Anyone Know: Tiki alive and well in Los Angeles in 1991??

Dear Tiki Colleagues - I am trying to write a book, it's just fiction but I was thinking to have it be (somewhat) historically accurate. My main character is an aspiring actor who works as a bartender in a a tiki bar, somewhere in Los Angeles. But the tricky part is that it's 1991, so it's after the heyday but before the revival. I can't really use Tiki Ti because it was small and family run, and I've learned that Tonga Hut was really not tiki at the time, more of a "trucker bar" and kind of divey. Great that it is now revitalized, but that doesn't help me. This site is such a great collection of tiki facts and history, but I'm having a hard time knowing which of the second generation LA tiki bars might have thrived into the early 90's (if any). I've seen South Seas, Pacific Seas, and a couple others, with photos and postcards and menus, etc. But I'm not seeing dates when the places closed. I'll of course keep digging, but thought maybe someone here might just know and care to save me some time! I'm looking for a decent sized, well-appointed tiki bar where my main character would work part time. I don't think an Asian restaurant would work - although my barback is Hawaiian.

Thanks in advance!

Tiki_Andy

No one knows?

Kelbo’s on Pico was probably as tiki as anyplace. Pretty big, with several rooms inc the Cocobowl (dancing under a giant coconut shell.) I even DJed there a bit, trying to get an exotica/lounge thing happening there in its final days (1994).

Rollerblading lounge revival/parodist Joey Cheezy aka The Wonderful World of Joey used to play there. Korla Pandit often was part of his show.

The still-standing Damon’s in Glendale was also around, but strictly as a restaurant. They served liquor, but not a “bar” or nightclub as such.

I visited the Tonga Hut around that time, and I think it was pretty tiki. The cocktail napkins had a cool tapa pattern, the jukebox played actual 45s of stuff like”The Girl From Ipanema.” Not quite as heavily decorated/self-consciously kitschy as it is now, but still fairly tiki-fied, or so it seemed to me at the time. An authentic survivor of the original mid-century era.

[ Edited by MrFab on 2024-12-16 20:19:45 ]

The Tonga Hut was not a hipster hangout, definitely just a regular workin’ folks watering hole, if that’s what you mean by “truckers bar.” North Hollywood was a few years away from its' revival as the NoHo Arts District. It was rather, shall we say, "pre-gentrified."

[ Edited by MrFab on 2024-12-16 20:31:38 ]

Thanks, MrFab! I'll dig further, maybe either of these could work as my setting. I also now see that Trader Vic's in the Beverly Hilton was still going at that time (1991), so maybe another option for me to consider.

Again, many thanks.

Tiki_Andy

Oh yeah, that trader Vic’s! I have a coconut mug from when I went there in the 90s. But for some reason, I don’t really remember much about it. Still, it does get name checked in Warren Zevon‘s “werewolves of London.“

It was in a fancy hotel, so not the usual tiki bar clientele. Celebrities, rich people, but I guess some regular tourists, too. Nowhere near any regular pedestrian streets, so you couldn’t just drop in to it.

I went there a few times back then. Certainly a Trader Vic's, but in spite of the big guy at the entrance, more nautical than tiki. Then again, I don't remember much else in the area back then. Went to Kelbo's too towards its end and it was kind of a dying disco. I don't remember any tiki (or I missed it).

How 'bout Bahookah's?

The Warehouse in Marina del Rey is another "tiki" restaurant that's been in operation since 1969.

Thanks, I'll look into it!

Thank you, I will check it out.

[ Edited by Tiki_Andy on 2024-12-18 14:16:10 ]