Tiki Tops, Kaneohe, HI (restaurant)

Name:Tiki Tops
Type:restaurant
Street:
City:Kaneohe
State:HI
Zip:
country:USA
Phone: 247-2128
Status:defunct

Description:
Tiki Tops was one of the Spencecliff owned restaurants in Oahu. It was located in the Windward City Shopping Center in Kaneohe.

[ Edited by: Chub 2010-10-11 19:59 ]

Chub,

What a great picture of the Tiki Tops Tiki and restaurant sign. Where did you find that? Nice post.

I have another matchbook that actually advertises a Tiki Bar at Tiki Tops. I'm thinking that this has to be one of the earlier references to a Tiki Bar.

Here is the cool architecture of the original Tops coffee shop, I wonder what the Tiki Tops building looked like??

DC

A cool menu, indeed.
But I have always wondered how the artist arrived from that really cool Tiki statue to that misbegotten, chubby-cheeked smiley Tiki:

What we have here is a basic failure to interpret Hawaiian idol facial features :)

On 2010-10-12 12:26, Dustycajun wrote:
Chub,

What a great picture of the Tiki Tops Tiki and restaurant sign. Where did you find that?

DC

The first picture is from a book called the "American Heritage New Pictorial Encyclopedic Guide To The United States Vol. 4" By the way, nice matchbook DC!

The first picture is from a book called the "American Heritage New Pictorial Encyclopedic Guide To The United States Vol. 4"

And by Werner Stoy. I used it in Waikiki Tiki: Art, History and Photographs. I would also love to see the building and interior. I have been unsucessful in finding that. Run by the Spencecliff Corporation, it must have been full of things from Spence's travels. The space-age Safeway is still there. I drove past it on Monday.

According to this literature there should be a picture of it in Time Magazines Hawaii Statehood edition, anyone got one? And what do you suppose is in a tiki burger?

On 2010-10-13 17:13, naugatiki wrote:
According to this literature there should be a picture of it in Time Magazines Hawaii Statehood edition, anyone got one?

August 10, 1959 issue.

[ Edited by: Phillip Roberts 2010-10-14 18:44 ]

I do have this photo of the Tiki Tops from the Aug 1960 issue of Architectural Record magazine:

It actually gives a view of the Tiki Tops restaurant with its modernist, scalloped roof. The roof of the supermarket was engineered by Richard Bradshaw. He probably engineered the Tops roof as well.

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy 2010-10-15 00:51 ]

I believe Armet & Davis did the Honolulu Tiki Tops. Man, those two modern buildings with the Tiki in between! My kinda stuff! :)

Cheeseburger on Kalakaua Avenue

Palm Tree Hole

Waikiki Tiki; Art, History, and Photographs.
Available now from Bess Press Hawaii.

[ Edited by: Phillip Roberts 2010-10-16 23:59 ]

So, the Tiki Tops became a cheeseburger restaurant named after a song by.......
Jimmy Buffet!!

Oh the humanity. Would have preferred the sports bar or Disco place burned down ending like so many others.

I read that this location is not one of the Jimmy Buffet chain restaurants. Buffet sued to owners and reached a settlement that they could keep the name for the two locations in Waikiki and Lahaina but not open any more with that name.

DC

No, DC. The Tiki Tops is not the Cheeseburger. Breathe easy, man. I'm just showing the same wavy building style in Waikiki...

Small contribution to this thread...the brochure has some paper residue from glue...

Later,

PTD

On 2010-10-13 16:52, Phillip Roberts wrote:

The first picture is from a book called the "American Heritage New Pictorial Encyclopedic Guide To The United States Vol. 4"

And by Werner Stoy. I used it in Waikiki Tiki: Art, History and Photographs. I would also love to see the building and interior. I have been unsucessful in finding that. Run by the Spencecliff Corporation, it must have been full of things from Spence's travels. The space-age Safeway is still there. I drove past it on Monday.

I've been to that Starbucks in that shopping center...The Space Age Safeway is al hidden back now.
Armet and Davis rule.

Here is a better scan of the Tiki Tops ad that PTD posted.

And the cover of the brochure that it came from, I really love this graphic with the Tiki and the Wahine.

DC

Aloha,

Yep. I have that one. I didn't use it in Waikiki Tiki because I'd seen it used in some other book. I can't remember which one right now. I find the little brochure interesting because they are all part of the Spencecliff Corporation family of restaurants pre 1970.

On 2010-10-16 07:51, bigbrotiki wrote:
I believe Armet & Davis did the Honolulu Tiki Tops. Man, those two modern buildings with the Tiki in between! My kinda stuff! :)

Armet and davis did design the Tiki Tops coffee shop. The reason it has such an abstract sign without the font is because the city wouldn't let them build a sign higher than the building itself. So, they decided to create a giant sculpture that resembled a sign to get peoples (drivers) attention.

Tourist photo from ebay of the Tiki and building at Tiki Tops.

And another Tiki bar ad - free Tiki menus for the kids! Have not seen one of those yet.

DC