New Jersey Tiki Mishap!

Aloha!

Last weekend while on a short road trip I decided to check out one of my so far unexplored Tiki joints in Jersey. I have been to about 7 or 8 of the old and new Tiki places here in the New York/New Jersey area and wanted to se what JADE GARDEN in Westfield, NJ was all about. According to 'Tiki Road Trip' Jade Garden is a "wonderful Polynesian bar/restaurant. Pools of goldfish everywhere; very serious Tiki". Well my friends, I'm sorry to report that Jade Garden is nothing more than a Chinese take-out establishment. It would be a stretch to even call it a restaurant. Basically, it's a small storefront with a few tables in front of the counter that are rarely used. There isn't a damn thing that is Tiki about this place.

Now, I have taken into account that I could be wrong, because I didn't have my 'Tiki Road Trip' book with me, but I did look up the place on JT's Tiki Bar Review page on the net when I was at a Mac store during the trip. I took that info and went from there. When I got back home from the trip I looked it up in 'TRT' and I'm 99.9% sure that the info in the book for Jade Garden was the same info I followed to find the place. No dice, people. No dice.

There is a happy ending to this story however. Continuing back to NYC we stopped at the other Lee's Hawaiian Islander in Lyndhurst. To make a long story short, it was very cool. Definitley up there with Chan's. They were supposed to have a live hula show the night we were there but it was cancelled for some reason.

If anybody has any info on what the deal is with Jade Garden in Westfield, please...do tell!!! I'm guessing this was a typo or something in 'Tiki Road Trip'. Either that or the place just remodeled and turned into a take-out only since James was there while compiling the book.

Mahalo :drink:

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2003-11-21 12:39 ]

I have never been to Jade Garden, but have been excited to go the Lee's in Lyndhurst. I always wanted to go to the one in Clifton (it was the only one that featured hula dancers at the time), but it sadly burned down earlier this year.

Do you happen to know on what night the hula show takes place? I'd love to check it out.

-g-

There's also Jade Garden restaurants in Edison & Warren, could it really be 1 of those?

Freddiefreelance-

Nah....it was definitely the one in Westfield. Checkout the Tiki Road Trip book. It's listed under the Jersey Tiki places. Are the ones you're talking about in Warren and Edison Tiki places as well?

I don't know, I just found the listings in the yellow pages. You'll have to go there & find out. :D

Mahalo for the update.

It's been a few years since I was in Jersey on a Tiki mission.
Things change... as we all know too well.

Do keep in mind that if the place was 'all that' I would have given it more than two short sentences in TRT.

I'll get the update changed on the TBRP.

James...

Yeah, no doubt the place must have changed since your visit. 'Tiki Road Trip' is a great book and even if stuff only gets a few sentences, I'll check it out if it is within reach. By the way, I gotta pay you a compliment on including Canton Casino in Jersey City in the book. Even though it's not necessarily tiki per se, it is definitely worth checking out, and an old and beautiful place.

Mahalo! :drink:

will have to check out the casino at some point,a trip to the loews jersey movie palace in journal square is a must as well.one night while on a date frank saw bing sing there......and well....the rest is history.dropped you a pm donhonyc-------------------dave from jersey

Mr. James,
While you are changing things in the book,
You might want to put the corrected info for
The Bahooka.
It will be easier to find it that way.
And if you happen to be in Orange County you can go by the House of Tiki
So that you can see it is not an over priced surf shop at all.
But is an all time Tiki store with great prices.
Be careful the strength of the printed word.

On 2003-11-22 19:28, davew wrote:
a trip to the loews jersey movie palace in journal square is a must as well.

do tell!

heres the link to the theatre chris.tho movie programs are a bit irregular its worth it to get on the email list and if something catches your eye its a beautiful place to catch a classic-----dave from jersey

http://www.loewsjersey.org/

On 2003-11-23 10:53, thebaxdog wrote:
Mr. James,
While you are changing things in the book,
You might want to put the corrected info for
The Bahooka.
It will be easier to find it that way.
And if you happen to be in Orange County you can go by the House of Tiki
So that you can see it is not an over priced surf shop at all.
But is an all time Tiki store with great prices.
Be careful the strength of the printed word.

Hey Bax

The Bahooka address was corrected in the second printing of TRT. Sorry if you were lead astray.
For those of you wondering, check out the fine print on Page 2 (the page with all the legal mumbo jumbo) it will say "second printing" if you have a second printing (first printings do not say 'first printing' however). The other quick way to tell is that "Octavio" is spelled correctly on page 7 in the 2nd printing, it is spelled "Ocatvio" in the first.

As for the surf shop, I already got a nasty email from the owner, something I never enjoy, but I have to call them as I see them.

On 2003-11-23 18:57, davew wrote:
..its a beautiful place to catch a classic...

And to think I lived in Hoboken for a year and never even ...

Thanks man!

(but I have to call them as I see them.)
Perhaps glasses
The House of Tiki has had one, ONE surfboard the whole time they have been open.(it sold)
No wax, no fins, no wet suits!
So what part of this store is a surf shop?
If you can't tell the difference, maybe a book on surf shops across America would do well for you?

I agree with Bax. When I first walked into The House of Tiki, in no way did I ever get a sense of a "surf" shop. Being an old time surfer & skateboarder, having lived by the surf 33 of my 39 years, I DO know a surf shop when I see one. Also, having actually owned a retail store myself, and knowing what markups are involved with items, I never thought that things were overpriced. Actually, many times I'll see items priced almost exactly the same as other retail establishments and then I'll either see a sign or Wes or one of the employees will say "don't forget we have 10% off today" or, Wes will give a discount "just because".

In reading the review in TRT, it says "described as an overpriced surf shop", I was disappointed and also a little thrown off, since that sounded more like hearsay, than an actual review experienced by the writer.

I read that Ron Jon's Surf Shop, in TRT, got a review stating "a dozen tikis by Wayne Coombs". Great!....but House of Tiki has, at least 100 Tikis over the whole store! Some by Crazy Al, ChikiTiki, and I believe, Gecko (has or had) some of his creations there too!

Just my 2 (surf or tiki?) coconuts worth.