West Indies, Reno, CA (restaurant)

Name:West Indies
Type:restaurant
Street:South Virginia Road
City:Reno
State:CA
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct

Description:
In July of 1944 Skipper Kent opened his third restaurant outside of Reno called “West Indies”. His first restaurant was The Skipper in South Berkeley and his second restaurant was Zombie Village in Oakland. Like his other restaurants, it featured South Seas artifacts, exotic cocktails, Chinese foods, and tropical gift-wares for sale or trade at the Curio Hut. Skipper Kent would go on to open Skipper Kent's in San Francisco and two Polynesian Village restaurants - one in Chicago and one in Boston. Here is a menu I have which references Zombie Village..

Opening night ad

At some point prior to 1950 ownership changes.

Tikicoma found this great photo of the exterior.

I had forgot to start a Location page for this cool slice of history.

DC

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2020-01-22 16:47 ]

From the Northern Nevada Historic Photo Collection:

"The address was 5560 South Virginia. The West Indies Club opened on July 27, 1944, as a restaurant featuring Chinese and American food. It wasn't until 1945 that a 21 game was licensed there.

The West Indies was closed in 1954 when Raymond I. Smith of Harold Club purchased the two parcels of land where the West Indies was located. The business later reopened, and over the years several restaurants and bars operated there. The building was razed in 1998. The empty lot is about twenty yards north of the northeast corner of Meadowood Mall Way and South Virginia Street."

Tiki Hunan was the last place to occupy the building, closing in 1998. I believe this may be the same place where Bigbro got the tiki in the late 90s.

I found this match book a few years back.

On 2020-01-22 16:45, Dustycajun wrote:

Mint Julep more money than a Zombie? What kind of twisted world is this?

I found some more stuff on The West Indies while TC was down:

One of the owner's got into some tax trouble.

The land was sold.

And there were plans to move the building.

However, it was never moved. It was demolished in the late 90s.

More menu photos. I bought these as a lot.

This looks like a menu cover, but the menu is too large to fit in it.

A photo of the large dinner menu next to the smaller drink menu.

And a tracing of the menu cover that was tucked inside all of the above. I think someone was getting bored waiting for their dinner date...

[ Edited by Cavemoai on 2022-03-23 08:59:22 ]

Here is a matchbook spotted on eBay.

Here's another one:

Here's an add from a 1951 issue of the Reno Fundial vol3 no3.

And a description of The West Indies from the same issue.

[ Edited by Cavemoai on 2024-01-18 09:50:42 ]