South Pacific Restaurant, Chicago, IL (restaurant)

Name:South Pacific Restaurant
Type:restaurant
Street:28-30 West Randolph Street
City:Chicago
State:IL
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct

Description:
This is an old restaurant in Chicago that served American, Cantonese and Chinese food.

I found this menu for the South Pacific Restaurant in Chicago. I had never heard about this place on TC or anywhere else and was wondering if anybody has any other information?

Here is the menu.

Check out these drink names from the menu. Pretty creative stuff before Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic came up with all of the modern day standards.

The choices seem to be either wanton lust with exotic women or lost at sea on a deserted island!

chicago was host to not only the big names in tiki like vics, kona kai and the beachcomber, but also alot of little "one-off" places like south pacific, tradewinds, the polynesian, tong's tiki hut, jimmy wong's, pago pago, shanghai-lil's, shangri-la (which is where the cook and the decor of chef shangri-la came from), sneaky tiki(aka paradise club), cyril's house of tiki and many more...it's amazing to think of what a hot bed of tiki this town was back at it's peak of polynesian themed places...you couldn't hit all the places in one weekend of drinking, but it would have been fun trying...

On 2008-07-01 07:10, Tipsy McStagger wrote:
chicago was host to not only the big names in tiki like vics, kona kai and the beachcomber, but also alot of little "one-off" places like south pacific, tradewinds, the polynesian, tong's tiki hut, jimmy wong's, pago pago, shanghai-lil's, shangri-la (which is where the cook and the decor of chef shangri-la came from), sneaky tiki(aka paradise club), cyril's house of tiki and many more...it's amazing to think of what a hot bed of tiki this town was back at it's peak of polynesian themed places...you couldn't hit all the places in one weekend of drinking, but it would have been fun trying...

Great news!!! :)

Now where's that blasted time machine?

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

If not for the Chicago Don's and Trader Vic's, we would not have the Mai Kai and Kahiki and probably 50 more Polynesian restaurants across the east and south east.

Arrrgh, each time I get reminded of THE Tiki crime of the decade, the razing of the Chicago Trader Vic's, I get mad. A minute of silence please...

Chicago was THE classic Old World-style bustling metropolis were the concept of the tropical hideway as escape from the concrete jungle really hit the spot and flourished. Three of ten restaurants on the page below are South Seas themed:

These ads are from a 1958 Schubert Theatre stage bill.

ahhh yes..honolulu harry's waikiki....almost forgot!!

Thought I'd add this from my collection.

Tipsy - You, of all people, could have done Chicago in one weekend. It's all in the planning. You start at Don's for Lunch on Saturday and work your way through three or four more spots the rest of the day. On Sunday, its up early for Brunch at Trader Vic's and that gives you the rest of the day and night to knock of the other 4 or 5 locations. Think of the challenge!

Uncle Trav, thanks for posting the matchbook from the South Pacific, I knew there had to be some other items from this place out there. I have never seen a postcard??

Bigbro, A moment of silence will be offered over tonight's Mai Tai in honor of the Traders demise.

In keeping with a broader Chicago theme, here are postcards etc. from a few other restaurants that were mentioned by Tipsy and Bigbro.

Trader Vic's Palmer House with the nice Tiki by Barney West

Kon Tiki Ports Papeete Room, Macao Room, Singapore Joes Tavern and Saigon Room in the Sheraton Hotel

Shangri-La Restaurant postcard and drink menu

Shanghai Lil's

Nobody mentioned the Tropics Restaurant in the Chicagoan Hotel

Honolulu Harry's Waikiki Restaurant oversized postcard. I have a lot of paper from this place so I will make a separate post under Locating Tiki.

The Windy City, my kind of town.

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2009-07-05 18:20 ]

Another matchbook from the South Pacific.

The bar looks like it was called the Guam Outpost and the owner was Harry Eng.

DC

Here is a cool little ashtray from the South Pacific that was on ebay.

DC

Interesting - the address is right next to - an part of the same building as - the Oriental Theater (c. 1926), so they would have had a whole exotic theme going on in the day...

GK

Thought that i would document this photo alblum and photo to the "Guam-Outpost" here before this item goes on the chopping block . (See the marketplace for e-bay link)

:drink: Aloha!

MC

Faalia, who was the original fireknife dancer at the Mai-Kai was working here at the South Pacific when he was hired to move down south. The menu is in his collection.

I found some photos online of the South Pacific sign.

And an old ad from Pumana.

DC

interesting obit for wayne sit......

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2006-10-30/news/0610300006_1_chinese-immigrants-lincoln-square

He eventually opened Hoe king lo ( which had a killer looking building and sign which I found a picture of online awhile back but cannot seem to locate it now. I remember driving by the place on thrifting expeditions in my teens.)

Hoe king lo is one of the few bumatay mugs that has the name of the place on it (see ooga mooga)

[ Edited by: Tipsy McStagger 2012-01-21 07:18 ]

[ Edited by: Bora Boris - Cleaned up. - 2012-01-22 18:16 ]

Here's a few more images

Big and scratchy!

A couple "Borrowed" from Flicker ~

Here's a cool * "Then and Now"* page on Chicago's WTTW site.

http://interactive.wttw.com/loop/loop-then-now/randolph-street-east-dearborn-street

and one that's depressing.

http://interactive.wttw.com/loop/loop-then-now/randolph-street-west-dearborn-street

As usual it's sad to see any cool signage that is gone.

...and on that walking tour, a pic of the Hoe Sai Gai where mr. sit first worked before moving onto the south pacific.....

oh hell yeah.... interior of hoe sai gai via postcards....

Great Glowie Signage!

I think the signature above the name is "Joey Engs".

[ Edited by: Bora Boris 2012-01-22 19:13 ]

now back to topic.....

Interior of the menu.

Mai-Kai Memories Series Custom ceramic mugs!

[ Edited by: Swanky 2013-11-27 13:03 ]

Here is a pic of the exterior of the restaurant from the 60s from the Chicago Tribune. And a link to an article with some background of the restaurant.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-05-27/features/ct-recipe-hong-kong-steak-20140527_1_restaurant-critic-vegetables-dining-room

This great photo of the sign and the carved panels outside showed up on facebook today.

DC

Adding photos of another version of the South Pacific menu, from my collection, which appears to be later than those posted so far.

[ Edited by The Professor on 2025-01-06 11:46:45 ]

[ Edited by The Professor on 2025-01-06 11:47:47 ]