Heilman's Beachcomber, Clearwater Beach, FL

Does anyone know if this place in St. Petersburg was even "beachcomber style" at all? I started researching it, and then finally found one postcard of the inside and it had nothing that was beachcomber. Was it just the name?

http://www.tabooisland.com
http://tabooisland.blogspot.com/

[ Edited by: Mo-Eye 2009-06-22 16:03 ]

[ Edited by: Mo-Eye 2009-06-22 16:04 ]

They used the old beachcomber character as their logo.

Matchbook

Postcard

Same character also used at the Beachcomber Bar at the Osprey Hotel, New Jersey

DC

Scott, not until I saw your two postcards side by side like this did I realize how both together are such a great example of the range of interpretation of a concept: One the sophisticated world traveler at home in any exotic marketplace, the other the beachbum castaway in a grass shack on the beach. Very cool.

The little chef on the back of my matchbook just cracks me up. Doesn't he remind you of Daves Not Home? :lol:

Kate, nice stuff from Heilman's Beachcomber.

The restaurant is still open. Here is the new look beachcomber from the website.

Here is a photo of the mural which is still there.

DC

Amazing! That painting is great!

Here's some history:

The Heilman's Beachcomber was owned and operated by Bob Heilman. His family started their first restaurant in 1920 at Lorain, Ohio, then opened this one in November 1948, and also opened a third in Ft. Lauderdale in 1958. The Clearwater location is at 447 Mandalay Ave. and is still open today, but is not the original structure. The original building caught fire January 19, 1959 causing $250,000 worth of damage. Most of the building was destroyed, with only 3 walk-in coolers holding 1,000 cases of liquor surviving. After the fire, they opened up temporarily in the Grey Gull Inn while they built a new restaurant at the same location. They broke ground on the new building on June 20, 1959 and re-opened December 28, 1959.

The new fire proof structure was bigger and better than the original, with seating increasing from 190 to 275. It had "The Seascape Room" and "The Gallery". In 1965 it was enlarged again, adding the "Room for One More Room."

Bob Heilman won the Restaurant Man of the Year award in 1964, and was very active in promoting the restaurant industry.

Here's an ad for them from 1964 with their beachcomer graphic :down:

I also found the origin of this image comes from a 1940s Albert Dorne painting. Here it is being used in a 1947 American Airlines ad :down:

I just picked up a few different colors of the cool Beachcomber swizzles.

DC

I just had dinner there about a month ago. I usually get there once a year. The food is actually quite good. The wait staff is outstanding. Certainly no tiki elements around. It is a more high end menu, with fish, steak and chicken choices. It's on the main drag going north on Clearwater Beach, just across the street from the Gulf.

I had missed the progress on this subject, guys, excellent work! Especially finding the arch-image. Save me one of those swizzles, please. Man I love that modernist mural with the Beachcomber incongruously dropped in. :) I wonder if the owners have photos of the place from the day, there must have been some decor in the theme, perhaps the bar....
Good to hear it is doing well. I was inspired to drop by via Google street view:

Now Google just needs to work on that "Beam me over there, Scotty" -feature, I'd love to have some Surf'n'Turf while gazing at that mural right now!

Here is a different matchbook from the Beachcomber with some cool rope lettering.

DC

Here is the first restaurant building in 1954

"Anyone who has ever seen them is thereafter haunted as if by a feverish dream" Karl Woermann

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2010-03-15 16:57 ]

Nice card Uncle Trav....here is the later Mid Century Ft Lauderdale location.