Trade Winds, San Francisco, CA (bar)

Name:Trade Winds
Type:bar
Street:3150 Geary
City:San Francisco
State:CA
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct

Description:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14696209@N02/5377132586/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41606952@N07/3872757178/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14696209@N02/5377132618/

Nice find. The "Tradewinds" name is fast on its way of becoming the most prolific Pre-Tiki Poly pop establishment concept. Where does that line "Let's go where the trade winds blow.." hail from? A song? And do we have a count on how many "Tradewinds" places (including motels, of course) existed in America?

Bigbro,

I have seen quite a a few "Trade Winds" out there, inlcuding this one from New York.

But the Beachcomber name has to be number one in the Pre-tiki genre.

DC

The Trade Winds - "San Francisco's Tropical Rendez Vous"
A little bit of family history...
From about 1940 to 1945/1946, Edward (AKA "Uncle Eddie") David and his cousin Eugene "Gene" Eichenbaum (both native San Franciscans) owned a Polynesian-themed bar on San Francisco's Geary Street called the Trade Winds. It was quite the place with Gene as the manager and Eddie (a real character) tending bar. There was plenty of bamboo, palm trees, a piano and singing... and I'd imagine a bit of dancing too. The bar was quite popular during World War II as somehow the owners were able to line up a connection to supply them with Scotch... very hard to get in those days. For every gallon of rum purchased, they were able to purchase a fifth of Scotch.
Anyway, the bar was, evidently, sold off around 1946... Eddie went on to tend bar at a place called Chip's Serenader? in San Mateo and ultimately open up Eddy's Sport Shop in Mountain View, CA. Not sure what Gene went on to do... Background history supplied by Jerry David, son of Eddie David (1-20-11).

Exterior view of the Trade Winds

Interior view of the Trade Winds

Vintage matchcover image

Mahalo hmdtiki for the historical pics and info. Welcome to TC.

After Shasta's TIKI PUNCH, I give you:

A true Tikiphile drinks only TRADEWINDS(tm) TEA !:
http://www.drinktradewinds.com/store-locator/

Sorry, didn't know where to stick this, and it resembled the above matchbook cover somewhat :)

Got this napkin at the paper show from the Trade Winds if SF.

One of the fold out types which are very cool.

DC

Ha! Very "smart", indeed!

First listing I can find for The Trade Winds is 1941.

Here's an ad for The Trade Winds:

...which came from this publication:

With the David family selling out in 1946, it appears that it was kept in operation as The Trade Winds for another 7 years or so. The last listing I can find for it is 1953.

The location today:

It appears that the blue house, partially obscured by the light pole, is the side of the house to the right in the vintage exterior pic:

On 2011-08-22 13:58, hmdTiki wrote:

Exterior view of the Trade Winds

I'm going to roll out that way sometime soon to see if I can verify.

....aaaaaaaand I'm wrong - the directory listings were moved in subsequent years and it turns out that The Trade Winds went until about 1958.

1956 directory:

1957 and 1958 entries:

Looks like it changed hands a few times after the David & Eichenbaum families.