Tiki Bar - the Tahitian - ever hear of it?

Aloha!

The other day I purchased a lot on eBay.

The description of the lot said "2 plain coconut cups 4-1/2" diameter 4" high 1 Don the Beachcomber: 3-1/2" diameter 4" height."

Well, the package arrived the other day and upon inspection, I noticed that one of the "plain" coconuts wasn't exactly plain. In fact, it had the word the Tahitian carved in the bottom of the mug.

So being the inquisitive fellow that I am decided to do a search on the forums. All I could come up with was the Tahitian Room - London.

Does any know of the Tahitian? If so, could you please fill me in? I would love to know some history behind the mug.

Aloha!
-CMC

I have a matchbook....I'll dig it out ASAP.

Here's a link
https://tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=3501&forum=1

Nope...struck out...I have the Tahiti Motel And Tahitian Village Motel...No Tahitian.

Thanks for trying BK.

And thank you Alnshely, that is the Tahitian Room - London that I was refering too.

So does anyone know anything about the Tahitian and not the Tahitian Room?

Thanks!
-CMC

There was a Tahitian on Ventura Blvd. in Studio City, CA. There's a picture of it on page 152 of the BOT. I have a couple of ashtrays from it and I'm pretty sure Sabu has a menu and/or postcards.

Here's a link to a past Tiki History post on the Tahitian :

https://tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=4404&forum=1

[ Edited by: puamana on 2003-12-11 08:07 ]

Thank you Doctor Z and puamana, that is exactly the information that I was looking for.

I added my image to the link that puamama provided.

I also heard from Bob at Oceanic Arts about this as well. I hope he doesn't mind me sharing what he had to say.

Aloha Cool Manchu:
Dr Z is correct. Your mugs are from one of The Tahitian Restaurants. The original or first was on Lake ave just south of Colorado in Pasadena. This one is pictured on page 152 of the BOT and the photo is from Oceanic Arts archives, taken during construction. The later unit was at 12010 Ventura Blvd (one block east of Laurel Canyon, which is Studio City. Oceanic Arts and Sea & Jungle supplied both of these restaurants.

We had 2 of their Monkeypod tiki's at OA for years. Sold one of them and still have one (not for sale) which we rented for 17 weeks for the 6 Days-7 nights movie.

We also have their Menu and Matchbook in our archives.

The Coconut mugs were made by Spurlin Ceramics in Lynwood, Cal, by Stella Bodey who was one of the first to supply mugs and bowls for the Polynesian industry in the 1960's. We represented her line of over 25 Tiki Mugs and Bowls and have samples at our Whittier, Cal shop. The name on the bottom of the coconut is her writing style and the glaze etc is their style. See samples of her work at OA.

Hope this info is of interest to you. OA enjoys helping people, as it makes it more interesting to know the "story" .

On 2003-12-10 20:41, Cool Manchu wrote:
Aloha!

The other day I purchased a lot on eBay.

I now this topic is stale, but I just found. So sue me.

Was doing some research on Spurlin Ceramics, one of our fave old mug producers, if you anyone finds one of their mugs it's a real score. I found this topic and disocovered we too have that cocount mug. Did not know it was from that same maker. Learn something everyday.

This calls for some pie!

midnite