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.

This Kahunaville was one location in a nationwide chain of restaurants.

It was located in the Holyoke Mall (which is the 3rd largest in New England by retail space) from @2007-2008.

Like the others in the chain, this restaurant featured a synchronized water fountain show, waterfalls, caves, talking idols, a sophisticated sound system, an arcade, and a variety of tropical drinks. Their eclectic food menu featured about 90 items, which included "Kahunaville-sized" sandwiches, salads and entrees with American, Mexican, Cajun and Asian influences.

The parent company of Kahunaville, Adventure Dining Inc., once operated nine nationwide locations, including homes in Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Michigan and Tampa. The Las Vegas, Nevada "Party Bar" (2001-2016) was their last holdout before the chain folded.

This type of corporate chain typifies what many tikiphiles dislike most about corporatizing the Tiki aesthetic -- bending the decor more towards a Chucky Cheese buildout (or perhaps Rainforest Cafe if one is being kind) with cheaply molded and cartoony fiberglass and plastic decorations in primary colors, dumbing down the cocktails of Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic into chemical-tasting slushy boat drinks (but served with "flair"), offering a big scattershot food menu in hopes of appealing to every American tourist palate, and supplying loud video games and animatronics to entertain the kids. For those that grew up with these, there is some nostalgia, but they were not terribly mourned by fans of traditional tiki bars and restaurants.

It appears that this location now houses an Xfinity retail store.

Edward Kwong (1917-2006) was was one of the leading pioneers of Asian Cuisine in the West Valley.

He established House of Kwong restaurant, a favorite celebrity dining spot in Woodland Hills, CA from 1948 through 1986 when he retired.

The restaurant had a pink and green neon sign welcoming customers. Parking in the rear. Thatched reed walls on the interior with a Chinese tree painting, oriental rugs, and purple formica table-tops with glitter.

Although not resplendent with tikis and tiki decor, this Chinese restaurant had a large tiki cocktail menu and is impressive for having several (now) rare and sought-after mugs, including the Spurlin Fog Cutter and Oceanic Arts Cobra's Fang, as well as their own unique bowl, the Witchcraft Bowl, surrounded by 4 flaming demon heads (truly a crypto mug!).

Today, as of 2022, the location appears to be a vacant lot sandwiched between a cell phone repair shop and a multi-level building housing a law firm.

*Photo shows Edward Kwong on left with his brother, Don Kwong, on right -- in the restaurant kitchen.

The Beverly Hills Hotel still stands, and indeed still has a lounge, but there was at least a short period when they jumped on the tiki bandwagon and had a small lounge menu of Polynesian drinks, complete with requisite color drawings.

Today, their most notable contribution to the tropical lifestyle remains their banana leaf wallpaper. The Martinique® banana leaf wallpaper was created in 1942 by heritage Southern California textile brand CW Stockwell, and selected by famed designer Don Loper in 1949 to adorn the walls of the newly renovated and redesigned hotel. It is on display at the Fountain Coffee Room, which has also restored the 19 bar stools that originally surrounded the classic curved soda fountain counter, built in 1949. Unfortunately, the Coffee Room does not serve cocktails -- although they do offer wine and champagne in addition to their ice cream shakes.

Bob Brooks 7 Seas night club was a pre-tiki establishment (although they did have both physical tikis and tiki graphics in their menu and advertising...so a case could be made they they were full-blown tiki earlier than many think), originally opened at 6904 Hollywood Boulevard by Ray Haller in 1935. Capitalizing on the popularity of the South Pacific as a dream vacation destination, Haller borrowed ideas from the popular Don the Beachcomber club a few blocks away and decorated the 7 Seas with a collection of tropical plants, nautical items, lava rocks, and other items of decor that fit the Polynesian theme. The most notable feature was a corrugated tin roof upon which nightly tropical rain storms--complete with thunder and lightning effects--rattled with considerable realism. Don the Beachcomber "borrowed" this idea.

When Bob Brooks took the club over a few years later, he upped the ante by stealing some of Don the Beachcomber's bartenders (including Ray Buhen of Tiki-Ti fame) along with their recipes for exotic rum drinks for an extra $10 a week which was a lot back then. Brooks also added an authentic Polynesian floor show, which was unique among South Pacific-themed clubs at the time. Another factor adding to the 7 Seas' popularity was its proximity to Grauman's Chinese Theater. Movie-goers had only to cross Hollywood Boulevard for an exotic climax to their evening on the town.

Another highlight of the 7 Seas was that Bob Brooks had several Edgar Leeteg paintings hanging up from his visits to Tahiti. These were removed in the 1950s after Leeteg's death when their value suddenly skyrocketed. However, he hired a Leeteg protege to make duplicate replacements.

Under new ownership in the 1960s, the popular night spot became the Seven Seas Supper Club. By the 1970s, however, the 7 Seas was declining into nothing more than a seedy bar. To make matters even worse in the early 1980s, owner Eddie Nash was tried with porn star John Holmes for the "Wonderland" killings and for drug trafficking through his nightclubs, including the 7 Seas. Today there is nothing left of this one-time Polynesian paradise but picture postcards, matchbook covers, and memories.

*NOTE: Bob Brooks had a second Seven Seas location in Las Vegas at the Nevada Biltmore, but it was short-lived, lasting just from 1942-1944.

This Trader Vic's location was originally opened in 1954 under the name "The Outrigger", located in Hotel Cosmopolitan at 18th and Broadway. The Hotel Cosmopolitan opened in 1926 and was demolished in 1984.

The Outrigger name changed to Trader Vic's in 1962.

This Trader Vic's closed in 1978 when the corporation decided they wanted a fresher location than the, by that time, 52-year-old hotel, and Trader Vic's opened a different location at the brand-new Denver Hilton three blocks away.

A Don the Beachcomber's moved into the vacated spot left by Trader Vic's at the Cosmopolitan.

The second Trader Vic's location at the Hilton lasted until 1985.

This Kahunaville was one location in a nationwide chain of restaurants, but it was the longest lasting.

It doesn't appear to be the case with the other locations, but this location had some actual Bosko tikis in one area, the elevated area on the right immediately as one walks in. They also had a few SHAG (or at least SHAG-like) paintings in one area.

The bar offered a variety of tropical drinks although not much that would be categorized as "craft cocktail" by today's standards. See the giant toilet mug in the last photo below...

Their eclectic food menu featured about 90 items, which included "Kahunaville-sized" sandwiches, salads and entrees with American, Mexican, Cajun and Asian influences.

The parent company of Kahunaville, Adventure Dining Inc., once operated nine nationwide locations, including homes in Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Michigan and Tampa. The Las Vegas, Nevada "Party Bar" (2001-2016) was their last holdout before the chain folded.

This type of corporate chain typifies what many tikiphiles dislike most about corporatizing the Tiki aesthetic -- bending the decor more towards a Chucky Cheese buildout (or perhaps Rainforest Cafe if one is being kind) with cheaply molded and cartoony fiberglass and plastic decorations in primary colors, dumbing down the cocktails of Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic into chemical-tasting slushy boat drinks (but served with "flair"), and offering a big scattershot food menu in hopes of appealing to every American tourist palate. For those that grew up with these, there is some nostalgia, but they were not terribly mourned by fans of traditional tiki bars and restaurants.

This venue was a bit better than the others, it seems, due to its location within the Treasure Island Casino. It also tilted a bit more to adults as evidenced by scantily-clad hostesses dancing on the bar tops, but nothing to blink an eye at when Vegas is concerned. They also hosted hula dancer shows and ran the Treasure Island outside pool bar, serving the same tropical drinks.

The Vegas location produced a great many ceramic tiki mugs, most of them from Poolside Pineapple, which was located in Las Vegas also.

Opened May 11th, 1956.

This location featured three cocktail lounges: The Town Pump, The Piano Lounge, and The Hawaiian Room.

The advertisement for the opening of The Hawaiian Room invites patrons to “Visit our Driftwood Well, the Singing Stairway, and see our Massive Charcoal Fireplace.” Live music and dancing were a fixture, and in July 1959, the lounge played host to the newly crowned Miss Hawaii, less than a month before Hawaii’s statehood.

The Hawaiian Room featured several original cocktails as well as a long list of tropical classics such as the Zombie, Navy Grog, Planters Punch and more. The original drinks, such as the Molokai Monsoon and Tarantula Bowl were created by “Mixologist” Melvin Santos, an experienced professional bartender who had previously been employed by The Shangri-La and Don the Beachcomber in Chicago. It can be assumed that Santos based his cocktails off the drinks he’d been slinging at Don’s, as many of them (such as the Hilo Diver and Maiden’s Downfall) appear to be riffs on classic Don creations, with a few Trader Vic inspired recipes for good measure.

The Hawaiian Room continued to serve Cantonese food and tropical cocktails until its closure in April-May 1972.

The building was destroyed by a tornado in 1975.

The Myna Bird was a tiki bar in the International Market Place in Honolulu, opened on May 19, 2017. The small bar was part of The Street, a food-court-like collection of restaurants and bars by Michael Mina. The tiki bar paid tribute to the Don the Beachcomber restaurant in Waikiki, which was the anchor of the original International Market Place.

Closed on 11/08/2020.

UPDATE: This space was re-named the Tipsy Tiki with little to no change in decor and re-opened some time prior to December 2021.

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.

It appears this is the same location as Honolulu Harry's Waikiki but that the name might have just been shortened to "Club Waikiki" in later years. Matchbooks with the same address point in that direction.

Alternately, photos of Harry's show "Club Waikiki" painted on the side, so 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 Club Waikiki must have closed some time between 1959 when Harry's was doing dance reviews and dinner theater and 1965 when the Covington was built.

Mauna Loa Lounge was in the Mayfair Hotel, built during the early 1960s by George Kelly Hill.

The project was executed on the eastern part of the hotel. The walls and ceilings were of grass matting sewn on the large bamboo poles. The room resembled a large Polynesian hut with colored fish floats that glimmered as they were suspended by fishnets in between lighted king turtle shells. Painted leather and gilded tiles made the walls glow. There were gurgling fountains, hoTai (the god of good luck), lighted blowfish, peacock chairs, hand carved wooden tables, all on exotic theatre carpeting. The servers’ sporting flowered shirts and leis, brought drinks served in brightly colored glasses.

While listening to Hawaiian surf music, you could enjoy tall Singapore Slings and other tropical cocktails. Credit goes to Edith Holden (a talented artist), along with Daryl Giffin and Don Pelechaty who both hand carved and painted the tiki pole Gods to create the perfect look.

Mayfair Enterprises sold the hotel in 1966.

The building later burned down December 26th, 1976, destroying the Mauna Loa Lounge.