Dobb's House Luau - Memphis, Memphis, TN (restaurant)

Name:Dobb's House Luau - Memphis
Type:restaurant
Street:3135 Poplar
City:Memphis
State:TN
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct

Description:
Dobb's House Luau had several locations. From what I have been able to find out, it was buffet style and did not have a bar. You could have your own booze locker on the premises and they would make you drinks from your booze. Brown bagging is still standard practice here in Knoxville, TN. I am not sure how that worked there really. The Dobb's group is still in Memphis and the parent company still has some airline concessions I think.

Postcard courtesy Basement Kahuna

Menu courtesy of Arkiva Tropika Scans coutesy Swank Pad

Matchbooks from my Tennessee Tiki Site a work in progress.

I have contacted the Dobb's Group and have gotten no response.

[ Edited by: Swanky 2006-12-27 07:11 ]

Your new website looks great, Swanky, and I'm looking forward to seeing a lot more Tennessee Tiki pop up there!

...the menu you have is from the 1950's-early 1960's...cool...sadly, the business closed in the late 1970's...they had the coolest Moai statues, about 12' tall, 5' diameter...food was good & drinks (brown bag, mixed for you), also...I've been trying to find out what happened to those statues for about 5 years...

[ Edited by: mrwiskers 2006-12-29 11:29 ]

[ Edited by: mrwiskers 2006-12-29 11:30 ]

I was always fascinated with the long list of Dobb's Luau places, as I find Tiki havens that were NOT in the Tiki-centric states like California and Florida that much more intriguing. Wonder if all these were as fully decked out with O.A. stuff as the ones I have seen images from.

The menu says it is a Dinkler property, which may link it to the Luau Lounge in the Dinkler Andrew Jackson Hotel in Nashville.

Here is a postcard on Arkiva Tropika for the Atlanta Luau which is also listed as a Dinkler property. Was it Dinkler and then became Dobb's House Luau's?

Swank Blather- Talkin' atcha

[ Edited by: swanky 2006-12-30 13:56 ]

Hmmm...the Dinkler/Dobbs connection should be researchable. I always loved that Dinkler Hotel postcard because of the three different styles all next to each other in one place:
Classic beginning-of-the-century downtown hotel exterior---50s modern interior---50s Polynesian Pop interior---all happily co-existing!

Great postcard and menu from the Mahi Mahi! What an exterior! I seem to remember that Leroy told me that that rendering and the decor were done by Eli Hedley, but I might have mixed that up, mayb it was Vince Buono...ask Ben.

That Mahi Mahi mug is one of the few that O.A. ever made themselves, and must be very rare.

Here is an article on the Dinkler Hotel history. I kept coming across the name Carling Dinkler and that was the key. He died in 1961, and I would bet that the Dobb's took over the Luau's shortly after that. There are still Carling Dinklers about! They have gone in various directions including Carling the IV I think in politics. I am going to see if the person who wrote that article can maybe shed light on the Luau Lounge or tell me who can. The Dobb's organization in Memphis has not returned emails. I need to call. Pretend I am press... From what I see on the 'net, the head is prehaps the man who was in charge back in the day.

I have looked at every other Dinkler hotel and non has a hint of tiki.

I'll have to make a new entry, as, what I just found out is concerning the Atlanta Luau.

I just got off the phone with Carling Dinkler III. His father was the one who built the Luau in Atlanta. He thinks it was in 1955-56. He said his Dad had a passion for the restaurant business though he owned all the hotels through Carling Sr. It was Jr who had the hotel restaurants brought in house and run by the Dinklers. He had this secret idea up his sleeve for a long time and had been to New York and Chicago and inspired by Trader Vic's he built the Luau across from the Piedmont Hosptial in Midtown Atlanta. He said it was a very modern structure and very new and innovative. Nothing like it in the lazy southern city of Atlanta. People were lined up to get in. They won awards for their food and they brought a lot of the crew from Chicago's Trader Vic's down to work there. He said it was designed by a New Orleans architectural firm of Curtis - Davis, who also designed the Superdome. He says Arthur Davis is deceased, but Buster Curtis is still around. The head of the Luau died recently, but he is contacting the widow to see if she has any scrapbooks or anything. He does not.

He said there were moats inside and you had to cross bridges to get to your table. They had a "Chopsticks Club" and they would burn your name into bamboo and when you came in to eat, they put the bamboo on a rack out front so people knew you were in the restaurant.

It was his Dad that put the Surf Rider in the Nashville Dinkler and he said also the Saint Charles in New Orleans had a Polynesian restaurant.

The Luau was a great business, as we all know, due to the gross profit margin of cheap rum drinks sold at high prices. The Luau was open for only two years when they sold it at great profit to the Dobb's. They used it as a sort of blueprint to open all the other Dobb's House Luaus around airports where they were located. That was in 1959 he thinks. That doesn't jive with the 2 years and opening in 1955. But it narrows things down a bit if someone in Atlanta hits the library archives to research it.

Great research Swanky!
Maybe this menu should be added to this thread.

-Duke

Here are a number of images of buildings designed by Curtis & Davis. No Luau, but these are Louisiana buildings.

Swanky, thanks for the great info! Here's a pic of the building exterior of the Altanta Luau, from the other side of the illustrated postcard:

That Polynesian restaurant at the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans was the Outrigger ( menu pics at Arkiva Tropika ). Thanks for the connection that it was a Dinkler restaurant ! There was no mention of it on the menu.

The Trader Vic's in Chicago opened in 1957, so if the inspiration for the Atlanta Luau (and some of the staff) came from the Chicago TVs, as Swanky's source states, then the Atlanta Luau must have opened after 1957.

WOW!!!

Thanks for the cool picture puamana!!! I always wondered what that place looked like.

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

I know, I always loved that little image, even though it's just in a thumbnail size. I think it should have been a requirement for all restaurant postcards to have their architectural rendering on the back! :)

Arthur Davis, one of the architects is still alive and in New Orleans. I am waiting for a reply from him. I hope he has some stuff in the archives on the place. Looking at the other designs by him, I will be excited to find images of this place.

Carling was obviously not 100% on his dates. I am wondering about the Trader Vic's attribution in some ways. Bill Sapp said he was inspired by TV Chicago as well. I mentioned Don the BEachcomber's to Carling and that jogged his memory. He was very young at the time. He seemed very certain about the 1959 sale date, and if it was indeed 1959 and they had been open 2 years, 1957 was the opening year and it could have been TV Chicago in the mix.

He seemed pretty certain that some of the kitchen staff had been "acquired" from TV Chicago, as there was trouble from them being homesick for the islands or something.

Here's another menu..............

According to the back of the menu they had locations in..........

Charlotte, N.C.
Birmingham, Alabama
Dallas, Texas
Louisville, Kentucky
Memphis, Tennesee

Enjoy,
Jeff

[ Edited by: Jeff Central 2007-01-16 12:24 ]

Another menu from the Dobbs House Luau, dated 1966:

I have a couple of additional postcards from the Dobb's House Luau Polynesian Restaurants. Swanky got me started looking for these some time ago, as they are one of his favorites being a southern gentleman and all.

This first one is actually from the Dobb's House Luau in Atlanta Georgia.

The next postcard does not say what City it is from but lists the following Cities on the back: Birmingham, Charlotte, Dallas, Louisville, and Memphis. Does anybody recognize this interior from one of those five locations?

The last one is a souvenir menu the size of a postcard. The cool thing about this one is that it a full 8-page menu. You can see that they added a few restaurants on this one compared to the previous postcard.

The next postcard does not say what City it is from but lists the following Cities on the back: Birmingham, Charlotte, Dallas, Louisville, and Memphis. Does anybody recognize this interior from one of those five locations?

This is the card from the Memphis, Tennessee location. There was one listed not too long ago and I missed out on it. Nice cards!! Keep them coming! You have an awesome collection Dustycajun!! Thank you for sharing!

Mahalo, TabooDan

I like the way the menu illustrations are so clearly drawn from the postcard setting, including the design of the two Tikis. They must have been really proud of their installation.

Dan, did you get my e-mail I sent to your website today?

I will be in Memphis to visit my uncle. You all know him I think. His name is Elvis and he's sorta heavy set. I'll try my best to make it to this restaurant and let everyone know.

Quote:
"I like the way the menu illustrations are so clearly drawn from the postcard setting, including the design of the two Tikis. They must have been really proud of their installation.

Dan, did you get my e-mail I sent to your website today?" Quote

Yeh, those menu covers are simple and look good. It doesn't take alot of pictures and bright colors to look realy cool! Using their own logo tiki's is really a good idea. It also helps us out with authenticity!

Yes Bigbro, thank you! I am PM'ing you! Mahalo, Dan

Taboo Dan,

Thanks much for the info on the location of the Memphis Dobb's Luau card. Swanky got that one on ebay a while back but I got lucky and scored one on a second chance offer, as the seller had two!

That postcard menu also has nice illustrations inside, I will try to post one or two sometime.

The Atlanta Luau is a rare one. That was the original. The Dinkler Luau. Was an extremely popular place when it opened. 1959 I think. Won a lot of awards and was the celeb hangout as were many a tiki bar. Carling Dinkler owned many large southern hotels and this was his secret dream. He opened the Luau in Atlanta, designed by the guys who designed the Superdome in New Orleans, and it went over huge. He sold it a couple of years later to the Dobb's family for a large profit. They copied it, sort of, all over the country in their airline catering businesses retail versions.

Here is a postcard menu in my collection with a great little note attached to the inside. I'm thinking these may have been left in area hotel rooms to drum up some business. I agree with Bigbro about the pride in place as shown by the quality of the small menu.

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

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2008-04-11 13:55 ]

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2008-04-11 13:55 ]

I recently picked up another menu from the Dobb's House Luau. It is a little beat up but has some great graphics.

The cover

The drinks

I have never seen the "taboo" mug before. Does anyone on TC have one of these?

DC

That's the glass used as the Voodoo Grog glass by Trader Vic's. It was made by the Imperial Glass company as were the Starboard and Port Light glasses and the Gun Club Punch, here as the Bang Bang.

I am a newbie in memphis and discovered a few articles that might be of interest. They are a http://www.memphismagazine.com/askvanceblog/?p=81 and http://www.memphismagazine.com/gyrobase/Magazine/Content?oid=oid:42575. I will try and do some research in the next month when i get a free day to look at the newspaper morgue at the library.

Thanks for the link. Corrected the second one.

Swanky,

Check this out. Found some ads for the Dobb's Luau in Atlanta as I was looking for info on Trader Eng's.

What is really interesting is the restaurant changed names from the Luau to the "Tiki" in 1962. I don't think I ever heard of that switch before and I have never seen any paper from the Tiki.

This is an amazing rendering of the front of the re-branded Tiki restaurant.

DC

On 2009-05-09 10:42, Dustycajun wrote:
Swanky,

Check this out. Found some ads for the Dobb's Luau in Atlanta as I was looking for info on Trader Eng's.

What is really interesting is the restaurant changed names from the Luau to the "Tiki" in 1962. I don't think I ever heard of that switch before and I have never seen any paper from the Tiki.

This is an amazing rendering of the front of the re-branded Tiki restaurant.

DC

Well I'll be an uncle's monkey! Great stuff, Dustycajun. Or should we call you Smokeycajun now? :) (Probably not such a funny joke for those affected by the Santa Barbara fires)

SPECK-tac-ularr paper ephemera. On many levels. How can the Pre-Tiki/Tiki period theory be better proven then by a "LUAU" being re-named "TIKI"! And the cool type face. And the Witco dancer/Bongo player behind the queen's chair. And the T-Bird! I NEED that ad! I have a whole Ford double or 4 page planned for The Loook of Tiki!

And for the first time, though I had seen that lil' rendering of the building a long time ago, did I realize the similarity between the Atlanta Luau entrance hut shape, and the Miami Luau one! Coincidence? Connected?

(I added DC's complete post to the top so mine makes sense)

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-05-09 12:05 ]

I am still aglow by all this! Give me a time machine NOW!

Check out a new article on the Dobb House in the local free paper. It is about what happened to the giant easter island head that was located at the entrance.memphis flyer article

Thanks for the link. Posting the pic here for posterity. I had heard about this statue for years. Good to see a picture finally.

On 2009-05-09 10:42, Dustycajun wrote:
What is really interesting is the restaurant changed names from the Luau to the "Tiki" in 1962. I don't think I ever heard of that switch before and I have never seen any paper from the Tiki.

Matchbook

Kate,

Nice one. I was looking at my matchbooks tonight and darned if mine doesn't say Tiki on it too! Is there one that says Luau?

DC

Yes.

I wonder if Elvis ever considered going here. It was literally 15 minutes away from Graceland.

Kate,

Nice to see them both. Right up there with your DTB Santa Barbara collection!

DC

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2009-10-30 23:45 ]

Here is some NEW information on the Dobb's Luau chain.

We have seen that there was listing for a Louisville, Kentucky location on the menus. I have never seen anything from this location - until now. Saw this matchbook on ebay for the Luau Room and did not think much of it. After looking at that familiar double torch logo and Luau font it hit me, this was a Dobb's restaurant! It was a bar located at the Standiford Field airport. Dobb's had several airport bars and restaurants.

DC

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2010-01-14 12:55 ]

I saw that matchbook and assumed it was for the Luau Room, which is sort of still there and being parted out on Ebay from time to time. I can't imagine there were 2 Luau Rooms there. I see that it started at the airport and moved elsewhere.

[ Edited by: Swanky 2010-01-15 09:28 ]

I think the matchbook is most likely from the Luau Room. If I remember right it was located very near the airport. In the thread about the Luau Room I posted a rocks glass from the restaurant with a design and font hijacked from the Dobb's menu. Not a very long stretch to think that they also used the twin torch design as well. The glass and menu comparison are on pages three ant four of the link below.
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=3830&forum=1

Well this is getting real interesting. After rereading the thread and locking at all of the menus and postcards I count no less than ten locations for Dobbs House Polynesian Restaurants.

Charlotte NC
Dallas TX
Houston TX
Louisville KY
Lexington KY
Memphis TN
Atlanta GA
Miami FL
Orlando FL
Birmingham AL

All of the menus on the thread have different locations listed as do the postcards. Was this wishful thinking by the management or were there really ten Dobbs House Polynesian Restaurant locations? The scan is the back of my small menu from the Memphis Location and I think it dates from the early 60's judging from the prices.

Maybe they threw a big umbrella and those were Dobb's House other restaurant locations too. I can only say for sure abotu Louisville, Memphis Atlanta and Dallas.

I just got a postcard of the interior of the Atlanta location. I need to scan it and post it.

Oh, and btw, there are a trio of Mint Julep Kentucky Derby glasses dated 1975 on Ebay with "Luau Room" on them. May tell us it was in operation at least at that date.

Found this picture of the lounge singers at the Dobb's House Luau Restaurant in Memphis in the Memphis Magazine.

The author, Vance Lauderdale, also posted this picture that he originally thought was from the Dobb's House Luau but his reader indicated it was not.... so it's a mystery.

Anybody (Swanky) got and idea of where this might be from??

DC

Well now that I look at the mystery photo and compare it to my postcard I think that is the Dobb's House Luau after all. Look at the floor.

Will have to emial Vance.

DC

Here is one of those great Ford Times renderings of the Dobb's House Luau restaurant in Memphis. Great details, the even showed the menu's correctly.

A pool of water from which a flame erupts and a twenty-five foot Easter Island idol are a few of the spectacular decorative features of this Polynesian-style restaurant..."

The story line sound cool - a 25-footer!

DC