Trader Vic's (Benson Hotel), Portland, OR (restaurant)

Name:Trader Vic's
Type:restaurant
Street:Benson Hotel
City:Portland
State:OR
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct

Description:
The Trader Vic's located in Portland's Hotel Benson was the 7th restaurant in the TV chain. It opened as one of Vic's Outrigger restaurants in 1959 and closed in 1996.

Here is a postcard of the interior showing one of the more unique looking Trader Vics. Bigbro indicated that those are Barney West masks.

Here is a card showing the exterior of the Hotel Benson with the Trader Vics sign and a peak at the entrance.

A close-up.

A rendering of the entrance from and old TV scarf.

This location had a distinctive logo with the tiki and the entrance in a green color for the matchbook.

And the menu

DC

[ Edited by: Bora Boris - Changed Title. - 2012-03-14 18:21 ]

I'm so sad this is gone. There was some talk going around for a while that they were going to open a new TV's here. Unfortunately, that talk has died down.

Here is the standard matchbook from Trader Vic's at the Hotel Benson.

DC

Is the Hotel Benson still around? And if so, what's in the Trader Vic's space currently?

The hotel is still there and the space now holds a nice steak house called El Goucho. yummy!

El Goucho has a Mai Tai on their menu. Nice!

On 2009-06-18 10:31, Bora Boris wrote:
El Goucho has a Mai Tai on their menu. Nice!

BB,
Nice find. What a cool tribute to the man. Trader Vic must be looking down from that great Peacock chair in the sky and smiling.

DC

The blocks are still there!

Cool! I could use those modernist patterns for my Look of Tiki book, which will have concrete block patterns from the Chin Tiki, the Mauna Loa and the Beverly Hills Traders in it.

Here's a full-page photo from a program promoting Portland's brand-new Memorial Coliseum in 1960:

On 2009-09-03 00:03, Sabu The Coconut Boy wrote:
Here's a full-page photo from a program promoting Portland's brand-new Memorial Coliseum in 1960:

reminds me of a place I've been recently

Picked up a luncheon menu from the Trader Vic's at the Hotel Benson.

DC

Just got another menu from the Trader Vic's at the Benson Hotel in Portland. They sure had a variety of menu covers here.

DC

I was reading an article on Oregon Live about the new Trader Vic's in Portland and it had an interesting story about Bob Parsons, a manager at the first Trader Vic's restaurant. He was able to save some artifacts from the original location and has them displayed at his home in Portland. Here are some photos from the article.

Here is a link to the article.

http://www.oregonlive.com/dining/index.ssf/2011/07/trader_vics_brings_tiki_theme.html

Would be interesting to see what else Mr. Parsons has in this collection from the original restaurant.

DC

That fish hanging shows up nicely in Sabu's photo On the right).

Also found another photo on Oregon Live from the original Trader Vic's in Portland. Check out those masks!

DC

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2011-09-04 11:55 ]

My wifes Dad use to put down a few here quite often back in the day, dammmmm i wish he had an i-Phone back then...

I just got a nice feature matchbook from the Trader Vic's in Portland. I have not seen one like this before with the tapa.

Or the design of the feature sticks.

Anybody know if these designs were used elsewhere?

DC

Found this online

Judging by the cars, the "Before" photo must have been taken in the 80s, when the A-frame entrance and the great sign were already gone

i just thought I'd post this link to the new Trader Vic's Portland in this thread, just to make it easier to find:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=43104&forum=2

I think they've done an exceptional job with the new place, wouldn't you agree?

~cs

[ Edited by: Tiki Wachee 2012-07-14 14:29 ]

Just got this postcard with a great view of the Trader Vic's features on the old Benson Hotel building.

The overhead scene.

Close up of the Trader Vic's corner with the torches lit.

Cool stuff.

DC

Judging by the cars, the change from the A-frame entrance to the look above happened already in the late 60s/ early 70s

It might be of interest that the "thatched roof" on the corner seems to have been made of the same weather-resistent metal fronds that the wonderful SAFARI CLUB in the little lumber town of Estacada uses:

Main Street Estacada

Humu and Naomi under the sign

This place is taxidermy heaven

This stuff clearly survived the rainy Northwest climate much better than real palm frond thatching would have.

I was just at the Safari Club last week and the recently painted thatch appears to be made of Tin. The Alibi in Portland has the same painted tin thatch as well.

Aaah, the Alibi, of course!

Looks like they repainted the Safari Club "palm fronds" and added appropriate art to the entrance.
I believe it is under new, youthful management now. Anything that keeps that place going is good with me:
http://www.legendarysafariclub.com/index-1.html

This species of North-Western palm seems akin to the Wildwood palm tree variety :) :

http://roadsidenut.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/day-2-a-perfect-summer-day-in-nj/

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2012-09-30 09:06 ]

On 2012-09-29 06:05, bigbrotiki wrote:

Humu and Naomi under the sign

The heck with the tin thatch story, you had double date with Humu and Naomi at the Safari Club? Nice!!

DC

...and they got really scared and I had to comfort them ! :wink:

Here's lil' Humu and BIG polar bear:

When did they put the Polar bear behind glass? It used to be out in the open on a pedestal that was supposed to resemble an iceburg. Obviously I have not visited in many years. Those stuffed animals kinda freaked me out and made me sad.

Found a few more images from Trader Vic's at the Benson Hotel on-line. Some cool-e-o stuff.

Color photos that came from the shoot done for the postcard.

With people..

Without people

Another view of the exterior.

A red awning has been added to the entrance, and look at that Tiki on the sidewalk towards the corner.

Cool shot of the bar, check out those Tiki bowls on the right of the bar.

A strange looking simian Tiki on the entrance sign.

Signature Trader Vic's Tiki.

DC

Not that there's been a ton of change on this corner, but since Val and I are staying at the Benson this week, we had to take a couple of photos. These are from October 7, 2014.

Kevin

Thanks Kevin! nice to see how it looks today.

On 2014-09-18 15:39, Dustycajun wrote:
Found a few more images from Trader Vic's at the Benson Hotel on-line. Some cool-e-o stuff.

Color photos that came from the shoot done for the postcard.

With people..

Without people

Another view of the exterior.

A red awning has been added to the entrance, and look at that Tiki on the sidewalk towards the corner.

Cool shot of the bar, check out those Tiki bowls on the right of the bar.

A strange looking simian Tiki on the entrance sign.

Signature Trader Vic's Tiki.

DC

dusty...

WOW! i need to find that shot of the signature tiki!

i own it and have been looking for a vintage shot her. i know she stared at the Beverly Hills location and then eventually moved to the Scottsdale, AZ Vics. I bought her from a friend of the manager when the original location in Scottsdale closed. she sat in his local dive bar until it closed in the early 2000s. it would be cool to know if she did go up to Portland at some point in-between.

i don't have a good shot of her handy but here's what she looks like today...

do we know that shot is actually from Portland? any tips of that Thomas Robinson archive?

thanks!

Tiki 1963,

Wow, you own that Tiki - that is so cool! I am positive that photo was taken in Portland - the credits list 1959 the opening year of the Trader Vic's.

Here is a link to a photo archive service where you can purchase the photo.

http://archive.historicphotoarchive.net/

DC

aw, that's great....it will be nice to have framed next to her!

thanks a bunch!

holy tiki! you can order 30" x 40" prints from them.

a nice poster will look great next to her.

incidentally, she's a Barney West to boot!

thanks again...

This tiki is on Craigslist Portland as being a display tiki from the Trader Vic's at the Benson Hotel. Currently listed at $1500. I'm too far away to verify, but if someone picks it up & it's legit, post it here!

I had an up close look. Doesn't look very aged and has a big split on the head. Looks like it was front top heavy and fell forward with the headdress hitting the ground first causing the crack. It's been there for sell for a while. Could be real but the varnish looks new. I emailed the sellar as well but they didn't give me much information

[ Edited by: Adam Aku Aku 2016-03-20 20:59 ]

Found a great old photo of the A-Frame entrance and concrete wall at the Benson.

DC

Late 1960's magazine ad from Trader Vic's at the Benson.

DC