Welcome to TC.

My mom says she visited the LH back in the day. Is it true that Elvin Hayes, former Washington Bullet and Hall of Famer, used to go there?

As the others said, anything you can post would be appreciated. Its sad that DC is now a Tiki Free Zone.

agreed, welcome, and thank you for sharing your experiences and knowledge with us! there seems to be a whole lot of curiosity about the luau hut - since their tiki mugs were marked with the name of the restaurant, i'd say there is worldwide recognition, at least of the name of the restaurant!

Moon Kim's Daughter (aka Luau Hut),

Do you have any information about the origin of the rather unique green Luau Hut mug with the petroglyph style design?
Matchbook:

DC

Thanks to everyone for making me feel so welcome! My younger sister was nice enough to bring over some old photo albums, and I found lots of Luau Hut and Island Lobster House photos, menus, newspaper articles, etc. that I hope you will enjoy! It will take me a while to scan them, so I appreciate your patience...

For those who were curious about what the interior of the Luau Huts looked like, the best pictures I found were on a postcard:

I will scan and post some additional interior shots soon.

When the Luau Hut Silver Spring opened in the mid-60s, this is what the exterior looked like:

Very different from the fluorescent gold that the building has been recently! The big parking garage behind the current building was built when the Metro station was built - prior to that it was a simple metered parking lot.

This photo is a closer view of the rope lettering of the Luau Hut sign - that is my mother, Moon Kim, on the right:

More to come...

My mom says she visited the LH back in the day. Is it true that Elvin Hayes, former Washington Bullet and Hall of Famer, used to go there?

As I remember, I do believe that Elvin Hayes did dine at the Luau Hut, but I don't remember which location...in its heyday, the restaurants attracted many famous people...

Do you have any information about the origin of the rather unique green Luau Hut mug with the petroglyph style design?

I seem to recall my mother telling me years ago that she had someone hand draw the design that you are referring to, and I always assumed that it was an original design, but I don't know for sure...that design was heavily used when the Silver Spring and Capitol Hill locations first opened, but gradually disappeared in their marketing pieces.

wow, this stuff is great! if we could get higher-resolution images of each of the postcards, that would be amazing!

here is a little then-and-now comparison, courtesy of info from luauhut and google maps street view.

On 2010-03-06 16:08, LuauHut wrote:

My mom says she visited the LH back in the day. Is it true that Elvin Hayes, former Washington Bullet and Hall of Famer, used to go there?

As I remember, I do believe that Elvin Hayes did dine at the Luau Hut, but I don't remember which location...in its heyday, the restaurants attracted many famous people...

Very cool. I cannot comprehend why my parents did not bring me except that I was a very meat & potatoes kid when it came to cuisine. That has thankfully changed.

I have two LH mugs. Love em. Thanks for answering our questions.

Hi everyone - here are a few more interior shots of the Luau Hut Silver Spring in its heyday, showing the decor and what people wore:

The hostesses first wore Asian attire, but over the years transitioned to a more "tropical" outfit.

As you can see, there was lots of attention to detail - the ceiling, walls, and doors were literally covered with designs - carvings, bamboo, and greenery everywhere! My favorite was a blowfish light, one of many things that hung from the ceiling. I remember that they even used the plastic leis to form designs that were attached to the walls.

This next image doesn't show any decor, but rather it is a picture taken of two hostesses handling the waiting area on the first floor of the restaurant. It gives you an idea of how packed it was on the weekends!

This last photo below is a very early one of my mother, who used to sing a few nights a week when the restaurant first opened. She had a beautiful voice that stayed with her all her life - a natural talent first discovered when she was a teen in Korea. She sang in numerous languages, anything from opera to contemporary - she was even signed to RCA and recorded a couple of records in the late 50s!

Also, as requested, I tried to upload a high resolution version of the previous postcard but the file size was just too big, so here is one where the image is hopefully a little sharper:

Next time I will upload some photos of the other restaurants...

really beautiful, thanks luauhut - reminds us that tiki wasn't just about the decor, it was the environment and the people enjoying it!

it makes me kind of sad, though... i wish i or someone local had the money to re-open the luau hut at that location!

Thanks indeed. Looks like a great place. Love the photos- amazing how folks were uniformly dressed to the nines back then.

Luau Hut,

Thanks so much for sharing your family photos and memories with us. Those are great scenes of the restaurant. It was really quite a hot spot back in the day.

DC

On 2010-02-27 22:02, LuauHut wrote:
The Luau Huts were always a family operation: the band that is pictured was led by my very talented older brother :)

At first he performed in the basement lounge of the F Street location, but soon after he moved over to the 19th Street location he decided to have more of a big band sound, so in the next ad you can see the change in advertising.

I have the Kim Tsoy & the Sauce lp live from the Luau Hut w Spinning Wheel and Aquarius. Great stuff, I DJ it all the time at my gigs.
Luau Hut, thanks so much for posting all this wonderful info

Wow! Thanks! So glad when people find us here and tel their family's stories!

I love seeing the people there. Everyone is so well dressed. Makes me sad how things have changed.

Thank you and please post more.

Thanks for the great pictures.

Can't help but think, especially with all the parking right next door, that it would make a great Trader Vic's Island Bar & Grill (Hey, if they are going to have 'em, I'd like to have one in our neighborhood!)