Harvey's - Lake Tahoe, Lake Tahoe, NV (restaurant)

Name:Harvey's - Lake Tahoe
Type:restaurant
Street:Katherine Dr
City:Lake Tahoe
State:NV
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct

Description:
From Critiki :

This was the restaurant on the top floor of Harvey's Wagon Wheel Hotel and Casino, also known as Harvey's Lake Tahoe. The Top of the Wheel featured a Polynesian lounge, and had a logo "Sneaky Tiki." Mugs from Harvey's are still quite easy to come by. Much of the decor was done by Eli Hedley, though it sounds as if the place went bland before it was destroyed (along with the rest of the casino) in 1980, when it was bombed as part of a failed extortion attempt. Harvey's Lake Tahoe has since rebuilt, but there is no tiki bar there today.

[ Edited by: tikiyaki 2008-10-12 09:00 ]

With mugs from theis place being some of the easiest to find on ebay and out in the wild, I'm surprised there is no post in here about this place.

Picked up a matchbook from there yesterday, and I see the mugs all the time.

Do you have your TIKIYAKI ORCHESTRA CD YET ?
http://www.myspace.com/tikiyaki
http://www.tikiyakiorchestra.com

[ Edited by: tikiyaki 2008-10-12 09:04 ]

I think there's a story to be told here. How did Harvey's manage to send out so many tiki mugs, when 1)Lake Tahoe isn't as visited as major tourist areas 2)It was blown up destroying the on-hand mugs? (Or is "blown up" an exaggeration?) (Or were the mugs used to hold slot machine coins?) (Or maybe there actually aren't that many existing mugs?)

On 2008-10-13 03:44, Bongo Bungalow wrote:
I think there's a story to be told here. How did Harvey's manage to send out so many tiki mugs, when 1)Lake Tahoe isn't as visited as major tourist areas 2)It was blown up destroying the on-hand mugs? (Or is "blown up" an exaggeration?) (Or were the mugs used to hold slot machine coins?) (Or maybe there actually aren't that many existing mugs?)

When I was a kid my mom used to like to go to Las Vegas and stay at the Sands Hotel...every time we went they would give her a little package with a coffee mug, filled with coupons for shows and food, etc. This resulted in her having quite a collection of Sands coffee mugs. Is it possible that Harveys gave a tiki mug to every guest that came through, rather than selling them like most Tiki establishments do? I see (and have) a bunch of Harvey's tiki mugs as well.

Hmm...that sounds logical.

Sven, any thought on this ?

Lake Tahoe is a very popular vacation destination for visitors from all over the world and Northern California in particular.

Harvey's Casino is a long standing establishment on the South Shore and a gambling icon for the area. Harveys predates the Indian casinos in California by many years, so many who wanted to try their luck would stop there for a chance at "hitting it big" did so. Sacramento valley and the bay area folks spend allot of time in Tahoe year round.

I doubt all but a very small percentage of visitors even knew what the mugs were. The were free and an instant souvenir to take away when all the money from gambling was gone.

I would venture to say that thousands of the Harvey's mugs were sold along with drink purchases and as gifts. Not a weekend goes by that I don't see a Harvey's bucket mug (selling between $0.50 and $12.00) and with a little less frequency, the Hula girl mugs and bowls (selling from $1.00 up to $25.00).

Even less often I see the green or red and black "Sneaky Tiki" tall mugs, but they are around (selling from $7.00 to 12.00).

The larger Hula bowls are the hardest to find and are priced between $25.00 and $40.00 and are sometimes found for less (I paid $12.00 for the first one I bought).

So, not a surprise to see so many from this area. Probably similar to other areas where certain mugs are common due to the popularity of the establishment visited.

I just picked up a Harvey's Bucket Mug at the Rose Bowl Swap for $8

There were also several of the black and red "Sneaky Tiki" mugs as well as the green tiki mug, which I see alot of.

Very common mugs. There must have beenm massive amounts made for this place.

It is honestly the most common vintage tiki mug I've seen.

but why are the shakers so damn hard to find?

The black and red mugs are fairly common, but the trick is to find them with all of the paint intact!

"but why are the shakers so damn hard to find?"

Good question. My theory is most people went to the bar for drinks, but didn't stick around to eat dinner. If this was the case, not too many salt and peppers existed to begin with. The restuarant was very small, although it had a spectacular view. I have only seen one menu as well.

Swizzle sticks and matchbooks can be found if you keep an eye out for them, but I haven't seen anything else in the wild from this place. There are two sizes of swizzles, one short for the buckets and bowls and longer ones for the taller mugs.

PTD

Vintage matchbook

Found in Mexico D.F.

WOW! Ten posts on Harvey's and not a single picture of the ubiquitous bucket mug? :o

Come on people this is a little embarrassing, personally I think you should have to own a Harvey’s bucket mug before even being allowed to join Tiki Central. :evil:

Here is a little pile of Harvey’s things that I have ~

and here is a menu that Psycho Tiki D found recently ~

Ahhh, that’s much better. :lol:

Ha Ha! I aways assumed someone must have posted them already since it's so common. Love that Menu and Zeta's Match book. Finding some photos of the interior would be great. Does any one know what the place looked like?

Here is my Sneaky Tiki Mug.

That's a Bamboo Ben question, since Eli Hedley outfitted the place. Ben has a couple of shots of the interior.

Would love to see photos of the Eli interior of this place.

Here is the Sail With Harvey's wahine mug

And, the hard to find salt and pepper shakers that sold on ebay recently.

DC

Just when I think I've collected all of the Harvey's treasure in existence . . . I find this thread. I would kill for that menu or shakers. Will this quest never end?!

I found this on E-Bay. I haven't seen the Sneaky Tiki matchbooks with the "tiger" pattern before. Is that special?

[ Edited by: TIKIZILLA 2011-08-17 02:46 ]

[ Edited by: TIKIZILLA 2011-08-17 02:48 ]

No luck finding pictures of the interior, but here is a video of the bomb squad blowing a huge hole in the side of the building.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU1eplCrJFs&feature=player_embedded

Not footage you would commonly associate with a tiki location.

A story on the building of the bomb.

http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/sep/21/ventura-man-writes-about-his-role-in-bombing/

Another menu with images of the ubiquitous signature mugs.

Harveys switched fonts on the mugs from the standard cursive design to a less attractive block design as seen on these bucket mugs I have.

And this Sneaky Tiki mug posted by PTD.

Progress I guess?

I also saw a brochure on ebay that had a rare photo of the interior.

Kind of strange that with all of the signature mugs sold at this place they didn't use them for the photo shoot. Some interesting carvings on the table and in the background. You can also see the Hawaiian band playing.

DC

Got this menu and insert as a gift a couple years ago

Got these glass tumblers today, i have never seen them before.

Never seen these before - the bucket mugs with a matching lid for condiments?

DC

I just went to Lake Tahoe for the first time. I was hoping to find some tiki, but I didn't expect much. I walked around Harvey's to see if there were any older bartenders who might still remember how to make a Sneaky Tiki, but no luck. Mostly just younger bartenders. None of them had heard of the Sneaky Tiki. In their sports bar I did find this guy hanging out.

And as I looked deeper I found myself at Cabo Wabo, Sammy Hagar's bar. I did find a super cool Crazy Al tiki mug there, the Sam Ku.

But that is all I have to report. No one seems to remember any of the history behind this place. It is too bad, it is a really good story.

I hope this is proper information for this thread.

I picked up a small version of the logo swizzle stick last weekend. Here it is with the regular sized swizzle for size comparison.

What do you think it was used for? It's not sharp enough to be used as a garnish pick, yet not long enough to be used as a swizzle stick.

I picked up the Harvey's brochure and scanned a better image of the bar scene

Also spotted this Tiki wall board with Harvey' signature Tiki on ebay.

What?! Arthur Lyman played there in 1960.

DC

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2017-06-01 15:12 ]

Spotted this Harveys table topper advertising the drink specials.

The most ubiquitous mugs in the world.

DC

On 2018-08-31 09:16, Dustycajun wrote:

The most ubiquitous mugs in the world.

DC

My family basically never drank. I could count the number cocktails my mum and stepdad had, combined, over the course of my life on one hand. Even THEY had two Harvey's mugs.

Lifted these images from the internet... not much insight but a bit of reference to Harvey’s tiki...

*other image not showing up. Will try again a bit later. Cheers!