This hotel, located about 40 minutes southeast of Chicago, featured a tropical atrium with an indoor pool, a waterfall, fake palm trees and some large tikis. There was a bar in the atrium, called the Khaki Club, that had live entertainment on Fridays and Saturdays.

The Radisson was leveled to make room for new development in 2017.

Owned and operated by Charles Chang and family, Fiji Island was around for at least thirty years, and at one time had a sister location in a Holiday Inn in Charlottesville, VA.

Food was typical Chinese, and drinks were served in tiki mugs (one of the bartenders here once worked at Trader Vic's).

There were tikis throughout, but they were of the brightly-painted variety that appears to be more common in that part of the country.

The basement of Fiji Island hosted a sometimes loud dance club, called the Club at Fiji.

Closed August 2016.

Open as early as 1942, one of the best places in Portland to find a Polynesian Island escape was Pago-Pago at Southwest Sixth and Stark Street. It showcased a tropical theme from its bar to its live band. According to The Oregonian, materials from seven different countries were used to decorate the club, which cost $25,000 to build. On the menu were tropical cocktails, which weren't common at the time. In the 1950s, Pago Pago and its adjoining Turf Club came under the scrutiny of police during a crackdown of secret gambling dens. It closed in 1952 after lease difficulties and battles with City Hall over its liquor license.

This was a two-story tiki bar and Polynesian restaurant in Orlando's Wall Street Plaza, owned by a developer who owned six other clubs in the complex.

Waitiki opened in August of 2004, and featured a downstairs bar made of antique ironwood, outdoor balconies, many wood carvings and teak flooring.

It was not an immersive tiki environment, but there was much artwork from modern-day tiki artists like Flounder, Joe & Donella Vitale and local tiki carver Wayne Coombs (Mai Tiki).

Tropical cocktails were available, and the food was a more modern take on Polynesian cuisine, with a focus on seafood.

Upstairs bar was the "Monkey Bar" with the expected theme reflected in the decor.

On December 26th, 2024, the bar re-opened as "Warped Pour". Anything tiki-related was gutted and the new interior is themed around the Vans Warped Tour traveling rock music festival.

The Bishop Museum was founded in 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop in tribute to his late wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, who was the last descendant of the Kamehamehas. The museum was built on the site of the Kamehameha School for Boys, which had been established by Princess Bernice. After her death, Charles Reed Bishop started the museum to showcase the Kamehameha family heirlooms and other Polynesian artifacts. The school eventually moved, allowing the Bishop Museum to expand, and it has grown over time so that it now houses a rather massive collection. One of the important pieces is a historic Heiau Ku carving - there are only two others, in the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA, and in the British Museum in London. In 2010, all three Ku tikis were put on display at the Bishop museum. The other two were shipped back to their respective museums three years later. The museum also features a section dedicated to what they call "Ku Kitsch," known to us as Polynesian Pop, with many fine examples of modern uses of the image of Ku, including a mug from Tiki Farm.

The Hawaiian Luau was located in The Fontainebleau Motor Hotel and opened on May 21st, 1963. It was known as a great place to enjoy an evening of Polynesian foods and exotic tropical drinks. The South Pacific motif featured tapa cloth from Samoa, Japanese net floats & peacock chairs. In Skipper Vince’s bar, you would find Idol images decorated with imported hapu tikis that were hand carved from giant ferns.

The Hawaiian Luau was a Polynesian paradise but the hotel also featured the Empire Room, The Chandelier Lounge and the Fontaine Coffee Shop.

The Fontainebleau Hotel opened on April 27th, 1959, just 4 years before the Hawaiian Luau. Its long name was treated to an equally long sign -- one of the largest illuminated signs in the city at the time -- spelled out in 8' tall blue & white letters.

The hotel was a key part of "The Miracle Mile," a bustling commercial thoroughfare that was the main route from Jefferson Parish into the city until the 1970s. That's when the expressway was built and the decline began.

The hotel was closed in the 1990s and Roland Von Kurnatowski converted the Fontainebleau to apartments and units that could be used for storage. A Burger King also sat on the lot.

Most recently, in December 2020, businessman Sidney Torres purchased the property. He said he plans to re-name the apartment complex Pelican Apartments and to open a drive-through chicken operation where the Burger King once operated to maintain the license while searching for a permanent tenant.

Bahi Hut was opened in 1954 by Bill Johnson, and remains a beloved neighborhood bar and local landmark. For many years it operated as more of a beer bar, although some tropical drinks were available.

In 2018 it underwent a grand restoration and by all accounts was quite successful.

Two new tiki poles grace the front exterior, Mai and Tai, carved by Jeff Chouinard.

They kept a couple of their previous cocktails on the menu (especially their version of a "mai tai" which was beloved by locals for being strong...even if considered unbalanced and inauthentic by most tikifiles used to Trader Vic standards) but have revamped the rest of their cocktail menu and have climbed back from being just a beer bar.

It is part of the Golden Host Resort, a vintage roadside motel.

Formerly Don the Beachcomber's.

Duke Kahanamoku's restaurant opened on September 1, 1961 with none-other-than Donn Beach handing over the keys to the Hawaiian surfing legend.

The restaurant hosted many regular musical acts, including Martin Denny and Don Ho.

*NOTE: Small standing menu below in last photo is signed by Zulu 5, the original Hawaii 5-O.

This location may be gone today, but currently, as of 2025, there is also a Duke's chain of restaurants that carry on this tradition with 3 locations in the Hawaiian Islands -- Waikiki, Maui, and Kauai. They also have 3 on the Mainland -- Huntington Beach, La Jolla, and Malibu.

This classic Hawaiian hotel with striking views of Diamond Head near the beach of Waikiki was built in 1955 by famed American industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, and was originally named Kaiser's Hawaiian Village. The property began with a few buildings, but rapidly expanded, with soaring towers eventually contributing to Waikiki's skyline. The Rainbow Tower in particular is a local landmark. Kaiser also built a nearby geodesic dome auditorium, the Kaiser Aluminum Dome, where some Exotica classics were recorded. Martin Denny played regularly in the Shell Bar, and for a couple of years Arthur Lyman played here with him. Hilton purchased the hotel in 1961, and still owns it today.

There is currently no tiki bar here, but you can get tropical cocktails at the Tropics Bar & Grill.

*Original Cocktail Menu shown below.

This restaurant, along with Johnny's Tiki Hut in Salt Lake City, was owned by Johnny Quong.

The Hawaiian was Quong's masterpiece and it thrived from the mid 60s through the mid 80s.

Among other details, customers remember its periodic monsoon thunderstorm special effects.

While he owned the building, Quong didn't own the land underneath it. When his lease came up, he decided he needed to close it, due to health issues stemming from diabetes. The restaurant was eventually converted into a Veterans Of Foreign Wars hall.

The Beachcomber restaurant opened in July 1960, in the historic May Fair Hotel in Berkeley Square in Mayfair, London. It was created under the direction of the Danziger brothers Harry and Edward, American film producers who had moved to London and bought the hotel. The Beachcomber was the first introduction of the American Polynesian restaurant phenomenon to London, opening a few years before the London Trader Vic's. (The whole concept and name were nicked by the Butlin's chain of holiday camps for their Beachcomber Bars.) It was the apex of upscale themed dining, with rainstorms over a pond of caimans, parrots in and out of cages, and oceanic art all around. Storm and lighting effects added a theatrical feel to the space. Tableside flaming coffee grogs were served, and beautiful custom mugs, bowls and other serveware were used. The restaurant closed in 1985, and it was turned into the Crystal Room.

There is a modern-day bar in Notting Hill also called The Beachcomber, it has no connection to this historic restaurant.

Opened in 1962.

The interior featured tiki poles and shields, string lights, Christmas lights, printed fabric, Chinese dragons, bamboo and rattan accents, rainbow chunk resin swag lamps, fake flowers, plastic colored leis, and pufferfish lamps. Two outrigger canoes hung from the ceiling. In the front entrance there was a wishing well made from three giant clam shells.

There was a main dining area that seated about 60 people, with a small alcove in the northeast corner that had one table, and a secondary, smaller, separate dining area in the front of the building (to the left as you enter) that held probably another 16-20 people.

On the other side of the main dining area was a small bar, with enough seating for about eight people where you could order the restaurant’s signature cocktail offerings: Daiquiri, Mai Tai, Aloha Delight, South Sea Satellite, Tabu for Two, and Flaming Virgin, to name a few.

This location closed Fall 2020.