Hawaiian I, Las Vegas, NV (restaurant)

Name:Hawaiian I
Type:restaurant
Street:905 Las Vegas Blvd. North
City:Las Vegas
State:NV
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct

Description:
Ok folks, here is a new one. Just picked up this postcard from the Hawaiian I restaurant in Las Vegas.

Interesting looking Tikis out front.

The date on the card is 1964 so this place was obviously a take-off on the popular Hawaiian Eye TV show.

I also have this matchbook from the Hawaiian I restaurant that was located in Duarte. Looks like the same logo as the Las Vegas sign.

DC

VE-REE cool! I knew that matchbook, but knew nothing else, the Tiki just wasn't very appealing. But now with that postcard and the logo similarity it becomes interesting! Another attempt at a Tiki dynasty? Always liked that logo concept, very Dali-esque...

And the Tikis are by Milan Guanko. A fine find, DC.

The tiki on the matchbook was sort of the Party City tiki of the 60's. I've seen him on all sorts of vintage party supplies. I still think he's way more cool than any of the generic party tikis today.

Great card DC. Only wish there was a long shot with more of the building in it. If there was more that is. Great find on that one.

Nice find DC. Just when you think there are no eye-popping tiki cards left to be found... You come up with a beaut!

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy 2009-11-22 21:23 ]

DC (or Sabu, Tiki-Kate, Bigbro) if you have any vintage Las Vegas postcards not directly related to Poly-pop, I am very interested. Especially for the smaller googie-style motels along Las Vegas Blvd north of Sahara and East Fremont/Boulder Hwy. Please post on Beyond Tiki or my current Las Vegas thread. I'm sure others would appreciate them as well. Thank you for all of your posts, I enjoy them very much.

[ Edited by: JOHN-O 2009-11-23 00:50 ]

First off, love the Milan Guanko tikis - right out there in the open.

But there's something very odd about this picture -

Tall green trees, lush grass and shrubbery, even sugar cane! That's not Vegas vegetation. I Googled the address (which is now right in Washington Ave) and the area now is typical Vegas dry dirt and gravel.

Any chance this could be another one of their locations (despite what the postcard says on the back)?

I did a search with HistoricAerials as soon as DC posted this location. The site allows you to see photos from different dates. I went as far back as 1965 and there are indeed pockets of lush green in the area. Vegas has changed so much since this place was built but I bet it is the same location as the picture.

Yeaterday I found this postcard in Vegas 9after a 3 year search) so I went to the address today. It would be the parking lot of a funeral parlor. The funeral parlor building and parking lot can be see in the 1965 image from HistoricAerials.com. Not sure when this place went out of business.
If the address is correct -this is approximately where it was.

Things have changed, slightly. :D

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2010-02-12 11:48 ]

The postmark on the card is 1964. I will post the back of the card to show it was in LV.

DC

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2010-02-12 11:24 ]

I actually lived a few blocks down the road off Washington during the mid 70's. We would have known about the place, having just moved to Vegas from Oahu. In '76, I deeply missed Hawaii and would have noticed it for sure. My Dad would go to the VFW about a block south of there, but it wasn't there in 1976.

Across the street from the funeral home, there used to be a beautiful park that I frequented in the 70's. It is now paved over with government buildings.

[ Edited by: Trailerpark Tiki 2010-03-30 13:49 ]

A menu from the Hawaiian I (from ebay). Not sure if it was the Vegas location or Duarte.

Now where have I seen that Tiki before??

DC

Interesting time line.

From 1950 to 1959 this location was a (famous Las Vegas) German restaurant called Alpine Village Inn. (No. 5th became Las Vegas Blvd at some point)

It moved in 1959. In 1961, the new location burned down so the reopened it as The Chalet.
In 1963, Alpine Village Inn opened in a new location. Within the next year, this address became a tiki Steak House that MAY have lasted only a year or so.

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[ Edited by: mrsmiley 2016-02-12 23:39 ]