Dobbs House Luau opened at the Love Field airport in Dallas in the last week of November 1958. It was an early outpost of the then-new Dobbs House Luau chain, inspired by the Dobbs family's purchase of the Luau in Atlanta. Dobbs House was a chain of restaurants and hotel concessions, and already had the restaurant space in the airport. The family chose to re-theme some of their restaurants as Polynesian, including this one. Elaborate decor was installed, including many tikis, pufferfish, and water features. The restaurant operated successfully at Love Field until the Dallas-Fort Worth airport opened in 1974, which hurt business. The restaurant closed after 1974 (possibly as late as the 1980s), was temporarily a family entertainment space called "Llove" and has been used as office space for many years now. It was in the northwest corner of the mezzanine level.

Other Dobbs House Luau locations were in Memphis, Birmingham, Charlotte, Miami, Orlando, Lexington, Houston, and Louisville.

Dobbs House Luau was part of a chain of Polynesian restaurants throughout the south. This location was open by the early 1960s.

Open till at least 1975, as seen in the celebrity photo below of the band, Buckingham Nicks. Buckingham Nicks was a California-based music duo made up of guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and vocalist Stevie Nicks.

The building has been demolished, but the fountain on the front lawn of the restaurant can still be seen today in the otherwise empty lot.

The original Dobbs House Luau location was in Atlanta, and there were also locations in Memphis, Charlotte, Dallas, Miami, Orlando, Lexington, Houston, and Louisville.

The Luau was first opened by the Dinkler family, who owned a chain of hotels. They opened this restaurant sometime in the mid-1950s (it was open by 1957), and operated it as "Dinkler Luau" or "Luau, a Dinkler presentation." The restaurant was stylish, with a dramatically pointed roof over a porte cochere entrance, and was designed by Curtis and Davis Architects of New Orleans. The interior featured waterway and bridges, and a cabinet with bamboo cases holding regulars' chopsticks, just like at the original Don the Beachcomber in Hollywood. There was at least one tiki carved by Barney West.

Soon after it opened (1959?), the Dinklers sold the restaurant to the Dobbs family, who changed the name to "Dobbs House Luau (1960?)." The Dobbs House Luau chain swiftly spread to other cities around the south, including Memphis, Birmingham, Charlotte, Dallas, Miami, Orlando, Lexington, Houston, and Louisville. In 1962, the name was changed to "Dobbs House Tiki." The building was later demolished.

The Liars Club opened in Manchester in September 2011. It is a cocktail-centric modern tiki bar, with a large menu of classics and originals. There is a large selection of rums. Styled as a "tiki dive bar," the basement space has a mix of tapa cloth, lauhala, found materials, and graffiti-painted brick.

Closed at the end of December 2023.

There is a sister location, The Liars Lounge, found within Cane & Grain in Manchester.

Pilikia was a tiki bar and nightclub in Dallas, the name means "trouble" in Hawaiian. It opened in late January 2017. They served tiki drinks and shared bowl drinks, and had a small menu of food. The entrance was flanked by two tall tikis, with a large moai looking over. Inside, the decor was spare, with carved tiki stools, paper lantern lights, and some bamboo. There was an outdoor patio.

Closed in July 2018 after the city decided to go after several bars in the area that were not full restaurants in an area zoned for restaurants, not bars.

The Tilted Tiki was opened in November 2016 by Chris and Patti Goetzke in downtown Stillwater, Minnesota, just east of Minneapolis -- in the historic Grand Garage building.

The Grand Garage was built in 1882 and later renovated in 1924. The beautiful, historic building ushers you into downtown Stillwater. It was originally The Chicago House, then occupied by Stillwater Motor Company and converted to its current use in 1970. A number of different shops, restaurants, and even a salon, call the Grand Garage home.

Its location in the Grand Garage makes the Tilted Tiki's decor an unusual blend of tropical thatching and lauhala and more traditional wooden trim and stained glass accents.

They serve a selection of tropical drinks, and small plates of food.

Opened @ 2014.

Tonga Bar is a tiki bar in downtown Bergen, Norway. It is richly decorated with bamboo, thatch, lauhala, and lots of decor.

There was also another Tonga Bar location in Tonsberg, Norway, within the Harbor Cafe but it appears to have closed after 2014.

Trader Eng's opened on June 27th, 1963, and operated until 1981.

It was owned and operated by Walter England Huckabee, Jr. ("Eng" being short for "England"). Walter was born in 1920 and passed on in 2003 at 83 years old. He had previously been in the military and ran a couple of Kentucky Fried Chicken locations.

Trader Eng's was a Polynesian restaurant with the decor to match, including fake palm trees, a-frame "huts," and bridges, and it featured a "hibachi" (teppanyaki) grill. The bar was called the Shell Bar. It was located in the Peachtree Towers, north of downtown Atlanta.

Trader Eng's closed in 1981, and today the site is a condominium building.

There was also an attempt to franchise the business and a second location was opened in 1969, at 2814 Apalachee Parkway in Tallahassee, Florida. This location later became Lucy Ho's and King Buffet.

This is the second location of Hula's Modern Tiki, the first is in Phoenix (opened 2009 and re-located in 2018) and a third is in High Street (2020). This Scottsdale location opened in early 2014. True to its name, the look of the place is sleek and tiki-lite. The main room has several large carved plaques by Tiki Bosko on the back wall, and a large tiki by Tiki tOny stands out front.

In 1967, CBS paid for two television pilots based in Hawai'i. One was picked up, the other was not. One was Hawaii Five-O starring Jack Lord, the other was Kona Coast starring Richard Boone. I'm sure I don't have to tell you, but just in case: Hawaii Five-O was the one that went on to glory, while Kona Coast was destined to be completely unknown.

But Warner Bros, producer of Kona Coast, chose to recoup their costs by releasing Kona Coast as a film. It still is pretty darned obscure, it barely made a squeak when it came out in 1968. But -- and let's give thanks for this right now -- for some oddball reason, Warner Bros decided to release Kona Coast on a very bare-bones DVD. Now you can see this terrible, wonderful show/movie. It's full of fantastic '60s Hawaiian fashion, scenes of the gritty side of Waikiki, and scenes of Kailua-Kona on the Big Island.

Which brings us to Akamai Barnes. Akamai Barnes was a tiki bar, named for a Donn Beach-type character in Kona Coast, that was one of the main sets for the show, and was right on the main drag of town. Richard Boone was not just the star of Kona Coast, he was a driving force behind the project. Since the hope was that this would get picked up as a series, Akamai Barnes was open and operated as a real bar. A US Navy sailor who visited Kailua-Kona in June 1967 on the USS Tiru reports an evening spent at the bar; Richard Boone and the cast of Kona Coast were there, along with actors Lee Marvin and Jonathan Winters (who were not in the film; Lee Marvin and Richard Boone owned a charter boat together in Kailua-Kona).

After the shoot was finished, it must have been operating for some months before word came that it wouldn't be needed for the series after all. Richard Boone continued to live in Hawai'i, and kept Akamai Barnes running. A June 1968 article in Playboy references Akamai Barnes, calling it "one of the liveliest bars in the Pacific." Per an interview with a musician of the era in Kailua-Kona, he performed at Akamai Barnes for around five years, starting when it first opened.

Looking at scenes from Kona Coast and comparing them to Alii Drive today, it appears that the spot that held Akamai Barnes is now a vacant lot.

Owner and proprietor Tom Neijens opened The Drifter in April 2014, after many years spent making classic drinks, first at home, and then at a speakeasy-themed bar he co-owned. The Drifter is his full-dive into his passion for tiki drinks and Polynesian Pop history. The small space is dominated by a beautiful, undulating mosaic tile bar, and Neijens has continued to add more and more tiki to the space over the years, with bamboo seating, carved tikis, and faux palm trees.

Hidden Harbor opened in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh in January 2016. The bar is owned by Peter and Matt Kurzweg, who own the brewery next door, and their partner, tikiphile Adam Henry. The decor is decorated in a more nautical style than a tiki style, with no bamboo, rattan or thatch. There are, however, three large tikis carved by Crazy Al Evans. The drink menu is a mix of classic tiki drinks and modern tropicals, and there are special themed nights with more focused tropical drink menus. There is a small selection of food available, including a pu-pu platter.