Ford Restaurant Renderings

There have been numerous posts on different threads showing the beautiful color renderings of Poly Pop restaurants located throughout the United States that are listed in the "Treasury of Favorite Recipes from Famous Eating Places" cookbooks and the Ford Times booklets that were published by the Ford motor company. I have collected many of the books so I thought it was time to compile the renderings and recipes in one thread.

Ford's restaurant book was meant to be used in three ways, in the kitchen, on the road and in the library, as described on the introduction page:

Useful in the glove box before GPS and Garmin!

The renderings were done by local artists and are very accurate in the depiction of the interiors and exteriors of the restaurants. Here we go...

The original Christian's Hut Restaurant with the Goof on the roof located on Balboa Island (1951).

The artist who did the Christian's Hut water color was Yale Gracey, a Disney imagineer who worked with Rolly Crump and is credited with painting the 999 grim grinning ghosts in the Haunted Mansion and the flame effects in the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Another rendering of the goof, this time at Shelter Island's Bali Hai in San Diego (1959).

The interior of the original Don The Beachcomber in Hollywood (1954).

An abstract rendering and recipe from the Trader Vic's in Oakland.

Skipper Kent's restaurant located in San Francisco (1953).

A similar rendering done by the same artist (Parker Edwards) from the Polynesian Village located at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago (1959). As we have learned, this restaurant was also designed by Skipper Kent.

One of my personal favorites, the Bali Hai at the Beach in New Orleans (1968).

The Mauna Loa in Detroit (1968).

Dobbs House Luau in Memphis (1961). This one even has accurate illustrations of the menus used.

The famous Mai Kai (1969).

Here are a few from Hawaii

The Willows Restaurant in Honolulu.

Another abstract rendering for the the Don The Beachcomber at Waikiki.

Getting hungry putting this one together, I think it's time for dinner!

DC

WOW! Great stuff DC. Thanks for posting these.

Excellent work as usual DC.

Wow! You nailed them all! It's good to seem them all lined up, thanks!

Amazing!!! Dustycajun is the King of ephemera! After a tough, and expensive couple of days (sewer line broke) you made my night. thanks!

Amazing!!! Dustycajun is the King of ephemera! After a tough, and expensive couple of days (sewer line broke) you made my night. thanks!

I seem to recall one for the Luau in Atlanta. Can't find the image right now. Maybe I am imagining it.

Gotta tell you, this wasn't the first thing I thought of when I saw the words "restaurant" and "rendering" in the subject line :)

I love all of these renderings as they represent a plateau in graphic arts that personally I would have no problem with should I ever achieve it. From there its all downhill - back to where I'm standing now looking up :wink:

Thanks Dc for creating this thread!

On 2011-04-06 08:48, Rum Balls wrote:
Gotta tell you, this wasn't the first thing I thought of when I saw the words "restaurant" and "rendering" in the subject line :)

Rum Balls,

Never thought about the dual English definition of that word!

Rendering is a process that converts waste animal tissue into stable, value-added materials. Rendering can refer to any processing of animal byproducts into more useful materials, or more narrowly to the rendering of whole animal fatty tissue into purified fats like lard or tallow. Rendering can be carried out on an industrial, farm, or kitchen scale.

I will change the title to be a little more specific.

Thanks to all who have chimed in, it was a fun thread to put together. I have to give credit to all of the explorers who came before me that uncovered most of these gems (i.e. Sabu).

There are a few more to add... soon.

DC

These are all very cool. Hope you can add others in the near future.

DC,

The artists' renderings of these Poly-Gastronomic temples are wonderful. I'm digging the period recipes too, unfortunately this page with the Mai Kai information...

Has the beginning of one recipe (a scampi dish) left on the preceding page, while the remainder of what I'm guessing is the Mai Kai's Chicken Coriander recipe appears to be on the next (not included) page. Bummer.

Bear

On 2011-05-10 18:59, Brudda Bear wrote:
DC,

The remainder of what I'm guessing is the Mai Kai's Chicken Coriander recipe appears to be on the next (not included) page. Bummer.

Here is the rest of the Mai Kai recipe, it was almost done!

I decided to include a few pages from the Great Restaurants of the Unites States book that were illustrated (in part) by Florian Gabriel to spice up this post.

Here is a Derby Daiquiri illustration with a nod to Puerto Rican Rum.

And the Mai Kai illustration that later became the great postcard.

Some more Fords,

Canlis Seattle

And the rendering from Great Restaurants

Canlis Hawaii

Also a Great Restaurants rendering from the Canlis Hawaii.

Coco Palms, Kauai

Sheraton Inn, St Petersburg. Not much of a rendering but the place had a Tiki Room and South Seas Room and later housed a Trader Vic's.

And finnaly a rendering of the Trader Vic's in SF from the Great Restaurants book.

DC

Thanks DC, so much good stuff!

On 2011-05-11 21:14, Mr. Burns said:

Excellent!

Bear

Was the Canlis illustration in a Ford book, cuz that looks like a Buick Riviera in the pic!? These are really some killer pics DC.

Big K, these are not from the Ford Times, but from this book, as DC mentioned:

On 2011-05-11 19:18, Dustycajun wrote:

I decided to include a few pages from the Great Restaurants of the United States book that were illustrated (in part) by Florian Gabriel to spice up this post.
Here is a Derby Daiquiri illustration with a nod to Puerto Rican Rum.

And the Mai Kai illustration that later became the great postcard.

The same artist that did the famous Mai Kai rendering did that great Canlis one, too.

Ahhh! I see!

Just when you thought you had seen them all.... another Ford Times Tiki restaurant pops up. This time it is the Dobb's House Luau in Atlanta (just in time for the Inuhele Atlanta Tiki Event). Showing the entrance A-Frame and the Tiki out front and a little description of the dining rooms.

DC