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Two Questions:

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Indeed, I do not only answer questions, I do have some, too. Many, actually. Here are just two.

A friend brought me a B&W xerox of an UNKNOWN Honululu restaurant interior and asked me if I would recognize it:

I did not, but I recognized the girl:

Not the girl on the left, but the Hula dancer on the menu cover on the right. I have seen that menu before, it is lime green/yellow/brown and it is from the ....Kailua Room? Leilani Lounge? Waikiki Room? I cannot recall, WHO knows?

The mask on the wall looks like a different version of this Barney West mask at the Portland Trader Vic's, so I am pretty sure Barney made it:

AND this Trader Vic's interior brings me to my second question: Not too long ago, I saw a Trader Vic's interior here on TC (I believe) that made me take notice and think "Boy they sure used a lot of New Caledonian doorway panels!" and it wasn't this one. BUT this one does have some of them:

And this is what the New Caledonian panels look like:

I do know the St. Louis Trader Vic's had them flanking it's entrance, and the interior postcard has a couple in the background, but the location photo I am looking for had whole walls lined with them.

So, to recoup:

QUESTION 1: What is the name of that Honululu restaurant?

QUESTION 2: Where is that Trader Vic's interior with lotsa New Caledonian carvings from?

T

Hey Sven can you post a close up of the light in the first B&W
photo.
The one right below the float lamp on the left.

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2009-05-21 07:15 ]

Could this have been taken at the Hawaiian Village hotel restaurant?
I thought I saw a picture of this room somewhere before.. I'll keep searching..
Aloha

I was also thinking of the restaurant at the Hawaiian Village hotel. I have a brochure that is also on Mimi's website. Here are the photos from the restaurant and pupu bar.

The brochure is older pre-tiki era so the restaurant could have been upgraded tiki-wise.

Not very conclusive.

Looked through everything I had on Trader Vics and could not find those panels.

DC

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2009-05-20 17:48 ]

The menu, folks, the menu, that is the surest way to determine the name of the place. Jeff, Mimi, Frank ???... somebody's gotta have it! :)
And no lead on that Trader Vic's interior? Postcard, or B&W?...it must have been an early one, 50s or 60s.

Shangri-La in Chicago?

Oh...so you don't have it, I gather. Nope, the place (and its menu) was definitely in Honululu.

i recall the old trader vics in the palmer house had tons of new cladonia tiki panels like those...same carving. they were all around the dining room walls as a decorative element...don't know if this is the same place though it did look that cluttered at one point in time...

[ Edited by: Tipsy McStagger 2009-05-21 08:39 ]

[ Edited by: Tipsy McStagger 2009-05-21 08:40 ]

Sven, could you be thinking of the Dallas Trader Vic's, as far as the panels?
Here's a pic someone took, prior to the remodel/restoration:

If I'm correctly understanding what you're referring to, by New Caledonian panel, this restaurant used a lot of them to divide the spaces. Look at Kenike's pics on page 2 of his Trader Vic's, Dallas thread. Also, on page 6, where you were, last week. Is this what you remember?

On 2009-05-21 08:36, Tipsy McStagger wrote:
i recall the old trader vics in the palmer house had tons of new cladonia tiki panels like those...same carving. they were all around the dining room walls as a decorative element...don't know if this is the same place though it did look that cluttered at one point in time...

Thanks Dave, that would fit the bill, having been built in 1957. Couldn't find that specific "Wall of New Cad" photo I remember seeing, though. Maybe it wasn't on TC. Dang.

On 2009-05-21 09:01, Limbo Lizard wrote:
Sven, could you be thinking of the Dallas Trader Vic's, as far as the panels?
If I'm correctly understanding what you're referring to, by New Caledonian panel, this restaurant used a lot of them to divide the spaces. Look at Kenike's pics on page 2 of his Trader Vic's, Dallas thread. Also, on page 6, where you were, last week. Is this what you remember?

Sorry, but I only see lots of Chinese tiles, Marquesan posts and some PNG panels in those photos...I tried to make clear what they look like in my initial post above....I think you thought I meant the Chinese tiles?

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-05-21 09:19 ]

Sorry, Sven, I misunderstood... focused on the wrong side of your close-up. So, that's New Caledonian style carving... you teach me something new, every week. I don't recall anything like that in TV's, here in Dallas. Just the wood panels that you identify as PNG style.

Hey Sven I can't help you with the B+W but the postcard comes from Trader Vic's at the Hotel Benson in Portland Oregon

Bosko

So far it looks like even the combined Tiki Central brain trust is going to strike out! C'mon, long time no posters, if you have something, don't hold back! The original T.V.'s Chicago sounds like a good guess, but which photo of it? I don't recall EVER seeing other Portland and St. Louis interiors than the two postcards I have.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-05-21 10:54 ]

look back at old tabu tiki nights at the palmer house photos posted in james t's threads from that time period...maybe you saw the walls in one of those photos..i'm sure they were in the background somewhere but it may be a good place to start to either rule out the palmer house or not.

the panels in the palmer house were stained a lighter brown..probably after the renovations and thinning out of the tiki...since they were part of the permanent decor they couldn't really remove them so they just re-painted or stained them a single light brown tone....

Nonono, not in the background somewhere, very noticeable in the foreground, or I would have not been surprised at the amount. And they looked monochrome, yes.

G
GROG posted on Thu, May 21, 2009 11:34 AM

What was wrong with Bosko's answer?

His post was not about the answer to my search, he was merely offering to enlighten me about the Portland Trader Vic's postcard I started this thread with -thank you- which I was already aware off.

Internet communication can get quite complicated. :)

if this is the palmer house traders, then alot changed since this photo...but the main bar is in the right location...i notice a stairway leading up (railings)..that may have lead to the other room which was tiki at one time but then they buikt a wall between the dining rooms and made the one room (that the stairway would have lead to ) into a nautical only themed room....where you see the screen in the middle of the photo was gone and replaced by a center colomumn with 4 booths surrounding it....now look closely at the native mask on the screen to the right...just behind it is a bank of booths (which would be in the same locationas the traders) and i see a caldonia panel in the same place on the wall above the booth. at the palmer house these were located in the same place and spaced about 8 ft apart above the booths throughout the entire room....thes caldonia paneals also covered the large main column that replaced the screen in the foreground (probably used the panels from the smaller colums to cover the one large one).....basically if you were standing in the traders in that location on the postcard, the entranceway would be to your left,,,,the nautical dining room behind you and the doorway that leads to the other half of the room where tabu tiki nights was held would be right passed the bartender beyond what looks like a screen covering that entry way....this is all conjecture and quessing at this point but if this is the traders in the postcard, that's how i see it playin out....

[ Edited by: Tipsy McStagger 2009-05-21 12:43 ]

[ Edited by: Tipsy McStagger 2009-05-21 12:45 ]

Great, now please print out a copy of that mental image, and post it. :)

I cannot remotely remember the lay out of the card, I just remember there were a lot of.....you know what.

there's a good thread about trader vics here on tiki central...it still has pics available to see. one thing i noticed...that they cut the new caldonia panels in half and used the faces and lower body to cover that main column that supports the boat house bar room.....looks like the panels on the wall over the booth are fatter and shorter versions of caldonia panels than i remembered.......it may or maynot be the same place as the postcard, but you can definately see alot of caldonia panels in the photos...

look here:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=31374&forum=2&14&PHPSESSID=99bc5ce6a4fb098116c9f7e882ddb6b3


" In a perfect world...Elvis would still be alive ....and all the elvis impersonators would be dead!!"

[ Edited by: Tipsy McStagger 2009-05-21 19:17 ]

Been there done that. It would be very lazy of me to not have, after starting this whole thing. I checked Trader Vic's, the Trader's, and the Outrigger...but there is always a chance something slipped by, especially with the new locations confusing the issue. Mahalo to everyone who tried to help. I will let you know if I find the answers -I will, eventually.

Could the panel picture you were looking for be the Denver Trader Vic's?

Nope, I have that one. Denver would fit for being from the period, but those are not New Caledonian panels...too washed out, too. Thanks for trying, though.

I didn't have a good feeling that it would be right. :(

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