trader vics bev hills closed

http://www.lamag.com/askchris/trader-vics-beverly-hills-closes-62-years/

Tiki lite, just aint right.

It has not worked in the places I have seen.
And dam Trader Vic's had tons of décor just siting in a warehouse.

Yeah I read about this over the weekend and didn't so much as bat an eyelash. Wish Vic's was smarter about their location of the real Vic's instead of throwing it into LA Live. This place was mostly name only anyway.

In name and in cocktails... The drinks were still made by the guys who were there in the '60s. Sad to see them go.

RIP

A while back, I used to frequent this poolside, tropical Tiki oasis regularly, which was aptly marketed as an "island retreat." This modified from one of my posts in the Trader Vics Lounge thread.

Many of the traditional aspects of Trader Vics remained: the neon script; the beloved Chai in control of the bar; the Mai Tai recipe and glasses; the Fog Cutter mugs and, yes, there is a large tiki as a silent sentinel offering homage to the by-gone era. The decilious pupus remain - I even think I saw my favorite: the flaming Beef Cho Cho.

Think "W" Westwood; think Miami Beach; think Tiki's Waikiki - for the new Trader Vic's Lounge is reminiscent of each of these tropical locales.

I don't know whether to be happy that it lasted so long, or sad that the inevitable claimed it, as Trader Vics has not been having good karma in LA.

I'm sure the irony is not lost on many that Trader Vic's made it through the 1970s and 1980s when tiki was in decline, and that it has suffered so much during the tiki renaissance. Trader Vic's almost seems to want to fail.

On 2017-02-28 15:54, arriano wrote:
Trader Vic's almost seems to want to fail.

As Chris Nichols' article notes, Trader Vics is now down to just 2 U.S. locations. At L.A. Live, it is the only establishment to close. So many others have closed recently, including Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Francisco. T

Trader Vics Board of Directors and management staff needs to be fired and sued for incompetence.

Trader Vics Lounge had a great location and poolside theme in Sunny LA. With proper management and marketing, it should have been able to thrive for another 62 years.

On 2017-03-05 09:32, christiki295 wrote:

On 2017-02-28 15:54, arriano wrote:
Trader Vic's almost seems to want to fail.

As Chris Nichols' article notes, Trader Vics is now down to just 2 U.S. locations. At L.A. Live, it is the only establishment to close. So many others have closed recently, including Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Francisco. T

Trader Vics Board of Directors and management staff needs to be fired and sued for incompetence.

Trader Vics Lounge had a great location and poolside theme in Sunny LA. With proper management and marketing, it should have been able to thrive for another 62 years.

2 locations? That's a shocking state of affairs. I frequented the TV's Chicago, and it was great. TV's can't seem to get out of their own way.

It's an enigma wrapped in a mystery what Trader Vic's corporate strategy is. They've got like 2 or 3 locations in Dubai and just opened one in the Seychelles I believe, but they seem to have absolutely no interest in maintaining their image or locations in the US. Where I would have thought their escapist brand of dining would be more popular now than it has for decades. I wonder how much longer we will have Atlanta and Emeryville?

Still remember that day when Atomikitty posted on here when the real TV's at the Beverly Hills Hilton was closing. Had several opportunities to visit the new "tiki lite" version, but when it came down to it never really felt like doing it. We liked the last iteration in Chicago, it was still basically a chain with all that entails but it retained a lot of the TV feel. But they're a chain after all and it makes no difference to corporate management if they're running what's supposed to be a classic tiki establishment or an Applebee's. They're going to be lame by definition. This news means we all really need to get out to Atlanta soon...

Very sad. I never visited the poolside version, but made several excursions to the original TV 90210. It was a magical, slightly surreal sort of place where you were likely to run into various B-list celebrities entertaining hookers, local "Masters of the Universe" behaving badly, and Aqualung waiters with snot running down their noses. The food and drink was outrageously overpriced, but somehow worth every penny. We shall not see its like again, my friends.

Vic's executive mgmt has had their heads up their collective posteriors for many years now. They've never been able to grasp what makes TV great, and consistently water-down and ruin everything good about its heritage. They're snobs, and seem bound and determined to discourage the Tiki Central type of clientele who love them and have proven willing time and time again to support them through thick and thin. I break wind in their general direction and consign them to everlasting volcano-bowl flames of hellfire.

[ Edited by: MrBaliHai 2017-03-27 04:08 ]

...and yet, they seem reinvested in producing and selling their mugs on their website. Their Instagram account is flourishing... I feel they are poised to make a comeback. I wish they would consult figureheads in the tiki community about what would make it work in California. Hell, I feel like I know what would make them work here...

I think something else entirely is going on, but I can't put my finger on it. We know they do care about tiki, as they have an ongoing commitment to selling some pretty cool stuff on their web site. But that may not be the end of it despite our limited visibility.

In their defense, the restaurant business is tough, and the specialty restaurant business even more so. It's not easy to find a good location and a good landlord who won't pull the footings out from under you when you ramp up and become successful. I'm guessing (and hoping) that Trader Vic's has some sort of quandary with US locations which they will eventually be able to overcome. Maybe they will make a comeback in "secondary" locations where they can be successful more easily without fighting cocky landlords.

Or maybe they see their current niche is the international market and not the domestic market and they're focusing on that until times change more in their favor in the US.

You can clearly see the love we all have for Vic's. Let's hope they come back at some point in the near future, maybe to pioneer the "waffle houses" of tiki and put up little places instead of the grand palaces we all are used to seeing. Who knows... Just wild speculation going on here...