Luau Lounge, Nashville, TN (restaurant)

Name:Luau Lounge
Type:restaurant
Street:4th Avenue
City:Nashville
State:TN
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct

Description:
The Luau Lounge was in the Maxwell House Hotel. This is the hotel of the famed coffee. It burned in 1961, which means the lounge was either minty fresh when it burned, or it predated the Mahi Mahi and other locations, like the Omni Hut that opened in 1960. Jim Walls, the owner of the Omni Hut knew nothing about the place and the only thing I have ever come across is a matchbook.

Perhaps one day I will be able to get to the Nashville library and do some research to find out more. In the meantime, anyone with more info, please share!

That IS very interesting. I've never heard tale of this place either. I once lived in Nashville and I have even stayed in the Maxwell many nights- all in recent years much later than the Tiki bar/lounge of course. Any more info on this place would be very interesting to me. Thanks for the post. Can you post an image of that matchbook?

On 2010-02-03 09:54, whiskeyblood wrote:
That IS very interesting. I've never heard tale of this place either. I once lived in Nashville and I have even stayed in the Maxwell many nights- all in recent years much later than the Tiki bar/lounge of course. Any more info on this place would be very interesting to me. Thanks for the post. Can you post an image of that matchbook?

Matchboook et al is here

Swanky,

I was unable to find out anything about the Luau Lounge, but found another tidbit of Tennessee Tiki that probably doesn't deserve its own thread:

This is from the Kingsport Times-News, April 17, 1966

Heres the obit for the owner of the the Luau Lounge...
Kreitner, Albert Joseph 'Mickey'

NASHVILLE - Albert Joseph "Mickey" Kreitner died March 6, 2003, at Saint Thomas Hospital from complications of open-heart surgery. He was preceded in death by his son from a previous marriage, Lawrence Williams Kreitner; and his parents, Albert Joseph and Vera Lucille Kreitner. Survivors include his wife, Mary Edna Kreitner; his daughter from a previous marriage, Rebecca Kreitner; his brother-in-law, Bill "Dody" Belcher of Nashville; sister-in-law, Peggy Campagna of Phoenix, Ariz.; cousin, George "Bud" Kreitner of Gaylord, Mich.; and several nieces and nephews. Mr. Kreitner was born Oct. 9, 1922. He graduated from Hume-Fogg High School in 1940. He was a batboy for the Nashville Vols. He went on to become a catcher for the Chicago Cubs. He played his first game on Sept. 28, 1943, and ended his career after the 1944 season due to an injury. Mr. Kreitner owned and operated several restaurants in the old Maxwell House Hotel on the corner of Fourth Avenue and Church Street: The Court of Kings, The Luau, The Embers, Mickey's and Mickey's Jr., an oyster bar and delicatessen that opened only 11 days before the Christmas-night fire of the hotel in 1961. He also owned The Captain's Table in Printers Alley. He successfully owned and operated 39 different establishments in 43 years. In 1989, he sold his last place, The Captain's Table. Mr. Kreitner owned a farm on Old Harding Road in Bellevue, which he sold to developers three years ago. This farm became the Bellevue Highlands. In his honor, the developers named a street Kreitner Drive. A funeral service will be conducted at 2 p.m. today at the chapel of Spring Hill Funeral Home. James Edison will officiate. Pallbearers are Judge Randall Wyatt, Brent Willis, Frank Kelly, James Chick, Tommy Belcher, Mark Averbuch, Bill Belcher, and Will Cripps. Friends will serve as honorary pallbearers. Interment will follow in Spring Hill Cemetery. Memorials may be directed to The Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee, 67 Thompson Lane, Nashville, TN 37211, The Boy Scouts of America, 3414 Hillsboro Road, Nashville, TN 37215, or to the charity of one's choice.