When The Reef first opened in 1961, it was advertised as Wyoming's first Polynesian lounge.

The Reef was designed by Lou and Cliff Sawyer, a husband and wife decorating team based in Palm Springs, CA. They also decorated the South Pacific Room and Beachcomber Shops in Palm Springs and the South Sea Club/Surf Room Restaurant in Anchorage, AK.

A newspaper article celebrating the exotic new hot spot describes the scene:

“On the Center Street entrance there are two picture windows. The window to the left of the door contains a five-foot Tiki god standing amid jungle flowers and sea shells. To the right of the door stands an eight-foot Tiki god. Above the door is a small shelf running the width of the building filled with rocks collected from Wyoming rock beds by local rockhound clubs.”

Lou and Cliff sold The Reef in 1970 and the new owners fought against a changing neighborhood which grew rougher and rougher with a reported knife assault in 1973 and in 1975, a drunk patron shot and killed one of the owners, resulting in the sale of The Reef in 1978.

It was replaced by a disco club.

This pre-tiki bar claimed to be the "aristocrat of nite clubs" and according to ads in the San Francisco Examiner, was open as early as October 1935.

By 1941, this location was home to Joaquin Garay's Copacabana.

The Hawaiian Century Room (1940-1948) was in the Adolphus Hotel, which is still operational since 1912.

Like the Tonga Room in San Francisco, the Hawaiian Century Room had a faux tropical rainstorm effect falling into a central pool. There were also "animated" murals of breaking surf.

Bol-A-Kai operated sometime in the '60s. It later became Ambassador Lanes. The building has been demolished, and a gas station is now on the spot.

This bar was subject to a 1949 FBI investigation as a front for the mob.

The liquor license had been transferred to Marilyn, wife of David Yaras. David could not obtain a license himself because of his criminal record. The PD also believed the location was a front for Joe Massey, a hoodlum from Detroit, Michigan.

It's not clear exactly what "Tahiti Package Store" was, but since members of "the family" were involved in running the Tahiti Bar, I suppose the packages could have been just about anything.

Open through at least 1958.

Most recently, as of 2026, this large and now pink-painted location appears to have been used for a nightclub called "Gala Miami" (at 235 23rd St on the other end of the building) and recently changed to "Bacara Club".

Open at least as early as 1943.

A photo from Club Bali from this time reveals that the gentleman on the left is Miguelito Valdez, the famous Cuban singer and band leader who in the 1940s was known as “Mr. Babalú.”

The Tropic Cafe (1935-1946), arguably San Diego’s first pre-tiki nightclub, was helmed by ‘Skipper’ John S. Ewing, and originally opened at 11th & Market. Ewing opened The Tropic Cafe to serve the large transient military population of San Diego. Business was so good, two years after opening he moved to a larger space in the old Gates Hotel building (1894), just across Third Avenue from the U.S. Grant Hotel Coffee Shop.

In 1939 he opened the Tropic Village room, with moonlit dining and dancing amidst a grove of faux coco palms, and music by Stone’s Hawaiians. A freighter-shaped bar — the S.S. Tropic — served tropical rum drinks. Design and murals were by local artist Russell Dale Moffett (Mexican Village murals).

Eventually, Ewing sold The Tropic Cafe to ‘well-connected’ Sicilians establishing themselves in Sailor’s Row. In 1946, The Tropic Cafe was re-opened as The Hula Hut by Frank and Liberante ‘Leo’ Matranga. Next door, brothers Joe and Gaspare Matranga opened the Cuckoo Club, and then the Aloha Club.

The Leilani was in the Belmont Shore area of Long Beach. It opened in 1937 and closed in 1974 when it became "The Stockpot".

Al Britt was the original owner who was a merchant seaman. He sold, or died, around 1953 or 1954. Don May bought the Leilani from the second owner, in June, 1955 and had a grand-re-opening under his own name on July 15th, 1956.

It was Don who re-named the bar the "Leilani Hut".

Don was also the owner of The Hawaiian and The Gay 90's on Signal Hill. He also started the continuing tradition of the lighted floating Christmas trees in Belmont Shore.

The interior of the Leilani Hut had some large Hawaiian scene murals. It was also known for its bawdy artwork in the men's restroom.

Closed circa 1974.

It is now a Legends sports bar since 1979.

Open at least as early as 1977.

Closed in 2000 and de-tikified.

This is now Bug N Out, a sports bar, as of 2021.

Some tell-tale bits of the old tiki bar remain -- the A-frame entrance, and some interior decor, including a few random lava rocks on some of the walls and routered Polynesian pattern decorative beams.

Bamboo that was salvaged when the Mai-Khi Lounge closed was used in The Leeward Lounge, a home bar in West Allis.

Opened in 1965.

The Tiki Kai's main claim to fame (or infamy, depending on your perspective) was its lunchtime lingerie shows, where the voluptuous waitresses would wear only see-through negligees while serving customers.

The Tiki Kai eventually burned down.

There was another Tiki Kai Supper Club in Denver.

Opened in 1964.

The red-and-tan interior boasted some Witco décor, Tiki masks, faux-tapa designs on paper, lots of bamboo, and hanging floats and lanterns. A 1964 Denver Post review praised the food and the “suffering things” (you can guess which cocktail the reviewer was hesitant to name). Ernie Menehune provided entertainment—when he wasn’t busy is Las Vegas. Ernie still played gigs in Arizona well into his 80’s.

Two waitresses (Elizabeth Madrid and Judith Finchum, both 23) were arrested on January 19, 1966, for waiting tables in lingerie, a gimmick that had been used in the Tiki Kai in Albuquerque for some time. Madrid was fined $100; owner Harry Jew said that business had doubled in the single week that the two girls had been working there. A former waitress named Pat tells us: “(in 1966) Harry was the owner, Gordon the manager, Lou the maître D, Linda the hostess, Mike the bartender, Speedy the backup bartender, Tommy Jung the chef. I left Tiki Kai when I married Tommy.”

In December 1969, the Tiki Kai became the China Town Restaurant. In 1971, the Denver-based Vegas show-band the Glass Menagerie purchased the building and renamed it the Islander. The Islander lasted until 1975, and then it became Herb Wong's New China restaurant (which still served Polynesian drinks in their Kahuna Cocktail Lounge) until being demolished in 1992.

Today this location is the SafeSplash Swim School.

There was another Tiki Kai Supper Club in Albuquerque.

*NOTE: The Islander at this location is not to be confused with the Tommy Wong's Island (circa. 1977 -1983) which was about 11 minutes South of this location. That Tommy Wong's location now appears (as of 2025) to be a parking lot adjacent a kosher deli.

The Polynesian Lounge opened in 1990, as a newly themed bar for the New Chinatown Restaurant. It was owned by Freddie and Jane Baker. Freddie "Kekaulike" Baker was born in Hawaii and moved to the mainland in 1949, he was an extra in Hollywood for some time, before forming a band. His band played hapa haole and other Polynesian-tinged tunes all over the country, including the Aku Aku in Las Vegas. He started headlining at the Tiki Kai Supper Club in the '60s, where he met Jane. The couple performed at the lounge regularly, along with a hula dancing friend, Evalani.

The New Chinatown was co-owned by the Ong family, and opened circa 1976. The restaurant was built using hundreds of green tiles which were brought over from China and are much coveted today (but these tiles were destroyed when the site was later leveled). When first opened, it advertised a Pagoda Bar and Kung-Pei Cocktail Lounge (one or both of these was probably coverted over to the "Polynesian Lounge"). It sat 400 people and they touted it as the finest Chinese restaurant in the Southwest.

When the New Chinatown Restaurant changed hands in 2003, the Polynesian Lounge was also sold, and the new owners turned it into a non-tiki, cabaret joint, and re-branded the restaurant as Mr K's Oriental Restaurant & Bar.

That was short-lived. This site has been re-developed (some time prior to 2015) and is now home to Labor Finders and Albuquerque Distilling (as of 2022) on the footprint of where the New Chinatown Restaurant used to be.