scene with the huge vertical Tikis, concave roof, puffer fish, bird cages, clam shells, etc.

This second one is the standard generic Savoy card - I posted it as the other images on this page are all small.

This last one is really cool - the only one I have seen from when Trader Vic's moved to the basement at the Plaza.

Would love to see a picture of the 54-foot outrigger from the "Mutiny on the Bounty" that hung in the lobby.

DC

Cool postcard from the Savoy.

[ Edited by: donhonyc 2017-08-21 20:30 ]

Awesome postcards Dustycajun!! Probably some of the coolest Trader Vic cards around!! Never seen that basement one before.

The second card, generic Savoy card, (in my post as well - Just fixed images) has got to be one of the more classic Trader Vic's as it shows everything that I think we all love about Vic's and all of that great decor being visible in one shot makes a awesome card. You can break that one down into sections and there would still be everything that made Trader Vic's decor so great! Still a card that comes up frequently as well.

Nothing too great, but here's an old matchbook cover from The Plaza location.

Mahalo, TabooDan

[ Edited by: TabooDan 2008-10-27 16:16 ]

TV's at the Plaza gets a mention at 'Lost City'. One of my favorite blogs about New York.

http://lostnewyorkcity.blogspot.com/2009/07/recipes-of-lost-city-trader-vics-mai.html

Donhonyc,

Cool article, bet they got most of the info from TC.

Some shots of the Outrigger in the lobby posted by Sven:

The Outrigger canoe that used to sit in the basement lobby to the N.Y Plaza Trader Vic's, originally from the set of 1960 version of "The Mutiny on the Bounty" with Marlon Brando:

DC

A couple of ads. Not sure of the dates though.

Nice ads Trav.

Here is a unique menu from the TVs at the Plaza.

Here is a rendering of the exterior at the Savoy.

DC

Just reading in the introduction to the novel version of '2001: A Space Odyssey' where Arthur C. Clarke mentions that his first meeting with Kubrick to discuss the project was in Trader Vic's at The Plaza. Makes sense to me!!!!

what exactly is in the plaza´s tradervics location today ?
does anybody have pictures ?

On 2009-07-12 22:04, donhonyc wrote:
Just reading in the introduction to the novel version of '2001: A Space Odyssey' where Arthur C. Clarke mentions that his first meeting with Kubrick to discuss the project was in Trader Vic's at The Plaza. Makes sense to me!!!!

A fact mentioned by Jeff Berry in the Book of Tiki. :)

On 2009-07-13 10:24, bigbrotiki wrote:

On 2009-07-12 22:04, donhonyc wrote:
Just reading in the introduction to the novel version of '2001: A Space Odyssey' where Arthur C. Clarke mentions that his first meeting with Kubrick to discuss the project was in Trader Vic's at The Plaza. Makes sense to me!!!!

A fact mentioned by Jeff Berry in the Book of Tiki. :)

I know, it's not the most hidden piece of history, but I just thought I'd add to the official TV's New York 'Locating' thread. :drink:

Here is another fairly rare postcard from the NYC Trader Vic's showing the exterior.

Looks like they used the same Barney West mask from the TV at the Benson Hotel in Portland.

Here is another ad, a little different than the one Trav posted.

DC

Wow, NEVER seen that one...I wonder WHO won it ...? :D

I've got this cool little die-cut appetizer menu from Trader Vic's that looks like the exterior from the New York Savoy Hilton, although there is no location listed on the menu

Here is the menu

And the sketch of the exterior.

The rest of the menu.

DC

Cool photo of Ingemar Johannson's (the boxer) sister with a Tiki at the Trader Vic's in New York circa 1960 (from ebay).

DC

Found this matchbook from TV Savoy/Habana Hilton locations at a flea market in Spain. Quite unusual (finding it is Spain not the matchbook :))

While perusing this thread I realiced in the coincidence between the TV ad and this old pitcher design.
It´s a small world.

On 2009-09-04 13:17, Dustycajun wrote:

Here is another ad, a little different than the one Trav posted.

DC

Spotted this appetizer menu from TV at the Savoy in New York with some nice graphics.

And picked up this standard TV matchbook from the Savoy.

DC

Grabbed a few more images of the New York Trader Vics from the web.

An interesting ad for the opening of the Trader Vic's at the Plaza. The ad actually cites a Beachcomber - old Trader Vic would never have approved of that.

Here is an old photo of the a-frame facade at the Savoy.

DC

Check out this close up of the front of Trader Vic's, amazing details from a slide that was on ebay.

Looks like they started with shield and club design that was later replaced by the Barney West PNG masks.

DC

Great shot!

w@w! great stuff!

Here is an old black and white photo of the entrance to the downstairs Trader Vic's at the Plaza.

Come to think of it, I actually went to that basement bar at the Plaza back in 1995 - it wern't no Trader Vic's.

DC

Saw this photo on ebay of John Kennedy junior and Aristotle Onassis leaving the New York Trader Vic's. Not a great photo, but the front facade of the building sure looks like it is protruding over the sidewalk more than the earlier photos I posted. Wonder if there was a remodel of the front?

Here is the story copy from the Chicago newspaper that the photo came from.

Looks like Onassis got himself a souvenir menu.

DC

Those gas light lamps are not there in the other pics either -maybe not the same place?
Nice observation about the menu...I can see it now: The Onassis Menu Collection!

On 2010-12-20 22:07, bigbrotiki wrote:
Those gas light lamps are not there in the other pics either -maybe not the same place?

Right you are, the photo is the exterior of the Trader Vic's at the Plaza not the Savoy. Here is a photo I found of the Plaza entrance with the lamps.

The Kennedy/Onassis picture was taken in 1969 and Critiki indicates that Trader Vic's moved from the Savoy to the Plaza in 1965 after the Savoy was demolished.

DC

I was the lucky winner of the Kennedy/Onassis photo... wu! I just received it yesterday.

I think they may have written the caption wrong: "Wearing a souvenir scarf..." That's not one of the typical TV scarfs, usually depicting the restaurants. JFK Jr. is holding something in his left hand, which could possibly be one of these scarfs all scrunched-up (technical term).

Or, was the scarf he's wearing one of those mysterious Nassau, Bahammas clothing items? The world may never know.

Trad'r Bill

On 2010-12-20 17:57, Dustycajun wrote:
Saw this photo on ebay of John Kennedy junior and Aristotle Onassis leaving the New York Trader Vic's. Not a great photo, but the front facade of the building sure looks like it is protruding over the sidewalk more than the earlier photos I posted. Wonder if there was a remodel of the front?

This picture was not taken in the front of The Plaza, it is on the north side of the building that faces West 59th St./Central Park South. The overhang is the entrance to the Oak Room, which some of you may remember as the bar Cary Grant was abducted from in 'North By Northwest'.

I never saw the exterior of Trader Vic's at The Plaza. My one and only encounter with that location was probably around 1989 when my then girlfriend suggested we go over there. When we go to the interior entrance the gates were pulled shut and there was a notice that Vic's was closed indefinitely. It never opened again courtesy of Donald Trump, and needless to say I never got to go in. :(((((((

On 2010-12-20 17:57, Dustycajun wrote:
Saw this photo on ebay of John Kennedy junior and Aristotle Onassis leaving the New York Trader Vic's. Not a great photo, but the front facade of the building sure looks like it is protruding over the sidewalk more than the earlier photos I posted. Wonder if there was a remodel of the front?

This picture was not taken in the front of The Plaza, it was taken on the north (left) side of the building that faces West 59th St./Central Park South. John Jr. and Onasis are walking east. The overhang in the background is the entrance to the Oak Room, which some of you may remember as the bar Cary Grant was abducted from in 'North By Northwest'.

I never saw the exterior of Trader Vic's at The Plaza. My one and only encounter with that location was probably around 1989 when my then girlfriend suggested we go over there. When we got to the interior entrance in the basement the gates were pulled shut and there was a notice that Vic's was closed indefinitely. It never opened again courtesy of Donald Trump, and needless to say I never got to go in. :(

[ Edited by: donhonyc 2010-12-27 06:25 ]

On 2010-12-27 06:24, donhonyc wrote:
On 2010-12-20 17:57, Dustycajun wrote:
Saw this photo on ebay of John Kennedy junior and Aristotle Onassis leaving the New York Trader Vic's. Not a great photo, but the front facade of the building sure looks like it is protruding over the sidewalk more than the earlier photos I posted. Wonder if there was a remodel of the front?

This picture was not taken in the front of The Plaza, it was taken on the north (left) side of the building that faces West 59th St./Central Park South. John Jr. and Onasis are walking east. The overhang in the background is the entrance to the Oak Room, which some of you may remember as the bar Cary Grant was abducted from in 'North By Northwest'.

I never saw the exterior of Trader Vic's at The Plaza. My one and only encounter with that location was probably around 1989 when my then girlfriend suggested we go over there. When we got to the interior entrance in the basement the gates were pulled shut and there was a notice that Vic's was closed indefinitely. It never opened again courtesy of Donald Trump, and needless to say I never got to go in. :(

[ Edited by: donhonyc 2010-12-27 06:25 ]

You're right that the picture was not taken in front of the Plaza, but it was taken in front of the entrance to Trader Vic's, which was on 59th street, just to the left of the Oak Bar. I was fortunate enought to go there in the late 70s. Up until a few years ago, there was still a brass plate next to the "siamese" fire hose connection that said Trader Vic's on it next to the old entrance to TV..

I got lucky and found one of the postcards that show the outside and inside of the Trader Vic's at the Savoy. Here are some close up scans.

Very nice photos of this Poly Pop powerhouse.

DC

The funny looking Tiki in the Plaza ad.

DC

"In New York they always stay at the St. Regis Hotel on Fifth Avenue. Every Sunday afternoon they have people in for tea – champagne tea. Then Dalí takes everyone to dinner at Trader Vic’s. He’s very generous. There are never less than twenty people – all the starving young beauties and transvestites in town. I’m never sure whether Dalí copied transvestites from me or I copied transvestites from Dalí. Gala is always the last one to arrive at dinner. She makes a dramatic entrance on the arm of a teenage boy with long blond hair who played the lead in Jesus Christ Superstar somewhere, once. […] When Gala enters the room, Dalí stands up, snaps his fingers, calls for silence, waves his gold sceptre and announces ‘Gala! Y Jesús Cristu Superstar!’ Everybody claps. It’s like being with royalty or circus people. That’s why I like being with Dalí – because it’s not like being with an artist. "
Andy Warhol, Andy Warhol’s Exposures, 1979

"Shelly Fremont, wife of Vincent Fremont, Warhol’s video producer and business manager, used to collect Trader Vic’s tiki bar glassware and store it in her husband’s office at The Factory. One day, when Vincent asked her to thin out her collection to free up space, she started tossing items out. “Every time Shelly put something in the garbage, Warhol would pick it out and put it in a Time Capsule,” Wrbican says."
-Matt Wrbican, Archivist, The Andy Warhol Museum, from a Carnegie Magazine article Spring 2012

Eater NY posted this article about Trader Vic's. A few credits were given to TC and Critiki.

http://ny.eater.com/archives/2013/10/trader_vics_1.php

Remembering Trader Vic's, New York's Favorite Tiki Bar
Wednesday, October 30, 2013, by Greg Morabito

In 1934, a budding 32-year-old restaurateur named Victor Jules Bergeron, Jr. opened Hinky Dink's, a tiny "beer and beans parlor" across the street from his family's grocery store in Oakland, California. Over the course of three years, Hinky Dink's morphed into a Polynesian-themed bar with potent rum-based cocktails and a menu of pseudo-Chinese food.
This revamp was partly inspired by a visit Bergeron paid to Don the Beachcomber, a popular South Seas-inspired bar in Hollywood. Bergeron described his first visit to Don the Beachcomber: "I felt I could do it better. I had never been out of the country but I ate in Chinese restaurants every night." After traveling through the Caribbean for inspiration, Bergeron made some tweaks and changed the name of his bar to Trader Vic's.
The bar was a massive hit. Over the next two decades, Bergeron expanded Trader Vic's to Seattle, San Francisco, Beverly Hills, Chicago, and Hawaii. And in 1958, the restaurateur opened a location of his bar in the Savoy-Plaza, a luxury hotel on Fifth Avenue and 58th Street.
Like all the other branches around the globe, the New York location of Trader Vic's had clam shell lights, war clubs, carved masks, and Japanese fishing floats hanging from the ceilings, which were covered with wooden palm leaves. The food menu was a mix of inauthentic Chinese and Indonesian fare, plus a few American and European dishes, and the beverage list was full of potent rum-based concoctions.
Bergeron is credited with inventing the Mai Tai, a mixture of light and dark rum, orange Curaçao, Orgeat syrup, and lime juice. After adding this to the Trader Vic's menu in 1944, versions of this drink quickly started popping up on cocktail lists around the country. Other big-name cocktail gurus, including Bergeron's friendly rival Don the Beachcomber, also claimed to have invented the drink. But in the late '70s, Bergeron told the Times: "There has been a lot of conversation over the beginning of the Mai Tai, and I want to get the record straight — I originated the Mai Tai. Anybody who says I didn't create this drink is a real stinker."
Other popular rum-based drinks included the Samoan Fog Cutter, Zombie, Suffering Bastard, Navg Grog, and Doctor Funk of Tahiti. Guests could also order cocktails for two and four people, like the Rum Keg, Kava Bowl, Scorpion, and Trader Vic's Rum Cup. One page of the cocktail menu had a message from Bergeron: "It is my pleasure to offer you these drinks. Some I have gathered at their origin and others are my own concoctions."
Although the service was shaky on one of his visits, New York Times critic Craig Claiborne loved the food at Trader Vic's:
As a main course, a specialty known as Mandarin Kau Kau and barbecued filet of beef were chosen. The first dish consisted of an assortment of items, such as fried rice, bits of pineapple, pork and tomato in a sweet-sour sauce and asparagus. The asparagus was cut diagonally into wafer thin slices and cooked briefly in the Oriental style. This fare was highly palatable.
The barbecued beef was outstanding in both tenderness and flavor. It was obviously cooked in one of the special Chinese ovens that are a feature of the new restaurant. A delicate smoke flavor was apparent.
Claiborne tried the Doctor Funk of Tahiti, but he did not comment on whether or not he enjoyed the drink. He did note, however, that, "One may choose a fairly decent Bordeaux table wine for as little as $2.50."
When the Savoy-Plaza closed in 1965 to make way for the General Motors Building, Trader Vic's moved across the street to the basement of The Plaza Hotel. The design and menus were similar to the original New York location, and the restaurant now had an entrance right on West 59th Street, facing Central Park. In the lobby, guests were also treated to the sight of an outrigger canoe used in the Marlon Brando film Mutiny on the Bounty.
During its heyday in the late '60s and early '70s, Trader Vic's was a popular hangout for prep school kids and their parents. In 2005, entrainment writer Nikki Finke remembered her experiences at Trader Vic's:
When I was growing up, my gang's local diner was Trader Vic's at the Plaza. A typical evening out meant going to the Paris Theater, across 58th Street, to see an art movie and then inside the hotel for a pu pu platter. (It would be years before I realized that most films didn't have subtitles, or that this restaurant served entrees.) I can attest that Trader Vic's was the ideal setting for a first date between two sophisticated teenagers. There was so much loopy Polynesian tiki décor to make fun of that we never ran out of conversation.
The restaurant hummed along in the basement of The Plaza through the '70s and '80s, losing some of its luster with each passing year.
In 1982, Gael Greene filed a report from a revisit:
Trader Vic's played to our Polynesian fantasies. Wasn't there a time when its dim nooks and rum-drenched Molotov cocktails made deep-fried island tidbits seem delightful? Or was I ever that innocent? Does anyone know or care that Trader Vic's still exists, duskily dim, in the netherworld of The Plaza? Stopping by on evening for a seance with passed memories, it was a shock to discover that the house had no gardenias to float in our Scorpion...no bowl in which to serve this volatile brew ($16.50 for four)...wait, farwell-to-the-sinking chip confession: no pen to sign the check. "We're out of pens," the waitress confided, and borrowed mine.
Victor Bergeron Jr. passed away in 1984 at the age of 81. He published eight books in his lifetime, and operated 27 restaurants around the globe. Seven years later, Donald Trump purchased The Plaza Hotel for $360 million, and decided to shutter Trader Vic's. Following the announcement, President Richard Nixon told the Times: "My entire family will be very sorry to see it close...It was always our daughters' favorite restaurant, and it quickly became mine too.'' Now the space beneath The Plaza houses Todd English's food court.
New York saw a slight tiki bar resurgence almost 30 years after the shuttering of Trader Vic's with the 2010 openings of Painkiller, Lani Kai, and The Hurricane Club. The first two restaurants closed after less than three years, and The Hurricane Club recently tweaked its menu and focus so that it's now a steakhouse with a Polynesian theme. Sam Sifton gave a nod to Vic's in his one star review of The Hurricane Club:
Remember Trader Vic's in the Plaza Hotel, all dark wood and sweet drinks, steel guitar and Polynesian dreams? Donald Trump closed the restaurant in 1993 when he bought the hotel, calling it "tacky," but it had 25 years under its grass skirt before that day. Trader Vic's served pu pu platters and mai tais to generations of New Yorkers delighted to dream of the South Pacific and all its naked, willing charms.
And in a post about the tiki bar resurgence of 2010, an Eater commenter shared this fond memory of the bar:
I used to go there in the '70s with a friend for after work cocktails. She preferred their Scorpion which had a real gardenia floating in it. (I think it was called a Scorpion, either way, the flower part is real.) Once, while we were waiting for a cab on CPS after a few, my friend's underwear fell off, right there in the street, with her arm up hailing a cab. She cooly said "Oops," picked them up, and off we went. Ah, the '70s.
For those that want a recreate a piece of the Trader Vic's experience at home, head to Brooks of Sheffield's blog Lost City for Bergeron's famous Mai Tai recipe.

On 2009-07-13 07:10, icebaer69 wrote:
what exactly is in the plaza´s tradervics location today ?
does anybody have pictures ?

today (2014) i found this answer from "UNOwen" (2012)
regarding my question from 2009 (!) in my pms ...
hadn´t logged in for a long time :wink:

=>

"...
UNOwen
Posted: 2012-07-01 10:28

Even though you posted that question(what's in the Trader Vic's Plaza Hotel location now?) several years ago, the answer is (STILL) the same: NOTHING.

Donald Trump - the KING of tacky, tasteless, BULLSHIT, got rid of the ONE THING that made going to The Plaza FUN: TRADER VIC'S. He didn't want TV to get the money, so he put in his 'own' Tiki place - I think it was called Tahiti, or something like that. I went there a couple of times as that, and NO ONE was ever there.

Ever.

Now, when it was Trader Vic's - THAT was a blast.

Our drinking laws at the time, were '18 and over' to drink, and, this being NYC, well - a lot of times, they (and every other place) let it slide.

I'd been going to TV - first for my (and my mom's) birthday. We're born 3 days apart. We'd go there from the time I was 13 or so (shhh!), and, she only had some 'white wine spritzer' (such a nasty drink! Especially at TV's!), while I drank Zombie-after-Zombie. And, I was always fine.

The staff knew me so well (I was there at least once-a-week), they always called me by name, as soon as I got down there, and, always had my regular favorite spot waiting.

Now, the only TV's I can go to, is when I'm on the 'left coast;' The Beverly Hills Hilton TV.

I PRAY to the all-mighty Tiki-God to PLEASE, PLEASE!!! BRING BACK OUR TRADER VIC'S TO NYC!!!!
..."

[ Edited by: icebaer69 2014-01-23 17:37 ]

Miss Universe contestants sharing a bowl at Trader Vic's New York.

DC

Here is a pretty cool looking magazine ad for the Adele Simpson Moonstone dress that was shot at the Savoy Trader Vic's in 1960.

That Tiki in the photo looks to be the same one that is shown in the postcard.

DC

I found a few more news photos of the Onassis lunch at the Plaza Trader Vic's that included Jackie.

DC

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2019-12-11 16:28 ]