Trader Vic's Returns to San Francisco

San Francisco Area Tiki Centralites et al! The Chroncle ran a small announcement in the food section yesterday stating that soon Trader Vic's Restaurant is returning to San Francisco at the former location of the Stars Restaurant.
Where is that location? I'm from the East Bay Area.

:drink:______________

[ Edited by: tikiboy on 2004-09-03 01:54 ]

• the former location of the Stars Restaurant. Where is that location?*

[ Edited by: filslash 2008-09-12 14:46 ]

It will be on Golden Gate Ave near Van Ness across the street from McDonalds, next to Quizno's, and one door down from Chevy's!! This is the Gourmet Grotto section of San Francisco. :)
https://tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=9681&forum=1
See that thread for more info, pictures and some soon to be added updated photos to show the lightning speed of construction in progress!

Have a nice Tiki Day!

[ Edited by: mrsmiley on 2004-09-03 11:25 ]

Here is that link, again.
https://tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=9681&forum=1

ALOHA

Just received this newsletter from Trader Vic's with the following announcement in it.
"Han's Richter, President and CEO of Trader Vic's Inc. has targeted early October to open Trader Vic's San Francisco! Its new location is at 555 Golden Gate Avenue a block off Van Ness (the old Stars Restaurant location) and walking distance from City Hall, The Opera House and the Symphony. The new restaurant will feature Trader Vic's famous cocktails, Island Cuisine, catering and private banquet rooms. These rooms include: Queen Kapiolani Room; the Gauguin Room; the Trader's Office; the Old Havana Room and the main dining room - the Outrigger Room, which has a 72 year old, 32 foot long canoe hanging from the ceiling. Many other Pacific artifacts will adorn the restaurant including 16 foot Tikis. The new SF location joins Emeryville and Palo Alto locations to make a total of 23 Trader Vic's Restaurants world wide."

Mahalo to Trader Vic's

tikiboy

Sounds very, very good, particulary the 16 foot tiki and the 72 year old, 32 foot long canoe hanging from the ceiling.

The only question is: When?

On 2004-09-30 17:16, christiki295 wrote:

The only question is: When?

I smell a TC Gathering...

Who was Queen Kapiolani, the namesake of one of the rooms?

Queen Kapiolani was one of the last queens of Hawaii (her sister, Liliuokalani, was the last, deposed in 1893).

She was married to King David Kalakaua, “the Merrie Monarch.”

In late 1874, Kalakaua sailed to the United States amid much fanfare. In Washington, he negotiated the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875, which eliminated the tariff on sugar and other Hawaiian products. As a result, Hawaii’s sugar industry boomed and the kingdom enjoyed a period of economic prosperity.

Upon his return, Kalakaua moved into his palace with his wife, Queen Kapiolani, the granddaughter of King Kaumualii of Kauai. He decided he needed a more luxurious home, however, and had the Iolani Palace built at a cost of $350,000—an unheard of sum at the time.

The Hawaiian culture enjoyed a revival of sorts under Kalakaua, including hula and chants. In July 1887, however, an organization called the Hawaiian League forcibly took control of the government and presented the king with a new constitution. Called the "Bayonet Constitution" (for obvious reasons), Kalakaua had little choice but to sign it. The new constitution severely restricted his powers and signaled the end of the monarchy.

Not to be confused with her great aunt Kapiolani, one of the first Christian converts in the island who defied the god Pele by walking into a volcano crater, she was best known as the wife of Kalakaua, whose rule saw a resurgence of interest in traditional Hawaiian culture, even as they were accused of squandering the wealth of the islands as they travelled the world and cultivated European sophistication.

The Iolani Palace, the only palace in the U.S., has a throne room on the second floor where the King and Queen Kapiolani met with world leaders, and held balls and receptions. Across the hall is the blue room where smaller receptions took place. Also on the second floor is the king's bedroom.

http://www.guntheranderson.com/cards/oct99/hhpc.htm

http://www.aloha-hawaii.com/hawaii/king+kalakaua/

which queen did away with the following kapu laws?:
women eating with men
women smoking
women eating kalua pork and coconuts

god bless her

Still looks like mid-October. I will work on putting something together...but Otto may already have something in the works so I'm talking to him about it as well so no overlapping problems.

Stay tuned....

On 2004-09-30 17:44, dangergirl299 wrote:
which queen did away with the following kapu laws?:
women eating with men
women smoking
women eating kalua pork and coconuts

You also should add eating bananas.

Technically, it was young King Kamehameha II who did it by sitting down to a meal with his mother, a meal which ate very voraciously and quickly.

However, apparently this act was motivated by his mother, Queen Ka‘ahumanu, the (one of the?) wife of King Kamehameha I.

Some say the Kapu was a useful way of preserving Hawaii's natural resources, and thereby avoiding a fate like on Easter Island.

(although Hawaii has more beaches to make fishing easier, readily grew bananas, unlike Easter Island and had numerous islands for population expansion, so such a fate probably was unlikely.)

Nevertheless, I agree with you, Kapu favored men at the expense of women and favored royalty at the expense of everyone else and should have been done away with.

(Maybe if the royals had been more equitable, the result would have been giving more land then only the 3-10% in the Great Mahale to commoners, etc.)

Possibly, the only shame in eliminating Kapu was almost all of the tikis of the historical gods, Ku, Lono, Hina, Kane, etc. were destroyed.

...not bad enough that I was out of the country for the Hukilau, now I cannot attend the grand opening of the SF Trader Vic's on the 15th. Oh Tiki, where art thou ?

Well, at least I got the TV show I am shooting for to use the Berlin Trader as a location, for a day.

Not all Tikis were destroyed. About 150 examples of Hawaiian sculptures survived and are in museums and private collections around the world. These collections include the large temple tikis, the tall Akua ka'ai, the Aumakua(personal tikis) and support figures.
tikiboy

So happy. Fruity drinks in my own back yard. And just in time for a dreary SF fall.

[i]On 2004-09-30 22:34, bigbrotiki wrote:

... the grand opening of the SF Trader Vic's on the 15th.

Bigbrotiki (most appropriately) breaks the good news:

The opening is Friday, October 15, 2004.

oooooooooo... that's my girlfriend's birthday. she'd flip if we could eat there on opening night! any word on a phone number yet??

I called the # listed on the trader vics - san francisco - website and the gal who answered said the grand opening "might" be 10/29 now. Once they know for sure, they will post the info on the website.

http://www.tradervics.com/rest-sanfran.html

[ Edited by: dangergirl299 on 2004-10-11 19:02 ]

You know if the owners were smart, they would have sent us a special invite.
What the hell, while I'm at it, FREE drinks too.

Hope it is early... the wahine and I will be in town for honeymoon 20th-23'rd...

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer on 2004-10-11 23:48 ]

Aloha and howdy all. I emailed Trader Vic's last week for any additional information on their San Francisco grand opening. I especially inquired if they would be offering a special tiki mug for the grand opening. My reply was somewhat ambiguous and said they were just concentrating on getting the restaurant open on time. Again, the projected date they gave was "around" October 15. I feel a trip to the City this weekend might be in order! Anyone near their location catching any glimpses or wonderful food aromas eminating from their building? See you locals there!

Yesterday I was told on the phone that they won't be open until 10/29 or so. That makes more sense to me because A month ago when I looked in, the place looked EXACTLY like it did about two months earlier. It looked gutted and no evidence of construction, just the dismantling of the old restaurant space.

On 2004-10-12 11:33, mrsmiley wrote:
Yesterday I was told on the phone that they won't be open until 10/29 or so.

Now I have more time to finish my costume!

Perfect timing for the Hooptylau bar crawl!

I went by two nights ago, and it's got a long way to go. Still sez Stars on the front, unpainted, and plenty of plywood over the entrance. But here's the good news: Peeking out above the plywood barricade is the frame of a lovely (if somewhat understated) A-Frame entrance! With outrigger beam! It's about 20 feet high, so should be plenty dramatic when finished. My camera phone is giving me grief, but I'll post a picture when I figure out what's wrong.

[i]On 2004-10-12 16:12, martiki wrote:

here's the good news: Peeking out above the plywood barricade is the frame of a lovely (if somewhat understated) A-Frame entrance! With outrigger beam! It's about 20 feet high, so should be plenty dramatic when finished.

I'm glad that Trader Vic's is taking tiki to the streets with the A frame on the facade.

Hopefully, there will be a large tiki on the outside, just like the Royal Hawaiian.

With all these delays, I hope its open when I'm there after Thanksgiving - although better to get it right & not disappoint.

my old school design suggestion...

(thanks to Calvo Joe)

I can neither confirm nor deny... But I beleive that there was a special Grand Opening event held at the new SF Vics tonight 11/13.
It was a swanky, by invitation only type affair and you didn't hear it from me...
Aloha,
:tiki:

According to a SF society column I read last week, tonight's dinner was just a celebration for the investors.

It was an investor party.

Per the corporate office today, opening is now set for Nov. 1st. Possibly as late as Nov. 3rd.

More news as it comes in....

On 2004-10-13 23:08, Tiki Royale wrote:
I beleive that there was a special Grand Opening event held at the new SF Vics 10/13.
It was a swanky, by invitation only type affair and you didn't hear it from me...
Aloha,
:tiki:

YES, and Mr Smiley got his party crashin' butt kicked out!!! (more later) :)

[i]On 2004-10-14 11:38, mrsmiley wrote: YES, and Mr Smiley got his party crashin' butt kicked out!!! (more later) :)
Is that like the old line, "Hey Buddy - I been thrown outta places better than this!!"

'Cept probably not much out there better than a TV's.

Hopefully it will be open by election day. There will be need for some heavy victory/conciliatory drinking.

Like I said in the other post, I got booted out of the new Trader Vics when I was trying to take some pictures last night at the VIP Party. The front of the place is still like my original pictures, except they rented some tall potted plants to hide the ugly wall for the party. They had wooden blinds drawn on the windows so I couldn't look in. The hallway does look nice, with tapa on the walls and a long skinny canoe (no outrigger) hanging from the flat ceiling. I proceeded to the back alley which had been closed off to the public because a big party tented had been erected behind Trader Vics. I took some more photos and the kind Guard beckoned me to come closer and look in the tent. I saw the Brazilian style dancers dancing to Carnival type music. Not very Tiki, but it looked like OTTO AND BABY DOE were enjoying the show!

Yes! baby doe and I had a good time

We did take pictures and no one stopped us but I am not allowed to post the photos or publicly post reviews.
so all this is unofficial and may or may not be true

there were Brazilian dancers and Tahitian Dancers who performed all night from 6 - 9

free drinks delivered and passed hors d'oeuvres ALL night

unfortunately the only drinks they were serving were the current version of the Mai Tai (made with a little lime juice and mix), a rum punch, and a drink I forgot the name of but it was small and about half Champagne.

the entire Bergeron family was on hand as far as I could tell

I can say that there is some very cool decor and it is a modernized Trader Vics in the style that we all would enjoy

one wall is covered in tapa and then covered with Pap New Guinea masks which appear to be the real thing!

the bar is open and there are two or three 20 foot tall Trader Vic style Tikis of the style used in Emeryville and in Vancouver and in the bar in Beverly Hills

there is a Captain's Room which has an open layout

the main dining hall has a huge authentic looking outrigger with about 20 fish floats and fish float lamps around it done very nicely

there is a back space that has a grotto feel with a lava rock wall and tropical plants

apparently the exterior will have a very large lighted version of the classic Trader Vic's logo (the rough hewn sans serif typeface)

a couple rooms were not finished

the kitchen is Bistro style like in Palo Alto

Thanks, Otto. It sounds like it will be a welcome addition to SF and Tiki fans in general. Let the drinking begin!!!!!!ZAZZ!

This may be old news, but behold: The A-Frame cometh!

On 2004-10-14 18:20, martiki wrote:
This may be old news, but behold: The A-Frame cometh!

Hmm...That looks like the outside of the building. That A-Frame was not out front last night!

On 2004-10-14 11:38, mrsmiley wrote:

YES, and Mr Smiley got his party crashin' butt kicked out!!! (more later) :)

Urban sociology to go with the urban archeology.

(Those not on the tiki list trying to mingle and snag free MaiTais with those who are on the list.)

On 2004-10-14 18:28, mrsmiley wrote:

On 2004-10-14 18:20, martiki wrote:
This may be old news, but behold: The A-Frame cometh!

Hmm...That looks like the outside of the building. That A-Frame was not out front last night!

I hope the A-Frame hasn't goneth!

Yew got yerself kicked out of a high-falutin' investor's party?!? That's pretty durned funny, Mrs Miley. I wish you had taken an exciting all-ages video!

I keep having this mental image of a couple of burly guards dragging you off as you're valiantly crying "Hey, wait! I KNOW that bald guy with the tiki shirt in there!! He'll vouch for me, really!!!" I know that's not how it really happened, but hey.

heehee :D

formally gowned tikivixen

p.s. I shoulda made a, you know, a contribution, deah. Dey mighta invited me to der shindig, eh?

Well, Smiley shall definitely be our T.C.S.F. Trader Vic's tour guide.

Phone recording now says first week of November. Which means they have no clue when they're going to open.

Here's Mr. Smiley's pix from the opening party that he was "removed" from.

#1 dancers in tent (Otto's dome is visible on the right)

#2 man in front entryway

#3 woman who kicked me out

#4long shot of guard and back alley tent

#5 front view of Vics-no A-frame

[ Edited by: martiki on 2004-10-28 17:22 ]

Thanks Martiki for posting those!!

On 2004-11-02 13:43, mrsmiley wrote:
Here is a story for you---the author remains anonymous. Is this real or is this fiction??
"My tongue's taste buds were working overtime-not overtime from actually tasting the food or the Doctor Funk's Son that I had ordered a moment ago. No, they were working overtime from tasting the excitement that danced in the air around me. Excitement in everyone present. They were tasting the smells from those who had already rec'd their food--lobster, salmon, rack of lamb, oysters, duck.
My tongue was getting tired , but I didn't mind: here I was in Trader Vics in SF. It has reopened! It has returned to the city it left about 10 years ago. And what a triumphant return it is!
And then my drink arrived-an ice cone holding the special elixer! I am glad the Doctor prescribed this drink to me! I am glad that Trader Vics is back in SF and happy to serve it to me. As I sipped and savored the drink, I looked around and had my senses "drink" in the atmosphere-the excited patrons (as I mentioned earlier) and the incredible blend of old Tiki and a modern, upscale restaurant. Much better looking than Palo Alto- a much warmer feeeling. The tapa cloth, the giant outrigger hanging over the bar area all added to the traditional feeling.
Traders Vics has returned and it wants to conquer!!! More later...."

No answer yet on their phone;
555 Golden Gate Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102
Tel: 415-775-6300

I ...just...talked...to...a...woman...at... Trader...Vics...in...SanFranciscoAndShe SaidTheyAreOPEN!!!!!!! zazz!!!!!!

Have a nice Tiki Day!

[ Edited by: mrsmiley on 2004-11-03 17:21 ]

Let the drinking begin!!!!!!!