The Outrigger (Trader Vic's), Seattle, WA (restaurant)

Tikicoma,

Great pics of the Seattle Trader Vic's.

I picked up this old postcard showing the exterior of the Benjamin Franklin Hotel with the Outrigger sign.

Close up of the sign.

You can see the Outrigger entrance on the street.

Here is a comparison to the Trader Vic's version of the sign.

DC

Dusty, that postcard is great! I lost the bid on on a B&W card last week that predated this card by a bit. The expansion hadn't occurred yet and the right side of the Outrigger looks like it was a parking lot. Hopefully someone here won it and will post it soon! I did save the listing picture but it's not great.

Here's the figurehead, it's now at MOHAI (museum of history and industry in Seattle)

aloha, tikicoma

[ Edited by: tikicoma 2014-04-29 22:21 ]

You guys are doing a great job, complementing each other! And with tikicoma being so active in Seattle Tiki research, I cannot stay mum and decided to leave writing sequestration for 10 minutes to pull these out of my archive. Both are dated 1954, no other info given on back:

The planning of the addition

The building of the addition

I believe they wouldn't use this kind of humor nowadays :)

PS: These pics are complemented by the B&W photos on pages 86 and 87 in the BOT :)

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2014-04-30 08:53 ]

Great stuff Bigbro! Thanks for pulling yourself out of the writing maze to post those photos.

I never realized that the Outrigger started as just a bar and then built the restaurant in the space between the two buildings. Here is the postcard that I got on ebay that Tikicoma referred to.

It shows the early hotel building with just the Outrigger bar and no restaurant. Will post better scans when I get the card.

Sounds like the restaurant was built in 1954 and my news photo of the opening of the Outrigger bar was from 1949.

DC

I feel sad, looking at these. Closed in 1991, when I was twelve. I never had a chance. And now, as far as I know, no bar in Seattle features tiki drinks. (Zig Zag Cafe happily makes, and even invents, them for me, but not in mugs!)

Found another old photo of the Trader Vic's sign on the Benjamin Franklin Hotel.

And a nice photo of the exterior - the two guys at the front table are wearing Fezs.

DC

A tapa fork, knife and spoon ad from Trader Vic's in Seattle. Nice graphics.

Different font used on the Trader Vic's on this one.

DC

I made a drive up to Seattle to buy three fish traps from a seller who said they came out of the Seattle Vic's. The two in the pic are the same ones that are also hanging in the Portland Vic's. The third smaller One I got cant be seen in the pic. The trap sticking out the back is about 7 feet long. It was touching my windshield when I finally got the window closed. The seller has two more of them for sell. He tried to give them all to me for next to nothing but I had no way to get five traps from Seattle to Portland. As you can see I already had to tie these to my roof. As far as a few days ago the guy still had them. Go to Seattle Craigslist and search for trader Vic's. You will find his listing with a canoe for sell. Although he doesn't have the traps listed, he's looking to get rid of them. I got three traps for $100. He's outside of Everett.

Great price Adam, but I'm fairly sure that they came from the Bellevue Trader Vic's that was only open for a few years. The canoe he's selling looks the same as the one auctioned off from there.

He didn't know much about the stuff. I hope someone in the Seattle area will be able to snatch up the others.

Came across a group of photos from the Lenggenhager collection of the Outrigger and Trader Vic's...

The Outrigger in 1958 with a enlargement of the sign (just to see the signs background design).

Trader Vic's in 1962...

and 1979.

Nothing groundbreaking but it's nice to see some new photos.

I keep forgetting what thread Sven posted this picture in of the gift shop at the Seattle Outrigger/Trader Vic's so I'm putting it here.

The reason I was searching for it was this...

the same tiki pole was seen in a Seattle backyard a couple days ago by Gone Tiki!

[ Edited by: tikicoma 2017-12-01 00:20 ]

Oh. My. DAYS.

Did Gone Tiki rescue it?!?!?

The neighbor wasn't home. He's going back next week and is going to knock on their door to ask about it.

Another photo of the Trader Vic's sign and the Monorail from Vintage Roadside.

DC

Nice photo Dusty!
It seems like a good time for a photo from Christmas 1965...

and what's Christmas without some sugar (I picked these up a few months ago).

Lastly this photo that is reported to be the seating across from the Outrigger or early Trader Vic's bar...

That does look to line up correctly with the bamboo and lights in this early Outrigger bar photo...

Oh and Hope Chest Gone Tiki did finally get with the owner of that tiki pole and it was his mom's. He's keeping it but doesn't know where she got it from. They were from Hawaii and he has moved the pole to a to a place of honor in his garden.

[ Edited by: tikicoma 2019-12-13 01:50 ]

On 2019-12-13 01:42, tikicoma wrote:
Lastly this photo that is reported to be the seating across from the Outrigger or early Trader Vic's bar...

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It’s definitely Vic’s. The shakers and ashtray nail it. Great pics!

Nice photos Tikicoma! Here is a fuzzy pic of Victor Bergeron at the Outrigger's opening ceremonies.

DC

Just a bit of a side note I guess... But in the postcard that Dustycajun posted at the top of this page there are a group of what look to be taxis...

But zooming in you can see that one of them is a Taylor Aerocar! ..

Between 1949 and the late 50's around a half dozen of these type i and ii flying cars were made at Longview Washington...

Where one was bought by a Portland Oregon radio station to use for flying traffic reports for which they used the tagline, "It knows the traffic.. "cause its been there"!

[ Edited by tikicoma on 2022-04-13 22:13:35 ]

[ Edited by tikicoma on 2022-04-14 16:59:37 ]

What a great thread 👍😁