Tiki Kai Slides Redondo Beach Early 1960s

As I was going through a collection of Disneyland and Southern California slides, I found these two slides. One has hand written inscription Tiki Restaurant Redondo. The slide without the notation is the one with the great sign for Tiki Kai. Enjoy....

Great find Patrick. What's up with the treehouse in front?

I don't know about the treehouse, but from the looks of the ladder it was not in use. Or maybe it was used only by one of the tall carved tikis!

wow - check out how you can see right through the "faux" roof - You can see the frame work the thatch was attached to - seems to me , a strong Santa Ana wind could bring that creation down. I guess this is an example of why the building inspector throws his weight around!

Wow, good find indeed! That place must not have been around for long, nobody knows anything about it. There is a nice postcard of it, you can see it (and the see-through roof) on Page 59 of the BOT (I always hated how they cut off the entrance Tiki on the right there, because of page "bleed"!).

These look like Milan Guanko Tikis to me. I never saw that big one by the side entrance, very cool. Their matchbook has the architectural rendering on it, the original of THAT would be a find, too!:

All in all it really looks like a very theatrical place, conceived like a temporary stage set, with big Tikis/big A-frame for effect, but the core being just a regular cafeteria, judging by the interior :). I wonder if they had those two wings that one can see on the rendering.

Patrick, if you do not intend to use it for any projects of your own, I would love to get a high res scan of that wide shot, I bet cropping and zooming would really bring out the detail in the Tikis and cars!

Hey Bigbro- I sent you a PM.

Does anyone have an address for where the Tiki Kai was? I tried to read the street sign in the photo but it's too small...it might be interesting to go down there and see what's there now.

It is too small and blurry on the slide to read as well.

In the Book of Tiki only the front of the postcard is pictured so maybe Big Bro can save the day?

I Googled the info available and this is what/where popped up.
Sorry for the long hyper. I do not know how to write it shorter.
Google Maps Link

Signature? I ain't signin nothin!

[ Edited by: Mr. NoNaMe 2007-01-27 17:40 ]

[ Edited by: hanford_lemoore - Shortened URL - 2007-01-28 16:33 ]

The map does not come up correctly, but the info that was on the map is the same.

I make out the sign to be Redondo Beach BLVD. I was discussing this image with My Mother who has lived in Torrance and Redondo Beach all of her life. She said there was a big A-Frame Restaurant on the corners of Artesia and Redondo Beach Blvd. That intersection comes to a V and Redondo Beach Blvd. merges into Artesia. What stands in that grid west of Hawthorne Blvd., is a parking lot and Marie Calanders, a Turners Outdoors, a Numero Uno Pizza, and a now defunct and closed Firestone Service Station that is now fenced off. I too enlarged the photo with a program that splines the pixels and only can make out Blvd semi clearly. Given the length of the street name, I'm going with RBB.If I find out any more details I'll post. I'm gonna try to go to City Hall later this week, and see if I can dig up any information. Great post and another great find!
ADDED* IMG
blown up to 2600dpi,after that it REALLY gets pixed.

[ Edited by: Tom Slick 2007-01-28 10:01 ]

Thanks for your help, everyone, trying to figure out where this place "was." Some details of the street may still be similar, and it might be possible to stand across the street from this corner and re-create the original camera angle.

That's the Tiki Kai in Lawndale! Lawndale is adjacent to Redondo Beach (for those who don't know the area, the little towns in that area all bleed together). A quick search turned up this postcard on eBay (no address mentioned in the eBay listing, sadly):

Also, Sabu mentioned in this old post that he has a matchbook from the place that lists it as being in Lawndale:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=4087&forum=1&vpost=37331

Sadly, the image in that post is gone. Sabu, do you have that matchbook handy?

The address speculated above (Artesia & Redondo Beach Blvd.) is right on the border between Lawndale & Redondo Beach (Torrance starts just a block to the east). If the borders were the same then that they are now, that would put Tiki Kai on the north side of that intersection, if -- and it's a big if -- the legal borders were used in deciding that the spot was Lawndale, rather than just a colloquial understanding. There's a whole lotta ifs going on, but hey, it's what we've got to work with! Unless someone can pony up a postcard or a matchbook with an address.

[ Edited by: bifcozz 2007-02-09 21:34 ]

Thanks Bifcozz for taking the guesswork out! This location became known after the Tiki Kai as Brothers Restaurant(A-Frame still intact) before going to demolition. My understanding is that this location changed names a few times before ultimately meeting its demise. Great work TC sleuths!

Added update
After further investigation, Humu is correct. The Tiki Kai wasn't located inside the V intersection of Artesia and Redondo Beach Blvd. as I had first thought, but on the North side of it. That is a Pizza Hut Location now, that has a small but lengthy strip mall that follows to Hawthorne Blvd. I believe that if you stood near the North side of the Nordtroms(South Bay Galleria) located across the street, you would get an accurate view of how the vintage picture is taken. The Technical corner that the Tiki Kai sat on would be Grevillea Ave. and the absolute end of Redondo Beach Blvd. Pizza Hut is further most west business before Redondo Beach Blvd merges into Artesia Blvd(litterally the corner of Grevillea and RBB). The realtors office "Conley Realty" adress should have been on Artesia based on todays maps. I am thinking however, that there was some street movement when they redid that area with the 2 strip malls and the big mall(where the picture seems to have been taken from) since this photo was taken. This has been alot of fun!

[ Edited by: Tom Slick 2007-01-28 14:41 ]

Thank you, bifcozz, and everyone else who's contributed on this great thread! I've added Tiki Kai to Critiki.

Yes, there was a tiki bar/restaurant that once upon a time sat on the little triangle between Hawthorne, Artesia and Redondo Beach Blvds. This is where the Marie Callendars (et al) and right next to where the South Bay Galleria mall stand today.

Too bad this is gone. This location is walking distance from where I sit right now.

Here is the current aerial photo of the area.

Hey all- thanks for the work. This is what I like about TC!

I have the postcard that Humuhumu posted the image of.

The address was 4469 Redondo Beach Blvd.
Lawndale, California

It says:
Our purpose at this Paradise House is to serve you the finest Cantonese Cuisine and exotic drinks carefully selected by South Sea travellers. The Foods & Drinks, Prices will delight you. We are looking forward to seeing you soon.

Wow - I'm surprised Sabu hasn't sounded off on this thread, 'cause he knows much more about it than I do (having grown up in the area). But, yeah - as you can see from ZuluMagoo's photo, it's a Pizza Hut now, and has been as long as I can remember...

Ha! I live on Grevillea and that lil strip mall is where I take my watches to be serviced.

I agree with BigBro that this must have been a very short-lived restaurant, because as long as I can remember, from the early 70s, it has always been a Pizza Hut. My folks don't remember it either, and we lived within a few miles of the location since 1969 and drove by all the time, and often went shopping at the South Bay plaza across the street.

Wish I had more info, as it looked to have been an eye-catching place.

Sabu

Matterhorn1959, will you be adding your photos to Critiki? It could use a couple of these nice slide photos over there. This way maybe someone who checks out that site will recognize it and could possibly add more information there also. That is of course if they don't come to TC first! :lol: Just a thought! Let spread the word.

[ Edited by: tikipaka 2008-12-21 03:29 ]

Found this tonight while surfing...From the Torrance Herald, November 1962.

Also from the same paper;

"The Tiki Kai has recently signed a gentleman who Is considered world champion of the electric guitar.
His name is King Bennie Nawahi.
The interesting fact about Nawahi is that he is blind.
He will entertain you nightly at the Tiki Kai on Redondo Beach Beach Boulevard."

Which led me to this little discovery about the "King" of steel guitar;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22King%22_Bennie_Nawahi

[ Edited by: Tom Slick 2012-09-17 18:18 ]