KAHIKI Columbus, ohio tiki bar restaurant. Lee Henry, The catalog

So here are some other markings from other Hoffman Kahiki items....

This is a eBay sale with a marking that I have never seen.
The handcraft on the bottom makes me think it was long after the bowl was made.
BUT I'm not sure on that it is just a thought, and would not take value from the bowl.

This is an odd one and I forget where I got this photo even, think it was from eBay and sold high.

So here is yet another Hoffman marking, this one is very early I would guess.
Image from eBay and sold high to the one who's name shall not be spoken.

Ok here is my Idols cast mug from Kahiki.
See a different marking on the bottom.

Ceramics by Hoffman "Kahiki" is scratched in and has a brown color in the scratching some have no color.

I for get what this pic is from.
But see no brown "Kahiki" just scratched in.
Here for reference...

I think one way to guess what markings are oldest is to find other Hoffman pottery and look at the markings of the stuff that is not tiki, then try to see if there is any hint as to these being older stuff.

Jeff and I did interview eric Hoffman but he was very young at the time these were made and did not have a ton of info really.

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2017-11-17 16:19 ]

Detective Shipper

Hey Skip, Stop teasing us with your awesome Kahiki ware. : > ) It’s really beautiful.
Keep em coming.

Here you go nui 'umi 'umi.

More questions than answers.

11/17/2017
Man! the Kahiki ghosts have come through again!
I can't make this stuff up, went to eBay to lift some photos for this question and find this sale for a Hoffman mug.
But it may put a date on the mug AND markings if you believe this seller, I do.
Not my sale and I don't know this person.

Ebay sale this mug had Ceramics by Hoffman...

VINTAGE KAHIKI SUPPER CLUB / RESTAURANT COLUMBUS OHIO MOAI TIKI FACE MUG MADE BY HOFFMAN CERAMICS
https://www.ebay.com/itm/401440732502?ul_noapp=true
This mug dates to March, 1963, when we were living in Columbus and visiting relatives took us out to dinner to celebrate the birth of our son. I saved it because it was such a big deal then for us to eat out. There is some unpainted area along the bottom, due to the manufacturing process. It measures 6 5/8" tall.

My question to her Via eBay.....
Your previous message
Hello nice mug you have, can you help me date these mugs.
Are you sure this came from the Kahiki in March 1963.
These mugs have many different markings and this could help date them.

Thank you so much for your help, I too have one of these mugs.
And I have one of the BIG moai statues front the front of the building.

Good luck on your sale.
Tikiskip

Her reply....
Hello, Yes, it was definitely from March of 1963, the only time I was ever there- out of town relatives took us out to dinner to celebrate the birth of one of our sons- he was just shy of 2 weeks old and was born 3-6-63. I saved the mug and napkin because it was such a big deal then to go out, plus they were "cool"!!! We only lived in Columbus a short time, we moved to Indianapolis soon after and have never been back. Best Regards, Sue

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2017-11-19 04:33 ]

Her son was Born 3/6/1963 and that was a Sunday.
So 3/18/1963 was a Friday that would be just shy of two weeks old. Hummmm.

Also the same lady has a Kahiki cloth napkin for sale on eBay as well from that same time and date.

Sooo we can date the Kahiki cloth napkins to around 3/18/1963 as well as the mug.

Ok here are some Hoffman markings that would be around the time of Kahiki mugs and bowls Hoffman made for the Kahiki.

These are not tiki mugs but other examples of the markings.

WBNS is a TV station here in Columbus.
We can see that this piece has the "Ceramics by Hoffman" on the bottom.
Would be cool to have a Kahiki mug with that stickie.

This looks to be newer and makes me think that this marking is the newer marking and that the "Ceramics by Hoffman" marking is the older marking.
Kinda odd that the "Ceramics by Hoffman" would be the older marking because the Kahiki mystery bowls that I have seen never have the "Ceramics by Hoffman" marking this would lead us to believe the mystery bowls came after the Moai mugs.

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2017-11-23 04:52 ]

Hey here's a new bit o info...

A guy from Windward Passage showed me this news paper from August 2005 the Dispatch.
Well it had an ad for the grand opening of the Kahiki eggroll factory and it lists the date as Saturday the 6th Aug 2005.

If video killed the Radio star then The eggroll factory killed the Kahiki for sure as well.

Side note this guy knew Lee henry one of the first owners of the Kahiki and he told me he and a friend were at the Scioto country club and saw Mr. Henry and Mr. Henry asked them to come to his house for dinner as they were having "Asian""Well when we went to Lees house there were these naked Aisian girls and they were serving Dinner on the naked girls"

That's how it was told to me.

Here's the ad.....

Did the girls have “Hoffman Pottery” tattos on their bottoms
:)

Keep it up Skipper!!!

Spotted this Kahiki gift shop cannibal piece made by HiTiki on ebay.

Here is the item description: This vintage plaster cannibal was made by HiTiki and sold at the Kahiki gift shop. The tiki is 8" tall and 2.75" wide.

Not sure if this one has been shown in the Skip archives yet?

DC

It has not been added to this page yet.
But I think I have seen it before or one like it, was the seller in Ohio?
Wait I just saw it on page 34 of this thread.

That looks like it was made out of something called pour rock as told to me by Herman Leitwein.
Some of the ashtrays lamps ect were made from this stuff most likely a trademark name for a plaster like substance that was brown or grey.

Many times there would be a brown or dark colored felt on the bottom.

So many different people/companies made stuff for the Kahiki.
Mrs. Sapp
Herman Leitwein
Coburn Morgan
The art collage
HiTiki
Hoffman Pottery
Mario Torres
Imperial glass company
Anchor Hocking
Sterling China
Oceanic Arts
Dangel Creations from New Rome, OH.
Coburn Morgan
vogue rattan mfg. co
Benson Co.
Phil Kientz
Bernard C Altenbach
Jack Hite
Morgantown
Pana-Vue souvenir pack
Jack Liberatore
Lavisse
Bob & Dorothy Breining -- made the "mystery bowl"
dirty Donny
Martin, Thief, wood
Majestic paint made a custom color,just for the Kahiki “Kahiki Brown”
Witco
Phil Kintz
DSK Designs / David Krys
Maryland Match co
Dundee lighters
Distinctive rattan furniture by Clark Casual furniture INC.
mi-ko usa
Tom Iaquinta
Mr Leitweins son bill
Morgan Stone studio.
OMC Japan

There was a guy Bernard C Altenbach who also did the Hustler clubs here in town that worked on the Kahiki he was eccentric they say he got into so many wrecks that he would wear a crash helmet when he drove a car.

They say he fell in love with one of the girls at the Hustler club and left his family and went to California, just up and left.

Heard much of this from the first interview that Jeff and I did with Mr. Sapp for Tiki Mag, Heck Tiki Mag cut most of the good stuff out.
I still have the notes from that somewhere.
Plus I had Mr. Leitwein with Tom Iaquinta also went to Mr. Leitweins house.
Want to get the info put here before I forget it all.

I can tell you I missed a ton of people/companies in that list of people that made stuff for the Kahiki up top, will add to that list as I find more.

Nice addition DC!

º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤ºº¤ø,¸¸,:MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM TIKISKIP!!:º¤ø,¸¸ø¤ºº¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2018-01-03 06:11 ]

that’s a pretty comprehensive list

"Anyone who has ever seen them is thereafter haunted as if by a feverish dream" Karl Woermann

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2017-12-22 14:49 ]

Dustycajun that is the same one it looks like.

Have you ever wondered what an item is worth after all is said and done.
Like that statue sold for say $10.00 bucks in the 60s, then it was sold at a garage sale for say $4.00 years later.
So now tiki gets hot and it sells for say $50.00 bucks, man it could go on into infinity or until it is destroyed.

AND Trav that is JUST the décor, plates ect.
No food, booze, regular paper goods, advertising, cleaning supplies, plumbers,electricians.
And you know I missed some.
Like the stuff they got in Mexico, who knows where that came from.

Man a place like Kahiki keeps MANY people in jobs.

Just saw this bit on the Kahiki from the The Ohio Historical Society blog site they have a kind of sad collection of Kahiki items most of the items they have are from the end at that time the mugs were made so quick that they really suck.
But they still could not keep them in stock (you can spot these mugs as you can’t really read the bottom markings and the moai is not that definded)

Then there is this part about the fountain at the Kahiki I can remember I called one of the table lamps a “Double monkey head lamp” and Sven said "That is not a monkey head, but a New Guinea carving on that lamp base"
Heck if you do a Google search for "Double monkey head lamp" the one I made comes up.
This was a name for the lamp I came up with so Sven was right.

Can also remember somebody calling the fountain “George” within Bill Sapp’s ear and he said “George, what’s George?” they told him it was the name of the fountain and he said “It’s a Pig” He had never heard the "George" name given to it.
George fountain does not come up in a Google search FYI.

I think people here do now call the fountain “George”

Not a big deal but that’s the way I heard it, I think the “George” name came way later like after the Kahiki closed even, Think tiki people gave it the name kinda like “Steve” mug from the Stephen Crane mug from the Luau Restaurants.

“And now you know” … “The rest of the story”

“The building could hold over 500 guests, waterfalls, tanks of fish, live birds, large drums, and an iconic monkey fountain known as George;”

This Blog was done by Emily Lang one of the Kahiki book authors.

https://www.ohiohistory.org/learn/collections/history/history-blog/2014/january-2014/the-kahiki-supper-club

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2018-01-03 09:10 ]

So a friend just got me this book "Lost Restaurants" Of central Ohio and Columbus somebody would have to give me that book as I won't buy a book by Doug Motz again.

It has a Kahiki part in it where "geroge" the fountain is now "fondly dubbed" "Pete the Pig" That one is new just so ya know.

Damn how many names does that fountain have?

Motz as you may know was one of the Kahiki book authors this book is the same size as the Kahiki book with about as many pics.

The Kahiki book needed to be as big and have as many photographs as the Book of Tiki so did this "Lost Restaurants" book.
Would guess it's hard to find pictures of the old places.

"Lost Restaurants" Of central Ohio and Columbus reads like a fanboy who drops names only the few who knew them would know.

What a waste, there were so many great old restaurants in Ohio that were overlooked.
Lessner? really. (a washed up restaurateur in Columbus)

Lost Restaurants is put out by my publisher, Arcadia/History Press. Their general business model is hyper-local history in slim volumes packed with as many historical photos as possible. The print runs are generally small--1,000 copies or less--with no advance paid, only royalties. The authors are almost always "local historians." Because of that, the quality of the books is often hit-or-miss. Some of authors really know their stuff, and the books are great. Others are more gossipy and use a lot of words to say very little.

I saw the Kahiki book and wondered if you'd had any involvement in it. Sounds like it's a sore spot for you (trust me, I know the feeling!).

“I saw the Kahiki book and wondered if you'd had any involvement in it.”

Well I know and like jeff, so that’s why I kinda say nothing.
But no I did not work on the Kahiki book.
But the "local historian” is just not a good writer and he left out some great restaurants in "Lost Restaurants" Of central Ohio and Columbus my family’s being four of them full discloser.

But even still my family's restaurant's were around since 1942 and one is still open today so that says something.
In fact it’s one of the oldest restaurants in Columbus.

I am just getting pissed at these “authors” deciding who is and who isn’t and it’s time to say hay that sucks.

This “local historian” who wrote this book has like three pages for a newer not great restaurant that he knew the girl who owned it.
And there are other places in his book that fit this category.

Great places get half a page.

Sick of the politics and who you know being what gets you “in”

I’m not a good a$$ kisser and that is a big part of the problem.

One more thing, the Kahiki and many of the old restaurants in town were not well loved by the city as in the govt in say the 1990s on.
They wanted new young "Chefs" with hip new restaurants while giving very little to the old places that for so many years had kept open, paid taxes, in some very bad times.
The new places got all the perks.

These new restaurateurs were not selling food they were selling restaurants.
As in they would get perks from the city and then sell shares to the restaurant and you could be part owner at ten thousand dollars a pop this got you a table when they were busy but not many got money back.

NOW the Kahiki closes and all the sudden people LOVED the Kahiki, just a year before they would say the food sucks I don't go there.

Told so many people to go to the Kahiki before it closed You gotta see it just once!
Nobody went.

This is one of the lights from the Kahiki that marked the Telephone booth, it was super cool as it had a wrap around of bamboo that curled around to the phone like a shell would.

There are two other lights like this that say Men's and ladies.

There are only three like this I have ever seen.

That’s Kool Skipper

Every time I see something like that all I can think about is how businesses then worked really hard to pull themes into all aspects of the decor. Today, that sign (if there was one) would have probably looked like a standard exit sign. So much now is mass produced and all looks the same.

Thanks for sharing that great bit of style. :)

"So much now is mass produced and all looks the same."

If you think about it they almost have to these days.
The big corps are going to want a UL listed light, would bet Disney makes their own stuff and gets it rated.

At the Kahiki there were so many lights with charred wood, bamboo etc.
Maybe they fire proofed them, don't know.
I know as I bought many of the lights from the Kahiki.

But you are right if a person makes something and it goes into a bar they put so much more time into that thing so when they say "I made that" they can be proud of said thing.

I used to bust my a$$ and get all excited when a public tiki bar or restaurant would want some of my lights and jump through all kinds of hoops so my lights would be seen in that bar.
Most tiki makers go through this and get over that in short time after talking to other makers of tiki.

But it's the same with the restaurant itself if it is say family owned they take way more pride in the place most times.

I do need to post more of the Kahiki lights here and then others can get ideas from the lights they had at the Kahiki.
Still have more than a few to fix.

Am looking to place these in a public tiki bar or restaurant someday.

Well maybe not the "phone" one.

Here is the "EXIT" sign I made for a friends bars here in Ohio.

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2018-05-16 11:54 ]

Now THAT is an exit sign! Bravo sir!

The phone sign could go in a nook with charging stations. :)

Skip, love your exit sign, just perfect.

Wow, this thread is up to 41 pages. Here is an ad from 1975 announcing the new childdren's menu.

And a placemat with a picture collage.

DC

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2018-11-08 16:22 ]

Thanx for adding Dustycajun.

Yeah the 70s and 80s were low points for the Kahiki, not saying that add is bad it's cool and I have never seen that one.

That placemat looks like the same double page photo layout from the Dispatch newspaper insert.

Again it's people like you that add and help bring all these things to light that help us all see more of the picture.

I know of some that don't want to add to TC for fear that somebody will see what they found and then start looking for it and lessen the chance of finding more of said item.

Guess that is true too, but your going to die one day and there it will sit in a box like the movie Indiana Jones.
Or be thrown away like so much of this has been in the past.

I look at it as we are just keeping this stuff safe for the next person.

On 2006-05-20 23:38, Mike the Headhunter wrote:
I know this is different, but is there any information on the non-ceramic drinkware of the kahiki. I was wondering because the menu in the BoT shows a few different glasses(like for the fogcutter).

On 2006-05-22 07:45, tikiskip wrote:
That's a good question. I have never seen one. But if I did how would I know? They are clear glass and that means they would not be marked Kahiki.

I also think the fact that they are not marked might be the reason they were not collected or sold as souvienirs. So I guess the only way to know one of these unmarked glasses was indeed from the Kahiki. Is if the owner has some, or if someone can say I personally got this glass there. Otherwise we will never know.

I have been told that the original owners of the Kahiki kept nothing!
Plus these glasses were only used in the early years of the Kahiki.

That being said we may never see these glasses.

I can now add an answer thanks to a wonderful family of a former Kahiki bartender.

The glassware used changed over the years as seen in drink menus from the early 60s, 70s, and later days. The examples the family shared are from the 70s, some made by Imperial, some Libbey. I will post pictures of the drinks from the menu of the same period along with the glasses.

Hope this helps shed some light. Over the years I know I passed over a few of these in the wild.

Libbey glass used for the Suffering Bastard, Mai Tai, and Navy Grog.

The glass used for the Smoking Eruption.

A very common shape, the Libbey glass used for Satan's Sin and the Backscratcher.

Libbey glass used for the Tonga Tale.

The glass for a Pago Passage.

The very small stem used for Maiden's Prayer.

Two similar parfait-style stems of different sizes, for the Widow's Wail and Polynesian Spell.

[ Edited by: wentiki 2018-11-26 05:07 ]

Imperial's Bambu line in amber was used for a suite of drinks at the Kahiki. The smallest was used as a water glass in banquets, as seen in old pictures (one is seen in the Kahiki book). Imperial made the Bambu glassware in a range of colors, including a clear with gold.

Two coupes, very lovely in person, but of unknown maker. The amber stem is a replacement for the earlier Morgantown tiki seen on older menus. The Kahiki Pearl glass came in two shapes, one less shallow.

Adding to this post: as of 2019, a regional expert in glassware believes these to be Morgantown glass, but may have been special order.

One more addition - confirmed both glasses as Morgantown, the Amber was a replacement for the expensive tiki stems.

[ Edited by: wentiki 2020-01-08 15:37 ]

The unassuming glass used inside both the Zombie and Barrelito mugs. Postcards show the Barrelito with glass, but the menu illustration has none.

[ Edited by: wentiki 2018-11-25 17:28 ]

Other mugs and glasses have already been documented on the thread or elsewhere, like the Ten Pin or Imperial Mariner glasses. The family did confirm the black-bottom Ten Pin are older. By the 70s they were using clear bottom Tenpins for the Malayan Mist and Bahia.

A couple remain a mystery, like the Blue Hurricane and Instant Urge (which may have been replaced by a small cordial by Libbey resembling the Candlewick cordial).

This last glass may have been another water glass, marked on bottom with the Libbey L.

At the end, the stemware and mugs were less diverse.

[ Edited by: wentiki 2018-11-25 17:58 ]

Now for some items found randomly out and about. Here is an example of a tile used in the bathrooms at the Kahiki.

An older appetizer list.

A very rare Kahiki tablecloth, pictured below with an old cloth napkin. The tablecloth can be seen in several group banquet pictures, including the small detail below from a picture in "Kahiki Supper Club: A Polynesian Paradise in Columbus." Used with permission by one of the authors.

The gift shop had everything, even playing cards.

This larger fellow was mentioned earlier in the thread. Much of the decor, early stuff was made in Mexico. This one was also, but looks and feels very similar to Hitiki idols made for the gift shop.

A tiny Hitiki moai.

Two of these flags were found in the wild, but the story behind them was lost. One story put these outside the office, another story claimed they were for the eggroll factory. Neither has outdoor wear, both have grommets on the side to mount on a pole.

Damn Wendy!

I urge people to go back and look at the last page.

Those are great posts.

Did they have those glasses or did you get them elsewhere?
I found one of those Bamboo glasses here in Ohio just the other day.
I think it could be one from the Kahiki as it was a shorter one than you see most times.

Not sure but I think they may still make some of these, the tall ones I think.
But there was a person on eBay that was selling them a lot so that always makes me think they are still being made.

One tip is they were like brand new, no scratches.

We had water glasses at my restaurant and they were very old, well when you would drop one on the floor they would explode as if they were so ready to die.

Windward?

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2018-11-27 05:54 ]

Thanks John, I owed you a few of those posts for years.

The stuff is great, but the stories you get when aquiring it is what brings it all alive for me. You can't buy those second hand.

And yes they had all the glasses shown above, and more.

[ Edited by: wentiki 2018-11-26 05:56 ]

Damn Wendy so we KNOW that those were from the Kahiki.
That is awesome!

AND very rare to find.

I want to compare my bamboo glass to yours now.

Has anyone PMed you yet to try and "CHARM" you out of them.

Ha! see what I did there, I'm getting good at this.

Rusty zipper it is!
Meet at Millionaire's row.