Established in 1971, the museum is one of few U.S. institutions dedicated to the arts and culture of Asia and the Pacific Islands, serving the city of Los Angeles and the Greater Southern California region. The museum’s mission is to further intercultural understanding through the arts of Asia and the Pacific Islands.

In 2013, University of Southern California partnered with the museum to form USC Pacific Asia Museum. The affiliation broadened the community that benefits from the museum’s role as a vital resource for education and cultural heritage, and expanded the audience interested in a dialogue about art, history and culture.

Support from the museum’s constituent communities has enabled the collection to grow to more than 15,000 objects, spanning more than five thousand years and the region extending from Persia to the Pacific Islands. The museum fulfills its mission by organizing and presenting exhibitions, performances, lectures, classes, workshops, and festivals, all drawing on the arts and cultures of Asia and the Pacific Islands. These programs provide quality arts programming and education to children and families, ensuring greater access to the arts for area residents and nurturing new audiences.

In its brief history, the museum has organized and presented a number of groundbreaking exhibitions, including the first North American exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art after the Revolution and the first exhibition of Aboriginal art in the United States. Exhibitions originated by the museum have traveled across the country and to Japan. The museum is also committed to scholarship and has produced more than 50 exhibition catalogues.

Open at least as early as 1974. This restaurant and lounge advertised both Chinese and Polynesian cuisine.

Former location of Area 142.

This is a large and eclectic space and is well-suited for live music performances.

Grand Opening was Friday, November 21st, 2025.

The owner is Daniel Todd, known for the popular 4th Street Fillin Station and The Alibi Kitchen & Cocktails.

The co-owner is Matt Bramkamp, General Manager of The Alibi Kitchen & Cocktails, who runs the cocktail program for Dirty Birds.

Interior Design was accomplished by Tom Allsmiller (Typhoon Tommy) and Scott Scheidly (Flounder) in-between working on various Mai-Kai projects.

Opened in 1872, the Metropolitan Museum (the MET) moved to its present-day building at 1000 Fifth Avenue in 1880.

This entry is concerned with the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing's Oceania Exhibition. Named after Nelson A. Rockefeller's son, Michael C. Rockefeller, who joined the Harvard-Peabody New Guinea Expedition to the Baliem Valley in western New Guinea and made his first collecting trip to the Asmat region in 1961. He passed away while on a second collecting trip to the Asmat later that year. It was originally reported that Rockefeller either drowned or was attacked by an animal, such as a shark or saltwater crocodile. His boat was an estimated 12 nmi (22 km; 14 mi) from the shore when Rockefeller made the attempt to swim to safety, supporting the theory that he died from exposure, exhaustion or drowning. However, because headhunting and cannibalism were still present in some areas of Asmat in 1961 (but are said to have died out probably as early as the 1970s and definitely by the 1990s), there has also been widespread speculation based around local testimony that Rockefeller was killed and eaten by tribespeople from the Asmat village of Otsjanep.

This speculation is certainly not covered in the museum, in what is a carefully curated and respectful tribute to the art and history of the region.

From The Met website:

"The Met’s Arts of Oceania galleries returned in May 2025, in a reimagined Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. Following a multiyear renovation, the new galleries feature over 650 stellar works from the Museum’s remarkable collection of Oceanic art, drawn from over 140 distinct cultures in a region of astonishing diversity that covers almost one-third of the earth’s surface and continues to capture the global imagination. These include monumental artworks from the large island of New Guinea and the coastal archipelagos that stretch beyond its shores to the north, central, and eastern Pacific, as well as the two neighboring regions of Australia and Island Southeast Asia, whose Indigenous communities all share a common ancestry. Exceptional artworks guide visitors through a wealth of stories relating to origins, initiation, and ancestral power and include some of the greatest achievements of Oceania’s visual artists: elaborately carved ancestral figures from ceremonial houses and spectacular ritual regalia, such as towering slit drums, crocodile reliquaries, and dazzling turtle shell masks from the coastal regions.

Designed by the architect Kulapat Yantrasast of the firm WHY Architecture and Beyer, Blinder, Belle Architects LLP, in collaboration with The Met’s Design Department, the new Arts of Oceania galleries are organized around a stunning new diagonal trajectory through The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing that reintroduces The Met’s iconic collection in sensationally appointed galleries filled with natural light for a new generation of visitors. The reinstallation is organized according to island groups in a new layout designed to foreground ancestral connections and Indigenous temporalities, offering perspectives on art that reach deep into Oceania’s past while also acknowledging its ongoing manifestations in the present. Voyaging and the arts of navigation are an important feature, with exquisitely carved spirit canoes, decorated canoe prows and paddles, and a navigational chart from the coral atolls of the northern Pacific evoking the extraordinary story of voyaging—both literal and metaphorical—across the vast landscape of Oceania.

Freshly energized written and digital narratives placed throughout the galleries elevate Indigenous voices, foreground the latest developments in interdisciplinary scholarship, and emphasize the continued creativity of Oceania’s Indigenous artists through the lenses of global history, compelling storytelling, and Pacific oratory and performance. This extensive range of digital offerings is envisaged as a constellation of Pacific voices—artists, poets, performers, writers, scholars, and cultural practitioners—presenting evocative and engaging entry points for access and inspiring visitors to understand the collections on a more profound level, guided by the insights of Islanders and community members."

Opened March 3rd, 2023.

Customers praise the unique neon decor, Hawaiian necklaces given to guests, and interactive experiences like impromptu karaoke.

The drinks are reportedly on-point, especially the Mexican Mai Tai and Painkiller.

The famous publishing magnate, William Randolph Hearst, is associated with the Hearst Castle in San Simeon. However, there is another famous piece of property that was associated with the Hearst family and this was originally purchased by Hearst's father, the miner turned millionaire, George Hearst. This other property was located forty miles east of San Francisco where George had a hunting lodge. After his death in 1891, his widow, Phoebe, added to the property and turned it into one of her homes. When she passed in 1919, William kept the place, but then moved many of the antiques to his home at the Hearst Castle. William then sold the property in 1924.

Around 1940, the 500 acre property was remade as a dude ranch, called the Old Hearst Ranch. It was always full and even had its own radio show called "The Dude Ranch Breakfast".

Most people think of dude ranches as a phenomenon where city folks from back East would travel to Western ranches on vacation where they could dress up and play cowboy. At these ranches, Easterners could participate in horseback riding, fly fishing, wilderness pack trips, hunting and helping with ranch activities alongside career cowboys.

However, at the peak of the dude ranch craze, many of these locations were far more than just ranches and were, in fact, multi-themed resorts that offered a variety of different vacation entertainments. This helped to provide something for spouses or family members that weren't as interested in traditional ranch activities and made for a more diverse vacation destination. The Old Hearst Ranch really promoted the tropical vacation aspect of vacation life and held regular luaus with tropically themed live entertainment and lavish dinners. They also had a huge swimming pool and visitors could spend their entire vacation going back and forth from the pool, to the Hawaiian Room, then partake of luaus held on the "Palm Patio", before heading back to their guest rooms -- all without ever going near a horse stable.

The Old Hearst Ranch's pre-tiki Hawaiian Dining Room was as well-appointed as any Hawaiian themed location in the mainland USA at the time. They usually served evening meals and were known for live entertainment and a hors d'oeuvre buffet line (or "relish" bar) that served various snacks and appetizers in wood Hawaiian monkey-pod dishes -- luau style. In postcards and photos, there can also be seen a large bamboo framed print of Frank Macintosh's "The Fruit Harvest" (1938) with its beautiful watercolor hula girls, which is commonly associated with cruise ship menu covers from that era. Brochures show they had Hawaiian themed murals done by Diego Rivera, depicting luaus as well.

Sold again, in 1952, the Old Hearst Ranch went through a few more owners but is today a country club, known as The Club at Castlewood.

This is the oldest surviving tiki bar in Mexico (open since 1958).

It got pretty badly damaged during Hurricane Otis (2023), but it's been repaired and is up and running again.

It's on an island (La Roqueta) so you have to buy a tour which includes the boat trip and some food and drinks once you're at Palao.

Opened around 1952 by a Portuguese man, named Johnny Quaresma (known as "Johnny Christmas" by those who couldn't pronounce his last name and it stuck as a nickname) - the same person who started the Zombie Hut.

The Hawaiian Hut in West Sacramento was a well-established night club restaurant that was very popular in the Sacramento area. When you entered the night club, patrons were greeted by a glass-encased shrunken head. The restaurant was known for an activity in which patrons would race across the dance floor on three legged rocking horses. The senior Johnny Christmas sold the Hawaiian Hut to the Stathos Bros. and the club continued for several years at the same location. The shrunken head was part of the sale.

Soft Opening on November 3rd and Grand Opening on November 5th, 2025.

Formerly the home of Mediterraneo and Brews Hall near the city’s popular Pier Plaza.

Owner Patrick Mescall employed several well-known tiki artisans, including Tiki tOny, to create tiki poles and decor for the new venue. Tony did over 60 carvings, including table lamps, bar decorations, and wall decorations.

Interior design completed by the Davis Ink Team.

Most notable is their use of actual lava rock on the exterior and interior walls and the over 125 different colored lanterns hanging from the ceiling.

Mescall is a longtime hospitality operator in the South Bay area, with several bars and restaurants already under his ownership. These include Eat at Joe’s, The Hula Hula Room, The Sportsman’s Bar, The Bounty Room, The Sly Fox Irish Pub, Paddy O’Brien’s Irish Pub, and Torrance Tavern.

Opened in 1954 at the Hotel Minnesotan.

Photos show an early shot of the Hotel Minnesotan and later, in 1959, with a skid row resident outside the South Seas Bar.

The Hotel Minnesotan was demolished in 1965, and some of the remaining decor from the South Seas Bar was recovered and used to create the McGuire's Tiki Room a couple of months later at the McGuire's Restaurant where they had several themed rooms over the years.

Opened December 6th, 2024 at their new location at the old Santana Mavericks building (40771 Big Bear Boulevard).

Owned by Michael Sterling Eaton and Sanoe Lake Eaton.

Their first site (40616 Village Dr, Big Bear Lake, California 92305) was a much smaller location, and opened in Big Bear in 2016.

This new location is a full restaurant, and as with their previous incarnation, is known for their sushi and poke bowls and tropical non-alcoholic drinks.

They do not serve alcohol.