Welcome to the Tiki Central 2.0 Beta. Read the announcement
Celebrating classic and modern Polynesian Pop

Tiki Central / Locating Tiki

Hawaiian Gardens, San Pedro, CA (restaurant)

Pages: 1 6 replies

Name:Hawaiian Gardens
Type:restaurant
Street:Gaffey @ 6th Street
City:San Pedro
State:CA
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct

Description:
What a great looking old place. Has to be one of the first Hawaiian style restaurants with a drive-in in Southern California.

Love the Aloha Room bar facade and interior.

A matchbook.

DC

Charles Phoenix has a great night time exterior slide of this place and it's neon sign where Squab is lit up as one of the draws to this place.

I want to say this place was located right off the 110? And it was a strip club and a truck stop up until "about" 10 years or so ago??? Not sure if it is the same spot I used to see from the 110 or not..?

EDIT*
I am an idiot, thank you!
I re-read DCs address he posted, and def not same location. The place I was referring to was visible from the 110 fwy, and was located in the Wilmington area. It was also a roundhouse drive-in like the pic above, but later converted into a strip club, then truck stop from my understanding....

[ Edited by: Tom Slick 2009-08-15 00:45 ]

Here is another matchbook from Nick Oreb's Hawaiian Gardens that I saw on ebay.

Looks like the same classic volcano/wahine concept used at Gene's Hawaiian Village.

DC

Another matchbook with a nice rendering of the buildings.

And some close ups of the postcard.

I seem to remember seeing the "Squab" sign somewhere before.

DC

Found a few more ads from the Hawaiian Gardens.

And two pages from a San Pedro history book.

DC

Daily Breeze newspaper article.

Daily Breeze: South Bay History: Nick Oreb’s restaurant complex on Sixth and Gaffey becomes a San Pedro hot spot

Check sources at end. Things have come full circle or something like that

Pages: 1 6 replies