Imperial Luau

Pompano Beach, Florida, United States

The Imperial Luau was part of the Harris Imperial.

It opened in 1959 and was 20,000 square feet in size.

The stone was supplied from Cuba for the wall treatment in the Kon Tiki Lounge and the American style grill room. Germany supplied the antiqued gold mirrors which covered the entire 2-story front section of the building. Japanese craftsmen built seven bamboo panels for the Polynesian dining room in the Imperial House. Each panel was 6' by 8' with 18-inch sections of bamboo cut to give the impression of various sized circles. The bar was entirely of stained cypress wood.

James B. Kirby was the builder.

At one time this restaurant was the most popular restaurant in the area (45 minutes north of Miami).

Luckily, several of the floor to ceiling tikis were salvaged by local collectors before it was torn down. There were 10 in the restaurant and Max’s South Seas Hideaway in Grand Rapids, Michigan has three of them. The first two guard the entrance to their Atomic Lounge bar and a third is mounted on the wall in the Atomic. A fourth one resides at the Tabu Tiki Room, the home bar of Duke and Amy Carter.

The Imperial Luau appears on page 24 of Sven Kirsten’s “The Book of Tiki.”