Bob Lee's Islander in Boston

Hello! Pretty new member here, mostly just lurking and enjoying the site.

I was wondering if anyone had any information on Bob Lee's Islander restaurant that was in Boston. My wife used to go there as a kid. We have a mug from Bob's that we found up in New Hampshire a year ago, but not much any other information.

Anything would help. Thanks!

Greg

[ Edited by: TikiSOX 2006-04-09 05:31 ]

On 2006-04-09 05:31, TikiSOX wrote:
Hello! Pretty new member here, mostly just lurking and enjoying the site.

I was wondering if anyone had any information on Bob Lee's Islander restaurant that was in Boston. My wife used to go there as a kid. We have a mug from Bob's that we found up in New Hampshire a year ago, but not much any other information.

Anything would help. Thanks!

Greg

[ Edited by: TikiSOX 2006-04-09 05:31 ]

Hey TikiSOX,

Bob Lee's The Islander is closed (and has been for sometime). They used to play the theme from "Adventures in Paradise" (tv show) there on the PA. I can't tell you much more than that.

-Randy

Thanks for the info Randy. I belive Bob Lee's was in Chinatown, about two blocks away from where I went to school. I'm wondering if there are any pics out there or if there are any mugs different from the one we have. All the best and thanks again. Time to watch the Sox soon.

Greg

Here is the mug we have...

I have seen some nice postcards (Sabu?) of that place, lot's of Tikis, and psychedelic island pattern carpets, the place looked crammed full of Polynesian Pop. Anybody know if there was a family connection to Tommy Lee's Islander in Stockton?

Here are some images from an extra-long postcard I have. I have a few other things from Bob Lee's Islander but this is the best image. I love those Paul-Marshall Mug-inspired tiki posts. It's a psychedelic tiki fever dream inside that place. Would have loved to have seen it.

Sabu

Here's another link that may be of interest:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=3649&forum=1

By the way, that mug is SWEET! And in great condition.

Sabu

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy 2006-04-12 22:57 ]

Thanks Big Bro and Sabu. Great images. My wife was pretty young when she went there, but she does remember how great it was. Do you know if there were any other mugs that came out of there? Thanks again for those great images.

Greg

On 2006-04-12 16:00, bigbrotiki wrote:
I have seen some nice postcards (Sabu?) of that place, lot's of Tikis, and psychedelic island pattern carpets, the place looked crammed full of Polynesian Pop. Anybody know if there was a family connection to Tommy Lee's Islander in Stockton?

cleen and i have never found any connection. of course we really didn't look into the idea. i really don't think there is just because the lee family used to and probably still does own many businesses in the stockton area. the other reason is that hop louie actually named the islander in stockton not tommy. but you never know maybe bob lee was the black sheep in the lee family that just had to get out of stockton!

anyone know what year bob lee's was opened? also is bob lee's lantern house owned by the same bob lee?

I found a postcard like Sabu's a week or so ago I also have a Bob Lee's Lantern house matchbook. Today I found this:

Sorry for the glare but I don't have a scanner.

it was in this magazine from 1974

I was talking with the manager of the Mon Kou this weekend, and found out that he's the Great Nephew of Bob Lee.

Some of the recipies served at the Mon Kou (cocktails & food) are directly from his Great Uncle!!

And it happens to be one of the stops on the North East Tiki Tour (the Mon Kou, not the Islander)

http://www.northeasttikitour.com

I picked up a couple of different postcards from Bob Lee's in Boston and got a little confused.

The first card is from Bob Lee's Aloha Lounge and Restaurant which is located at 20 Tyler Street.

The second larger postcard is from Bob Lee's Islander also at 20 Tyler Street. I am assuming that Bob started out with the Aloha and changed names later to the Islander? Does anyone out there remember is as the Aloha Lounge?

Cool cards. That Bob Lee sure like the "cluttered" look!

In case anybody wants to see it, here is the place today.

"I can't die until the government finds a safe place to bury my liver."
Phil Harris

[ Edited by: pappythesailor 2015-01-05 14:06 ]

Thanks for posting that Pappy, I was trying to imagine which 'joint' it had become.
Great postcard views of the bygone era.

PappyTheSailor,

Thanks for the exterior picture, I wonder what the inside looks like these days.

Here is another card from Bob Lee's Islander. This card was published a bit later than the first two I posted. Wow, the place really changed! Bob went from a Polynesian island tribal mask theme to a full blown psychedelic tiki ride. Check out the ceiling and the carpet on these pics! Crazy Man.

Whoa! That's gotta go into "The Look of Tiki", man! That's like dining INSIDE a Hawaiian shirt!

Sven,

Definitely one of the wildest interiors I have ever seen. What is this "The Look of Tiki" you speak of????

My next book, on Tiki/Tapa/Pacific pattern/abstract modernist/ GARISH! .....Aloha shirts.

Check out the Tiki Mugs and menu on the tables.
That was probably one of the craziest looking Tiki establishments I have seen!!!

Thanks for the pictures!!

On 2006-04-13 11:46, the drunken hat wrote:

anyone know what year bob lee's was opened? also is bob lee's lantern house owned by the same bob lee?

I found this interesting bit of history on Bob Lee's Islander. It seems as though Bob started out as the Lantern House and then switched to the Islander. When was it the Aloha Lounge and Restaurant from my previous postcard?

"I remember Bob Lee's Islander as the best Polynesian/Chinese Restaurant in Boston. When I was a first year art student in 1960 we would venture to Chinatown at least two times a week to Bob Lee's for lunch. Being art students, a young Bob Lee who was renovating his father's restaurant then called Bob Lee's Lantern House proudly showed us what was being done to the new restaurant...a true departure from the dimly lighted 40s style Lantern House. A large canvas curtain separated the old from the new additional space now being renovated into a lavish tropical paradise with waterfalls, bridges over running streams with goldfish. Large tropical peacock chairs filled the many exotic rooms with sounds of Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman enhancing the decor. Now called Bob Lee's Islander, lines waited for hours every Friday and Saturday nights around the block to get in after the nightclubs closed. Bob Lee would be standing at the bamboo framed door, his black hair slicked back and dressed in a tuxedo welcoming his female patrons with a Hawaiian Lei and the familiar "Welcome to Bobby Lee's Islander" We became regulars at Bob Lee's, knew the bartender Jimmy and many of us were known to Bob Lee on a first name basis. We were always brought to the front of the waiting line which impressed our dates. Bob Lee's Islander flourished into two decades, however, Bob Lee who was very popular in Chinatown and had the title of "The Unofficial Mayor of Chinatown", got into a lot of very serious financial trouble. As a result of his many business and personal problems his restaurant and himself aged rapidly over the last years of operation. A new decade arrived where restaurants dropped the "Polynesian" and went back to "Chinese". Bob Lee left the United States and went back to China after his "dream" restaurant failed where he died an old man. Every time I listen to Martin Denny's "Quiet Village" or Arthur Lyman's "Taboo" LP (always played at Bob Lee's ) I go back to that fabulous place in a 1960s Boston Chinatown that was the "Best of the Best" in it's day."

OK, so I'm going a little Bob Lee crazy today. I found pics of the menu and the mug that TabooDan noticed in the postcard.

My last Bob Lee post today. Bob Lee rocks!

This must be papa Bob Lee at the Lantern House.

On 2008-07-23 18:38, bigbrotiki wrote:
Whoa! That's gotta go into "The Look of Tiki", man! That's like dining INSIDE a Hawaiian shirt!

WOW!!!

It's like a psychedelic Tiki freakout!!!! :)

Could you imagine drinking in that place after a few mai tais!! :lol:

They even have the Tiki logo hidden throughout the carpet! Amazing!!!

Thanks for sharing dustycajun!

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

[ Edited by: Jeff Central 2008-07-24 02:14 ]

[ Edited by: Jeff Central 2008-07-24 02:15 ]

....and actual witness statements that Marty and Arty were played in a Polynesian restaurant, that is amazing! This was not as self-evident as we tend to believe nowadays.

Interesting how the new look of Bob Lee's menu mirrors the colors and lay out of the old one. It must have been the same menu designer who seemed too have been better versed in Asian style, judging by the fact that the Maori logo Tiki looks like a guy in make up --not unlike a Kabuki actor.
I am noting this effeminate look because it seems even more evident in the inside of the menu for the South Pacific in Hallandale, Florida, which curiously swiped the Bob Lee menu Tiki:

...a design which, if we look at the rendering of the South Pacific on page 74 of Tiki Modern, was even meant to grace their oracle tower in giant form!

One thing I find fascinating about Bob Lee's in particular is the fact that it does not contain one inkling of decor by either Witco, Oceanic Arts, OR, (which would have made sense because they were THE Chinese restaurant outfitters on the East Coast) from Orchids of Hawaii. Every bit of the decor seems to have been custom made, also judging by the repeating masks and patterns on the moldings. Nowhere else did I ever see the Paul Marshall mug design used for Tiki poles. This place seems to have been a complete "inside Boston Chinatown" job all done by Bob Lee's cronies (just like the menu), which makes even more sense when reading his history:

On 2008-07-23 22:02, Dustycajun quoted:
"....Bob Lee who was very popular in Chinatown and had the title of "The Unofficial Mayor of Chinatown", got into a lot of very serious financial trouble. As a result of his many business and personal ...."

What a fate to have to go back to China after owning all this Polynesian paradise splendor. Maybe he shared Hop Louie's weakness for gambling? And why are so many Chinese Poly pop joint operators named "Lee"?

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2008-07-24 09:39 ]

It's great to hear that exotica was played in the restaurant. Other than live performances, this is the first time I've heard of exotica music being played in a mid-century tiki establishment. What a trip that must have been listening to Taboo under that ceiling!

Great thread guys.

This fella looks rather imposing. Wish we could make out the details.

This thread is going to give someone a seizure.

bob lee ran into financial trouble...cause he spent too much money on paint!!

The ceiling looks an awful lot like the cover of Tiki Modern.

On 2008-07-24 11:23, tikiyaki wrote:
The ceiling looks an awful lot like the cover of Tiki Modern.

What's so awful 'bout that? :wink:
Isn't there some kind of program you can feed the image of the ceiling into that would de-stretch it and allow it to be viewed in flat in 2D? :) Up front, there's a Papua New Guinea design in the middle, and what seems to be half a modernist Tiki face on the left next to it. I fear that nobody ever laid on their back to photograph it, so we might never get to see this beauty completely...

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2008-07-24 11:42 ]

On 2008-07-24 08:48, bigbrotiki wrote:

I am noting this effeminate look because it seems even more evident in the inside of the menu for the South Pacific in Hallandale, Florida, which curiously swiped the Bob Lee menu Tiki:

...a design which, if we look at the rendering of the South Pacific on page 74 of Tiki Modern, was even meant to grace their oracle tower in giant form!

Here is another menu that "borrowed" from the Bob Lee design. This was on ebay and I did not win it thus the small picture. It is from Chan's Hawaiian Inn located in New Jersey.

Man, I would have loved to have seen that place! I have eaten at the place that is there now, without realizing what was there. It's pretty good food, to be sure, but nothing like the interiors pictured in the postcards! It's been pretty well cleaned out. Too bad.

I inherited from my aunt a shell that is cut into the shape of a fish. It has "Bob Lee's Islander" glued to it. I thought it was from Hawaii or Florida because she and my uncle traveled to both locations extensively in the 50's through 70's.

The shell is 5 1/2" by 3 1/4"

[ Edited by: sebtj 2008-08-30 12:30 ]

[ Edited by: sebtj 2008-08-30 12:32 ]

Came across this interesting mug from Bob Lee's Islander. Never seen one like this before.

DC

I followed that auction. It's a very interesting piece; I'm wondering if it may have been used as a vase, not a mug.

This is a really cool-mod menu from Bob Lee's Islander from ebay. Never seen one of these before, it's right up there with that crazy roof. Looks like Stephen Crane bowls on the last page, didn't think anybody else used these??

DC

Here is a nice magazine ad for Bob Lee's Islander from ebay.

Looks like a much earlier version of the interior, you can see the menus on the tables.

DC

One of my fondest childhood memories is of going to Bob Lee's back in 1966, before going to see the movie "Grand Prix" at the Cinerama Theatre.
My best friend's parents drove us into Boston, from the suburbs, and Bob's was the first stop.
I had never seen anything like it! My eyes popped out of my head, from the minute we walked up to the front of the building, till we left.
As I remember it, there were many many plants throughout the rooms, and each table made you feel as if it were plopped down in the middle of the jungle, and you were in your own little spot. I remember dugout canoes hanging from the ceiling, and nothing looked fake, or contrived. It all seemed as though it had been there, for ages.
After I had grown, I went searching for The Islander, only to find it was gone, and I was profoundly saddened to learn I would never eat there, again.
It was quite a place, and the pictures just do it no real justice. To walk through the place was truly an out-of-Boston experience! You were instantly transported to another place.
I can't think of another restaurant that's done that, to me! It was my first experience with Polynesian food, too, and as I remember, it was quite delicious!
That was one night I will never forget!

A nice matchbook with that same Tiki rendering, and a nice little saying from Bob.

DC

The tiki looks a like more like a totem, but I love the mini drink menu.

Tiki Kate,

That is an awesome matchbook! It is from that transition period when Bob Lee was going from the Lantern House and Aloha Lounge to the Islander.

This is the early postcard that goes with that matchbook - same Tikis.

You really scored on the matchbooks.

DC

Wow, Tikis got big ears!

I don't think I have ever seen this version of these S & P shakers before from Bob Lee's Islander, recently sold on ebay for $$$.

Is this out of an Otagiri or OOH catalog, or a custom type job?

DC

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2010-01-26 22:46 ]

On 2010-01-26 22:36, Dustycajun wrote:
Wow, Tikis got big ears!

I don't think I have ever seen this version of these S & P shakers before from Bob Lee's Islander, recently sold on ebay for $$$.

Is this out of an Otagiri or OOH catalog, or a custom type job?

DC

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2010-01-26 22:46 ]

They had a similarly designed mug (sans Dumbo ears) which was manufactured by OMC; they probably produced the shakers as well.

I picked up a postcard showing the cool sign from Bob Lee's Lantern House restaurant in a Chinatown night scene.

I also found pics of another double postcard with some more crazy images of Bob Lee's Islander.

That Bob Lee was quite a showman.

DC

On 2010-06-02 15:07, Dustycajun wrote:
I picked up a postcard showing the cool sign from Bob Lee's Lantern House restaurant in a Chinatown night scene.

That Bob Lee was quite a showman.
DC

Mid-century Chinatown neon streets are the best! :)

I spotted a few more items from Bob Lee's Islander on ebay lately.

A postcard showing three different rooms.

And an ad with the same rooms and a little story on Bob Lee.

The Polynesian Room, the Hawaiian Room, and the Luau Room.

The story.

One of my favorite old Tiki places.

DC

Here is a matchbook I have that combines the cover from one that posted before

and the drink menu from the matchbook that Tiki Kate posted.

The info on the inside.

Bob Lee Rocks!

DC