Bretton's Bali Hai, Kansas City, MO (restaurant)

Name:Bretton's Bali Hai
Type:restaurant
Street:1215 Baltimore?
City:Kansas City
State:MO
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct

Description:
I found the mug shown here at TikiRoom.net and in this post here at Tiki Central asking about it. So I did a little reserach online.

There's a photo online at the Kansas City Library showing Bretton's Restaurant at 1215 Baltimore in 1955. Nothing special. Have a look.

But in a 1957 articleon tips for visitors to the city, "Breton's Bali-Hai Room across the street from the Muehlebach Hotel between 11th and 12th on Baltimore Avenue" was recommended. This would seem to be a different location (though close) from the original Bretton's.

This is all I know . . so far.

Here's some general info I found online about Bretton's Bali H'ai last year. It's from a 4/19/01 article in The Pitch: Bretton's founder, Max Bretton, was a rabbi before he went into the restaurant business in downtown KC. Bretton's was open from 1945 to the mid-1970's. The Bali H'ai Room was added in 1954 and served Cantonese dishes.

Here's a menu from Bretton's Bali Hai :

and a matchcover:

[ Edited by: puamana 2005-09-05 20:10 ]

[ Edited by: puamana 2009-12-09 21:12 ]

Here's the Bretton's mug that just sold on eBay for almost $70. (Yes, I have permission from the seller to use these photos for just this specific purpose.) How do we get all this put together on Critiki?

Classic Silver Line Boats

[ Edited by: SilverLine 2014-08-20 18:45 ]

On 2006-02-22 19:38, SilverLine wrote:
How do we get all this put together on Critiki?

Images need to be more than 500 pixels a side, information will be posted and updated by Humu when she has time but she's a very busy young woman. I suggest hiring her to do some of her spectacular web or database design, paying her lots, then giving her some time off to work on Critiki. :wink:

This place was probably never very tiki but they did have a hula girl mug and they cooked a lot of international fare.
For history sake, Here's a small ad from a 1975 Kansas City visitors brochure:

Here you can see the lettering for "BALI" at the right...not a super shot

On 2016-11-28 13:25, Or Got Rum? wrote:
Here you can see the lettering for "BALI" at the right...not a super shot

Maybe my eyes are wonky, but that looks like "SAU" as in "Saunders" on the oval sign above it. Or am I looking in the wrong place? Sure is very close to "BALI" though.

I think the buildings were close together...remember Bali Hai was in the basement of Bretton's.

Yup, they are built right up against each other. From the neon in the adjacent building's window, it looks like it might read "Saunders Rent-A-Center" or something like that. The "SAU" does kinda look like "BALI" though.

Reminds me of a video rental place we had around town here -- FLICKS. The "L" and the "I" together looked like a "U" and that caused many people mis-read the sign. That was pretty hilarious, I regret not having taken a photo.

Ace you are correct. OGR

This is/was 13 miles away from a new Tiki bar I'm building soon.

Keep an eye out KC!

On 2016-11-28 21:48, RevBambooBen wrote:
This is/was 13 miles away from a new Tiki bar I'm building soon.

Keep an eye out KC!

Ben, I am sure the owners are wanting to keep things under wraps, but please keep us Kansas City tikiphiles in the loop on the progress!! I am brimming with anticipation of seeing your work in person ever since a friend, Amber J., hinted to me that you were working on one. When you are in town, if you ever would like to see what the local tikiphiles have to offer...my home bar, The Flora Lounge, is humbly open to you. http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=48714&forum=20

Here's my few items of Bretton's Bali Hai history. A menu, like the one seen earlier in this thread

Also a matchbook cover like the one already posted (which I also have an unstruck one) and a different variation of the matchbook cover, this one in brown and with a more modern phone number

[ Edited by: mokan-tiki 2016-11-30 06:13 ]

On 2016-11-29 19:08, mokan-tiki wrote:

On 2016-11-28 21:48, RevBambooBen wrote:
This is/was 13 miles away from a new Tiki bar I'm building soon.

Keep an eye out KC!

Ben, I am sure the owners are wanting to keep things under wraps, but please keep us Kansas City tikiphiles in the loop on the progress!! I am brimming with anticipation of seeing your work in person ever since a friend, Amber J., hinted to me that you were working on one.

MT! Tease pics on my Facebook ( Ben Bassham) coming soon...

I've been searching for the BaliHai mug for several years.
Happy to finally nab these for my collection of things from former KC area tiki joints:

I once was lost.....but now I'm found.....

[ Edited by: 8FT Tiki 2017-01-23 15:48 ]