The Peabody Essex Museum has a large Oceanic art collection, and features one of three historic Heiau Ku carvings, the other two are in the British Museum in London and the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. They also have some interesting pop culture exhibits, including a Gill-man prop head from The Revenge of the Creature, Universal Pictures (1955). A stunt man would wear this full-head latex mask made by Bud Westmore underwater while filming. They tend to rotate their exhibits, so call ahead if you want to check on what is available for viewing.

Built in 1970, this small neighborhood bar and restaurant served Chinese food and tiki cocktails.

It had an A-frame entrance with a large Maori style tiki carving hanging below the peak. Inside, much of the decor was Chinese-themed, but they did have thatch-covered booth seating with a number of Orchids of Hawaii style hanging lanterns over each booth.

Closed in 2019. Demolished in 2023 and added to the Cass Park expansion.

This used to be a gravel and gold mining site. In 1965, the owners of the property, Archie and Virginia Calvaresi developed the mining pits into lakes and a community beach known as Aloha Beach. The Aloha Beach Club offered a restaurant and snack bar and the family eventually added a health spa, driving range and motel. In 1974 they sold the property and the history becomes murky until the Gillan family purchased it in 1994. During the next two years the Gillan family cleared and built up the property and at the same time the City of Westminster purchased adjacent land and created a reservoir moving Aloha Beach out of a flood plain and guaranteeing unobstructed panoramic mountain views for the soon to be residents.

Aloha Beach has 60 subdivision lots designed for water skiing around lakes which were reshaped by the Army Corps of Engineers. Although the subdivision still exists, the "health spa" community center is gone.

Opened in 2003.

This trendy nightclub and restaurant had a small side tiki bar.

In 2007, the Bamboo Room closed, and in 2009 the space hosted a nightclub called Heat.

Since 2017 or so, this site has hosted a Crunch Fitness.

The Tropics opened on June 19th, 1941.

It was located in the Hotel Wolverine and was "Michigan's most unusual night spot and cocktail lounge," as a postcard called it. A huge sign on top of the red brick building blazed "Tropics Room." Inside, bamboo fixtures, fake trees and papier mache animals transported Detroiters to the South Pacific.

The club was made up of the Native Village and the Cocktail Lounge. The former was a replica of a South Pacific island village that "skillfully captured all the beauty and charm of far-off tropic lands. A romantic atmosphere is added by the exotic music of a fine dance orchestra atop America's only traveling band stand," a postcard boasted.

The Native Village offered nightly dancing in air-conditioned comfort. The Cocktail Lounge was authentic right down to the pitter-patter of rain on the roofs of the Rainfall Bars. A waterfall tumbled down behind the bar. Orchestras lured couples out onto a large dance floor that was lighted up in colors.

As a result of financial decline in later years, the Hotel Wolverine was turned into federally subsidized senior housing in 1968.

By 1985, the building had degenerated and was closed by the city where it stood vacant for another dozen years before being demolished in 1997. Today it is a parking lot.

Opened on Thursday, November 7th, 1957. The restaurant was simply called "Restaurant 400" before it became the "Luau 400".

An example from their advertising:

"Every night is carnival night at the Luau 400. An exotic, lavishly conceived Hawaiian 'movie set' of a restaurant. The Luau 400 has brought the informality, infectious gaiety and colorful cuisine of the Islands right to your doorstep. As you step through the front door a lovely Hawaiian girl in her native sarong places a gaily colored lei around your neck...you walk through the Pu Pu Bar with its many native masks, and see walls graced with the paintings from Hawaii. Seen throughout the Tangaroa Room and Polynesian Room are masks worn by the ancient Chiefs of the islands. To reach the different dining rooms you walk over the Leilani Bridge with its colorful waterfall and tropical gardens decorated in all the islands' splendor, then by the wishing well and past the tiny Maneki Neko, the guardian of this enchanting scene."

They boasted three kitchens: Polynesian, Cantonese, and American. Other draws included their lavish painted wall murals, bird cages with live birds, dining tables with real monkeypod wood tabletops, and a constantly looped color film of island festivals and dancing playing in the dining room to set the mood.

Apparently, "Luau 400" became "Ta Luau" @1967 for a brief time. Ta Luau produced a full set of Jackson China dinnerware with the same tiki mask logo as Luau 400.

This location has been home to several businesses over the intervening years. It was home to Jimmy's Downtown restaurant from @2002-2004. As of 2024, this space is home to Stonehenge 57 Apartments.

The Leilani Village Motel opened in November 1962.

Leilani Village was also known as Giles' Leilani and as Harold's Leilani Motel; it had 60 rooms, a restaurant, called the Leilani Supper Club, and a bar, called the Malahini Lounge.

When the Leilani was at its peak, it brought in performances by major singers of the day, including Vic Damone, Al Martino, Frankie Laine and Buddy Greco.

It was demolished in 1996 and a big two-story commercial building now stands on this site that has served as a computer store and a furniture gallery and is now available for lease as of 2021.

Opened in 1995. This was a vintage collectibles/antiques store, with a very heavy emphasis on tiki thanks to the owner, tiki old-timer Paul Hupp. Paul had several elaborately carved posts in the shop, salvaged from the Trader Vic's in Seattle.

Mambo appears to have gone out of business some time in 2004. No word yet on what became of the Trader Vic's poles.

This bar had a landmark legal battle in 1958, still used as the standard in Philadelphia for many cases against strip clubs attempting to serve alcohol or bars attempting to entertain with naked women.

From the case summary: "The entertainment consisted of various dance routines described as "bumps and grinds" by female entertainers who had removed practically all of their clothing. Article IV of the Liquor Code deals with licenses and regulations. Section 493 ( 47 P. S. § 4-493) provides in pertinent part that it shall be unlawful: "(10) . . . for any licensee, under any circumstances, to permit in any licensed premises any lewd, immoral or improper entertainment, regardless of whether a permit to provide entertainment has been obtained or not."

Before becoming Honolulu Harry's Waikiki, this location was the Barrel O' Fun Tavern, John Dillinger's favorite hangout.

From its opening in 1949 (putting it squarely in the pre-tiki category), Honolulu Harry’s Waikiki provided “entertainment direct from Hawaii” and “dancing under Hawaiian skies.”

By 1959, its owner escalated the restaurant to an “authentic Hawaiian theatre restaurant.” Souvenir photos dated as late as 1960 have popped up (see below).

It stood on the corner of Clarendon and Wilson in uptown Chicago. “There were fresh pineapples on the tables, paper leis and ti leaves hanging all around”.

It appears in later years before it closed that the name might have just been shortened to "Club Waikiki". Matchbooks with the same address point in that direction. Alternately, it's possible this club was just a section of the larger complex like Don the Beachcomber's had its Dagger Bar, for instance.

Today, the site is home to The Covington Luxury Apartments, which were built in 1965, so Harry's must have closed some time between 1960 and 1965.

London had just seen its first wave of the Polynesian Pop craze thanks to The Beachcomber at the May Fair Hotel. Butlin’s wanted to cash in on the craze, and they nicked the name and concept for bars at six of the Butlin’s camps: Ayr, Bognor, Minehead, Skegness, Filey and Barry Island. Compared with other tiki bars of the day, they have a more psychedelic, swinging ’60s UK feel to them, with bright colors and fantastic scenery.

When the Beachcomber Bar opened at the Barry Island location of the Butlin's family vacation camps chain in 1966, it was billed as the "biggest bar in Europe." It burned down only two years later, in 1968.

The photo below shows only one section, but you can spy a tiki behind the girl on the left and a small alligator behind the one on the right.

London had just seen its first wave of the Polynesian Pop craze thanks to The Beachcomber at the May Fair Hotel. Butlin’s wanted to cash in on the craze, and they nicked the name and concept for bars at six of the Butlin’s camps: Ayr, Bognor, Minehead, Skegness, Filey and Barry Island. Compared with other tiki bars of the day, they have a more psychedelic, swinging ’60s UK feel to them, with bright colors and fantastic scenery.

This location at Filey opened in 1965.