Opened in 1973.

This Trader Vic's was located in the Crown Center Hotel (later the Westin Hotel or Westin Crown Center) and closed in 1996 when its lease was not renewed by the hotel.

A 1973 clipping from The Kansas City Times reveals that all the Trader Vic's cooks were immigrant Chinese without any fluency in English. After complaining that they couldn't function outside the restaurant with their poor English skills, the manager (after searching in vain for a community college course for adult ESL learners) delegated his secretary, Ms. Chere Simons, to tutor them after work, and though she had never taught ESL, she put her degree in Elementary Education to work and had great success. Soon, they no longer had to depend on Trader Vic's staff to write their rent checks for them or sign their leases, or do things that many native English speakers take for granted, and they could be heard practicing their newfound English skills in the kitchen during work hours as well.

This theme park included Trader Frank's restaurant.

In the mid-1940s, "Trader" Frank Byars and his wife, "Wahine" Jo Byars, ran a small St. Petersburg hotel. His wife began making jewelry from shells, and Mr. Byars saw that they were more than pretty; they were sellable.

They lost the lease on their hotel and decided to move forward with his wife's jewelry and other related gifts.

They bought the inventory of a failed gift shop, stocked it with similar shell jewelry, and started the Signal House, ultimately one of the Suncoast's largest gift shops. To attract customers, Mr. Byars put in a small Polynesian garden.

The Signal House burned in 1962, and they decided to rebuild it in earnest as a real tourist attraction.

They researched to see if there were any other attractions in the state with a Polynesian atmosphere and found none.

Thus came about Tiki Gardens, several gift shop, and its 450-seat restaurant, Trader Frank's, on 7 acres of palmetto swampland overlooking the bay and Gulf of Mexico.

The layout was greatly influenced by The International Marketplace in Honolulu and its gift shops and restaurants.

The tiki gods were designed by Gordon Keith Originals of Columbus, Ohio.

From the start, back in 1964, business was good. Auto clubs and tourist guides soon recognized Tiki Gardens as a Florida attraction.

In 1988, Mr. Byars and his wife sold the attraction to Australian investors Neville Schmidt and Darrell Roder. As partial payment they accepted $1-million in opals.

Tiki Gardens was subsequently closed and later, in 1990, Pinellas County commissioners approved plans to buy the site where Tiki Gardens stood and turn it into a park.

This listing is for Bamboo Ben's Showroom, which he closed in 2010 to focus on custom installations. He can (and should!) still be contacted for all your tiki and bamboo construction needs.

Ben is the grandson of "the original beachcomber," artist Eli Hedley, who was responsible for outfitting many of the grand tiki establishments of the original golden era of Polynesian Pop. Bamboo Ben crafts beautiful bamboo pieces, tiki bars in particular, and today is himself responsible for the buildouts of many of the better modern-day tiki bars and tropical environments.

Bamboo Ben's Showroom is where he once offered unique pieces of bamboo art and furniture to the general public.

Sam's Seafood started in its original location in 1923 at 2501 Coast Highway and, up until its Polynesian remodel in 1960 it was just a seaside seafood joint.

At 3 a.m. on Feb. 17, 1959, a fire burned the original Sam’s Seafood to the ground. Forced to rebuild, then-owners Ruth, Nick and Dick Katsaris glommed on to the midcentury fad sweeping Southern California: Tiki!

In 1960, they invested $1 million and hired architect Don Davis to design the new face of Sam’s and introduced Surfside to “Sam’s Seafood and Hawaiian Village.”

Sam's Seafood contained several dining rooms. The brightly lit main dining room had a large wall mural on one side and a dramatic tiki & waterfall display at the back. A pair of smaller side dining rooms were also bright and more aviation themed.

Of more interest to the tikiphile was the Hidden Village (Hawaiian Village) banquet room area in the back available for event rentals, which was large and moodily lit, with glass floats, waterfall displays, A-frame covered seating areas, and a small bar. On Friday nights from April to November, Sam's Seafood had a Polynesian Dinner Show in the Hidden Village. Last but certainly not least was the excellent main bar at Sam's. It was dark and full of excellent carvings, pufferfish and float lamps, and thatch.

A small bar with some tiki carvings inside, Turc's, can be found just down the street.

At the end of May 2006, Sam's Seafood was sold to developers who aimed to build retail spaces & condominiums on the site. Red tape appeared to be holding off any development on the site for years. Sam's closed for several months until June 2007, when the property owners allowed a new group to come in and keep the restaurant running in a somewhat modified form until the development could move forward.

In 2007, Sam's Seafood became Kona. In 2009, Kona closed and the restaurant reopened as Don the Beachcomber (no connection to the historic chain), which then closed in 2018.

Opened in 2002.

This location is now closed and has been replaced as of 2021 by Mary'z Mediterranean Cuisine.

La Mariana Sailing Club is the last remaining bastion of true original Polynesian Pop in Hawaii. It opened in 1955, and over the years, it has become a sort of museum of Waikiki's tiki past: the tikis here came out of the Kon-Tiki in the Sheraton-Waikiki, lamps came from the Trader Vic's, and tables and chairs came from Don the Beachcomber. Original owner Annette La Mariana Nahinu ran the operation until her death in 2008. La Mariana features a lively piano bar, and guests can join in on the singing.

La Mariana's original location was 50 yards from its current location; it moved in 1973. There is an 80-boat slip attached to the restaurant which sits on Ke'ehi Lagoon.

After a 2-year-long shuttering because of COVID, La Mariana re-opened on May 31st, 2022. During the shutdowns, Gecko made many renovations and they did much to the front of the house and bar, including the addition of a new point-of-sale system. This was a soft re-open with many ongoing renovations still taking place, especially in back of house.

Tiki's Grill & Bar opened in 2002 in the heart of Waikiki, in the Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel. It offers a modern take on Polynesian Pop, with lots of art by modern pop artists and carvings. There is both outdoor and indoor seating.

This is the location that started it all. (Well, actually it started across the street at 1722 McCadden on December 5th, 1933, and moved to this spot on May 26th, 1937.) Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt, later and more widely known as Donn Beach, created what we think of today as a "tiki" or "Polynesian" restaurant. Bamboo-lined tropical themed night clubs had been fashionable for some time, but this was where it became more immersive. Donn's greatest innovation was surely the drinks. His travels throughout the world (and especially the Caribbean) gave him deep knowledge about rum, which in this post-prohibition era had become inexpensive. His blends of rums with fruit juice and spice flavors created exotic drinks that appealed to the masses. Backed up with Cantonese cuisine and a richly decorated environment complete with tikis, it was a hit.

Many of the most beloved tiki drinks were born here, including the Zombie, Navy Grog, Demerara Dry Float, 151 Swizzle, Shark's Tooth, Cobra's Fang, Dr. Funk. The original bartenders knew the recipes (Including Ray Buhen, who served them at his own Tiki-Ti. The recipes have been passed down to Buhen's son and grandsons and you can taste history there yourself.). Soon Donn learned to keep the recipes secret, even from his own staff, by using a system of codes and pre-mixed syrups. It didn't stop the competition from attempting to poach his staff or attempt his drinks, with mixed success.

Beyond the drinks, the entire themed-restaurant concept that Don the Beachcomber created was copied widely; perhaps first and most notably, it inspired Victor Bergeron to transform his Hinky Dinks into the first Trader Vic's.

Donn was the creative genius, but the business brains of the operation belonged to his wife, Cora Irene "Sunny" Sund. When they divorced in 1940, she retained the rights to the Don the Beachcomber name and concept in the mainland United States. She grew Don the Beachcomber into a successful chain of restaurants that flourished for decades.

Donn took his work to Waikiki (beyond the range of the deal with Sund, as Hawai'i was not yet a state) where he opened his own Don the Beachcomber restaurant, and became a major fixture in the booming Hawai'i tourist scene. He owned the Waikiki Don the Beachcomber until his death in 1987.

Thanks to many years of hard work (harder work than he would lead you to believe), drinks historian and author Jeff "Beachbum" Berry has been able to successfully decode and document many of the original Don the Beachcomber liquid masterpieces. His work has ensured that quality tropical drinks are back and here to stay, and are now being served all around the world.

The Tropics was purchased by Stephen Crane and renamed The Luau for its opening on July 25th, 1953. This was Crane's original restaurant; after the success of the Luau, he eventually went on to open the popular Kon-Tiki chain of Polynesian restaurants.

Steve Crane's Luau was one of the Hollywood/Beverly Hills restaurants (along with Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic's) that established Polynesian cuisine (and more importantly drinks) as de rigueur in the 1950s and '60s. The Luau produced some of the most beautiful and highly desired serveware objects (designed by Gabe Florian) to come out of midcentury Polynesian restaurants.

The Luau was demolished in 1979 to make space for a Rodeo Drive shopping complex.

There is no connection between this historic restaurant and a newer restaurant that briefly operated with the same name in Beverly Hills.

Lava Lounge opened in December 1993. This non-traditional tiki bar in a tiny strip mall in Hollywood attracted a steady flow of hipsters. Appropriate to the name, the interior had lava-dark walls, with a smoke-heaving, water-dripping wall in the rear, and pin-point lights across the ceiling. The design was sleek, with a heavy use of bamboo and Oceanic Arts lighting. There were a few tikis near the front. Live music was often featured here, almost always of the non-tiki-friendly variety. Tropical drinks were served, but not in tiki mugs. Lava Lounge closed in February 2007.

Opened in 1958.

This government-owned restaurant used to be a Trader Vic's.

It was barely finished when Castro took over, and only open for a few months as Trader Vic's.

It's located in the Tryp Habana Libre hotel, also known as the Cuba Libre Hotel. It's been reported that the decor is still in decent shape. Decor borrowed from the Havana Trader Vic's can be seen in the 1964 film "I Am Cuba."

There is another El Polinesio in Cienfuegos.

Opened in 1958.

The Havana Trader Vic's opened at a volatile time -- just six months after the restaurant opened, its American manager was shot while running to catch one of the last airplanes out of Cuba back to the US.

This location is still open and Polynesian, but it is no longer a Trader Vic's -- it is run by the Cuban government as El Polinesio.

The 1964 movie "I Am Cuba" used decor, notably some birdcage lamps, from this Trader Vic's.

Trader Vic was stuck with a ton of useless Havana labeled menus, so signed each one with a note calling Fidel a "stinker" and sold them off as collector's items. See below...