Trader Dick's , Sparks, NV (restaurant)

It's based off of Maori facial tattoos (Ta moko):
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"You can't eat real Polynesian food. It's the most horrible junk I've ever tasted." —Trader Vic Bergeron

[ Edited by: TikiTacky 2014-07-13 19:00 ]

3 variations

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Well its officially over, Trader Dick's is gone and Gilley's is open. Here are some more memories:

Snapshot of the exterior from 1959.
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Newspaper ad.
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Wonder what happened to all of the Tikis and decorations from the place?

News info:

Trader Dick's restaurant was closed and replaced with Gilley's Saloon and Dance Hall, and "Last Chance Joe," the 36-foot-tall prospector statue that stood at the Nugget's north entrance since 1958, was removed and relocated to the nearby Sparks Heritage Museum and Cultural Center.

At least they saved Last Chance Joe.

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Ain't progress grand?

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DC

Ok Dusty here is some photos that are lacking from this thread.
Last Summer Trader Dick's had an auction online and on site at a conference room at the hotel. Some friends and I went and I came away with quite a bit.

Here are some photos I took of the items for sale. A few pics are missing but this is the bulk of everything (minus some hanging lamps, menu board, tables and chairs)

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Here are some of the items I brought home.

Pretty sad to see everything but it was pretty great to attend the auction and to take some Trader Dick's memories home

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Tiki Thrift,

Of course, I remember the auction now. Thanks for posting the photos here.

DC

Great but sad pics
Glad you picked up some of the goods

Found this postcard today
Dusty (the paper King) posted it on page 1

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An old friend of mine is working on archiving things for John Ascuaga's Nugget in Sparks. While digging through some of the old scrap books he found these photos of the interior of the original building (before being brought in as part of the Nugget). He says that he'll forward me any other stuff that he finds. Please excuse the quality of these as they are photos of photos.

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Very nice, scan and share as much as you are able! Who knows what will come to light...

Photo from a Nugget brochure circa 1960

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More circa 1960.

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Here is a 1958 news article with a cool photo of carver Milano Guanko caring one of the Trader Dick's Tikis on-site. Also noted in the article was Eli Hedley the designer and decorator. This makes me think that Eli had a pretty good working relationship with Milano and help sell his Tikis around the states.

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DC

Here's a slide that popped up on ebay:

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...and this one:

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Here's a postcard from probably the 80s showing the entrance to Trader Dick's after it was moved into the Nugget Casino, but before it had it's final renovation that included the giant aquarium.

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I spotted this Trader Dick's demitasse espresso cup and saucer a while back, never had seen one before.

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DC

DC That was used to serve the "Aloha Cup." Here it is, pictured in an early menu illustration.

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Man, I have a bunch of stuff I've been meaning to add to this thread. I should probably get on it...

Cavemoai,

Thanks for posting the illustration. Here are a few Trader Dick's photos posted by Bamboo Ben on Facebook.

One of the dinning rooms with the Last Chance Joe character.

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A letter to Eli Hedley from Dick Graves thanking him for the design work.

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And a brochure image of a similar dinning room shown in the picture above

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DC

[ Edited by: dustycajun 2018-06-20 08:29 ]

Scored a “Last Chance Joe” mug recently. Still quite a few of the standard Trader Dicks tiki mugs around these parts also.

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Here are some larger versions of some of the earlier photos on this thread:

1958
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1959
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1961
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1962
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And an ad from 2/7/1973 in The Nevada State Journal promoting the re-opening of Trader Dick's after it had moved into the Nugget Casino.
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Here's a slide image:

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Aloha! What a cool group of pics. I hate to see these places fall by the way side. Love seeing the history of tiki in smaller towns like Reno.

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This photo appeared in the Reno Gazette Journal, page 3, 06/24/1959 with the following caption:

"MEETING IN SPARKS recently, all local lodges of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen voted to affiliate with the Nevada State AFL-CIO organization. At a dinner held in Trader Dick's in Sparks, representatives of the various organizations included, left to right, C.W. Edwards, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen from Las Vegas; Louis Paley, secretary-treasurer of the Nevada State AFL-CIO, Reno; H. E. Gilbert, international president of the B of L F and E from Cleveland, Ohio; J.H. Smith, chairman of the legislative board of the B of L F and E, Sparks, and Herman S. Allen, member of Truckee Lodge No. 19 of the Brotherhood, who received his 50-year membership emblem."