The Luau was located in the "County Airport," a.k.a. Borrego Valley Airport, and opened some time in the '50s or '60s. Open at least as late as 1967. The restaurant in the airport today is The Propeller Bar & Grill at 1816 Palm Canyon Drive, but it is not clear if this is the same space that once held the Luau.

The Hawaiian Luau was located in The Fontainebleau Motor Hotel and opened on May 21st, 1963. It was known as a great place to enjoy an evening of Polynesian foods and exotic tropical drinks. The South Pacific motif featured tapa cloth from Samoa, Japanese net floats & peacock chairs. In Skipper Vince’s bar, you would find Idol images decorated with imported hapu tikis that were hand carved from giant ferns.

The Hawaiian Luau was a Polynesian paradise but the hotel also featured the Empire Room, The Chandelier Lounge and the Fontaine Coffee Shop.

The Fontainebleau Hotel opened on April 27th, 1959, just 4 years before the Hawaiian Luau. Its long name was treated to an equally long sign -- one of the largest illuminated signs in the city at the time -- spelled out in 8' tall blue & white letters.

The hotel was a key part of "The Miracle Mile," a bustling commercial thoroughfare that was the main route from Jefferson Parish into the city until the 1970s. That's when the expressway was built and the decline began.

The hotel was closed in the 1990s and Roland Von Kurnatowski converted the Fontainebleau to apartments and units that could be used for storage. A Burger King also sat on the lot.

Most recently, in December 2020, businessman Sidney Torres purchased the property. He said he plans to re-name the apartment complex Pelican Apartments and to open a drive-through chicken operation where the Burger King once operated to maintain the license while searching for a permanent tenant.

Opened in 1973. Closed briefly in 2019 and then re-opened under new owners.

This restaurant is more heavily tilted towards being a Chinese restaurant than a tiki destination, but nonetheless they serve drinks in tiki mugs and have bamboo and rattan throughout.

The Imperial Luau was part of the Harris Imperial.

It opened in 1959 and was 20,000 square feet in size.

The stone was supplied from Cuba for the wall treatment in the Kon Tiki Lounge and the American style grill room. Germany supplied the antiqued gold mirrors which covered the entire 2-story front section of the building. Japanese craftsmen built seven bamboo panels for the Polynesian dining room in the Imperial House. Each panel was 6' by 8' with 18-inch sections of bamboo cut to give the impression of various sized circles. The bar was entirely of stained cypress wood.

James B. Kirby was the builder.

At one time this restaurant was the most popular restaurant in the area (45 minutes north of Miami).

Luckily, several of the floor to ceiling tikis were salvaged by local collectors before it was torn down. There were 10 in the restaurant and Max’s South Seas Hideaway in Grand Rapids, Michigan has three of them. The first two guard the entrance to their Atomic Lounge bar and a third is mounted on the wall in the Atomic. A fourth one resides at the Tabu Tiki Room, the home bar of Duke and Amy Carter.

The Imperial Luau appears on page 24 of Sven Kirsten’s “The Book of Tiki.”

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.

The Aloha Luau is gone. It was active during the late 60s and throughout the 70s.

Their mugs were supplied by Oceanic Arts/Desert Ceramics and they were known for their catering as well.

For a time there was a Ramada Inn on the site, but from about 2018 to 2022 it has been a Best Western Plus Commerce Hotel.

Opened in 1964. This was one of a small franchise chain of fast food tiki restaurants.

They served non-alcoholic tiki bowls and drinks.

There was also a Pasadena location at 325 Rosemead that opened in 1968 and lasted through at least 1970.

And there was a third location in North Hollywood.

Opened in 2018, although the dance company was established several years before.

Polynesian Fire Luau is primarily a Luau Dinner Show that is held multiple times a week but they also have a tiki bar in their location.

Their team performed the Luau show at the Hawaiian Inn for 5 years and finally moved in to their own location in 2018. They also have a Luau show in Myrtle Beach.

Dragon Seed opened for business in April 1949 and closed July 1993.

The name probably came from a contemporary novel of the same name by Pearl S. Buck first published in 1942. The book describes the lives of Chinese peasants in a village outside Nanjing, China, immediately prior to and during the Japanese invasion in 1937. The story was adapted for the big screen in 1944, starring Katherine Hepburn in a whitewashed role as "Jade".

It was a very popular Chinese and Tiki fusion restaurant. There were beaded curtains and a wishing well. You could order Mai Tais and Zombies, which were served in tiki mugs with fruit garnishes and paper umbrellas, and they had a pu-pu platter.

It was also a favorite restaurant of Louis Armstrong and his wife, Lucille. The neighbor kids would go there while he was eating and ask for autographs and he would oblige them, but sometimes his food got cold so he would just eat the fortune cookies and when he got home his wife would make him a Dagwood sandwich.

After closing in 1993 the tiki decor persisted a surprisingly long time, especially a couple of moai outside the front door which were brought inside at some point and then disappeared prior to the last remodeling in 2017.

Since 2017, this location is Raices Colombianas, a Colombian restaurant.

Dobbs House Luau was a chain of Polynesian restaurants throughout the south. This location opened in 1959 and lasted at least through 1964, but maybe not much longer. By 1971, it had been sold to Albert Gee and became the Poly-Asian West. (The addresses of the two locations are different: Dobbs House Luau was listed at 5200 Westheimer vs. Poly-Asian West at 5138 Westheimer. Either the address of the building changed, or they were actually two different places.)

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

Dobbs House Luau was a chain of Polynesian restaurants throughout the south. This location opened in January 1960 in the Hotel Lafayette in downtown Lexington, Kentucky. Unlike other Dobbs House Luau locations, this one was sometimes advertised as the "Luau Room" or simply "Luau," only sometimes being referred to as "Dobbs House Luau." Later that same year, the hotel closed and became office space, it's not clear if or how long the restaurant remained after the hotel closure. The building still stands, around 1980 the building was purchased by the city to house government offices.

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

Dobbs House Luau was a chain of Polynesian restaurants throughout the south. This location opened in 1960 or 1961. This is the Orlando location, Maitland is a suburb just north of Orlando. It operated at least through 1964, and had changed its name to Dobbs House Tiki sometime in the early 1960s. It was built on an acre-and-a-half of land, with elaborate decor at South US Highway 17 92 at Circle Drive.

Newspapers claim that the restaurant was built to seat at least 250 persons and would be staffed with 50.

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