Portland Kon Tiki and other defunct Portland tiki bars

On 2016-02-09 14:57, TikiMaxton wrote:
It would be cool to do a Photoshop comp of the old Kon Tiki facade on the current hotel. Might try to get a shot from the angle of the previous (vintage) shot and see if I can match them up.

Gave it a shot with the two pics already up on here! Not the greatest Photoshop work, but not bad either!

Damn! That's pretty cool! Would you mind if I jacked that picture to share on FB?

On 2016-04-21 10:19, TikiMaxton wrote:
Damn! That's pretty cool! Would you mind if I jacked that picture to share on FB?

Not at all! Share away!

Does anyone else have other photos from the Portland Kon-Tiki? I would love to see more details of the entire place!

On 2016-06-21 21:18, DixonAlibi wrote:
Does anyone else have other photos from the Portland Kon-Tiki? I would love to see more details of the entire place!

Wouldn't we all! Here is a photo of the food spread and a Tiki from an advertising photo I clipped from ebay.

DC

That's sweet!

This postcard showed up on eBay. The back says it's the Portland Kon-Tiki, but the entrance didn't look like this postcard!? I'm confused now.

DixonAlibi, for some reason the Kon Tiki group used an artist/architects rendering of the Montreal Kon Tikis entrance for the Portland restaurant at one time. I don't know why and yes it does confuse things. Below is a postcard from the Montreal location.

Eugene Register-Guard 7/10/66
"(Mike) McVay, carved the 12-foot tiki which provides the motif for the South Seas atmosphere at Portland's Sheraton Motor Inn."

Humm... I wonder if he ever came up to Tacoma? (answer: he did, don't know if he carved the tikis that are/were here yet though)

oops! I forgot the link. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19660710&id=BudVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UOEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4161,1935405&hl=en

[ Edited by: tikicoma 2016-08-26 20:00 ]

On 2016-08-26 19:09, tikicoma wrote:
Eugene Register-Guard 7/10/66
"(Mike) McVay, carved the 12-foot tiki which provides the motif for the South Seas atmosphere at Portland's Sheraton Motor Inn."

Humm... I wonder if he ever came up to Tacoma? (answer: he did, don't know if he carved the tikis that are/were here yet though)

oops! I forgot the link. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19660710&id=BudVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UOEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4161,1935405&hl=en

[ Edited by: tikicoma 2016-08-26 20:00 ]

What page of the paper is that on?

It's on pages 31-33. The link I found it on went directly to the article but just goes to that days paper now for some reason. And my guess is that this is the 12 foot tiki they were talking about... just guessing but it possibly cedar carved to look like palm.

I just purchased this really nice press photo showing the large Tiki that sat on the right side of the front door at the Portland Kon Tiki.

Great shot of that signature Tiki.

DC

Good 1

My wife works across the street. Her response when I told her there used to be a great tiki bar there? "Figures."

Now I'm irked because now I've another set of items I feel the need to collect...

On 2016-08-27 14:18, tikicoma wrote:
And my guess is that this is the 12 foot tiki they were talking about... just guessing but it possibly cedar carved to look like palm.

I picked up this news photo of the restaurant manager standing next to the Tiki in the Vintage Roadside photo, sure looks to be 12 feet tall. You'll note that he is holding a Steve Crane Salt shaker/pepper.

The back of the photos states that the Tiki was a gift from the sheriff of Honolulu, so it is a Hawaiian Palm at that.

DC

Thanks Dusty... and oops. I forgot to update on this thread that (like I did on the Bumatay thread) McVay said it was too deeply carved to have been his. But if you look at it it matches Bumatay's style and apparently he was carving in Hawaii before he came to the mainland. And if that's palm it probably was pretty quickly beat up by the wet northwest weather.

Dusty is the date on that news photo 1959?

[ Edited by: tikicoma 2017-02-24 20:58 ]

[ Edited by: tikicoma 2017-02-24 21:16 ]

On 2017-02-24 16:20, Dustycajun wrote:
I picked up this news photo of the restaurant manager standing next to the Tiki in the Vintage Roadside photo, sure looks to be 12 feet tall. You'll note that he is holding a Steve Crane Salt shaker/pepper.

That's a spectacular photo DC!

-Randy

Thanks Randy! So if that picture marked the beginning of Portland Kon Tiki, this next one marked the end. I got another newspaper photo that was taken after the Sheraton changed hands and became the Red Lion in 1981 at the height of Tiki devolution. The Kon Tiki was on the way out and they were GIVING the Tikis away to guests!

DC

Howdy!

I was wondering if you’ve been able to find any other photos or anything from any of these old Portland Tiki Bars!

A menu from the Zombie Zulu with a rather odd looking figure on the cover and a hand-scratched listing of the food.

DC