Established November 12th, 2020.

Formerly Peggy's, which appears to have been a divey but beloved disco nightclub.

This new Kiki's bar concept was developed to use the under-utilized space within Peggy’s. The team behind Kiki's promise “higher end” cocktails, a private entrance and a table-service only policy, and tell patrons of the former club to think of it as Peggy’s more sophisticated big sister.

The bars owners say they take inspiration from the legendary tiki bars such as Trader Vic’s and Don the Beachcomber. Visitors can expect that traditional tiki bar feel, coupled with a soundtrack of reggae, motown and disco classics.

Alex Lewthwaite, General Manager of Peggy’s and Director of Extra Fancy Limited said; “When we were brainstorming ideas for a new cocktail bar, we thought a tiki paradise in such troubling times where it’s no longer as easy to hop off on holiday would provide the Manx public with some much needed ‘sunshine’ and escapism!”

*NOTE: All that said, the interior design of this bar is still closer to a dive tiki bar than to early Trader Vic's or Don the Beachcomber. There is some thatch and natural fiber on the ceiling and walls, some inexpensive Indonesian style masks, and some tropical pillows strewn about, but it appears a bit thrown together. The cocktail menu does look well thought-out and has some tiki classics on it that look very promising, however.

Opened July 1st, 2022.

This is not what anyone would describe as your usual tiki bar.

The owners (Lexi Healy and Veronica Ramos) opened Hell or High Water Tiki a mere six months after opening their first bar (The Electric Cure in Edgewater, CO).

Lexi describes it as, "A gay pirate ship meets Land of the Lost with phallic and bird undertones."

You won't find any traditional tiki totems, however. "We don't do any tiki totems because we don't want to step on any other culture's toes, so we don't have masks and we don't have tiki mugs that are totems," Healy explains. "There are people in the tiki community that say if you don't have masks or totems, you're not tiki."

In response, Healy has commissioned a Las Vegas artist to make a "five-foot dick totem" for the new bar. "It's as tall as me," she notes.

Opened in May 2012 by the owners behind The Sugar Cane cocktail bar in London's Clapham Junction.

According to their website:

"Kona Kai is a Tropical cocktail bar that promises to transport you to the shores of the South Pacific. Renowned for its spectacular signature cocktails made with premium spirits, home-made infusions and tropical ingredients.

Designed and built by the famous Cheeky Tiki designers, Kona Kai has become a port of pleasure for many Londoners! So why don't you come in and see for yourselves.

Typically, we play range of music, Charts, Hip Hop, House and some old school mash-ups."

Frances Langford's Outrigger was a landmark of Florida's Treasure Coast, from the time it opened in 1961 until it closed in 1988. It was the "hobby" of Hollywood star of radio, film, and television Frances Langford, who had a life-long love of all things Polynesian.

Langford and her first husband was Jon Hall, who had been raised in Tahiti, and was a matinee star of adventure films, many in tropical settings. The couple purchased 400 acres of land in Jensen Beach just before WWII, but the land did not get developed until after she had returned from the war. By then, she had spent years touring around the South Pacific performing in USO shows with Bob Hope. The couple split amicably in 1955, just as Langford was beginning to shape her vision for the land. She soon married Ralph Evinrude, of Evinrude motors, and it was with Evinrude that Langford's long-held vision became reality.

Langford reportedly aimed to model her Polynesian restaurant on the famous Don the Beachcomber in Hollywood. She hired Hollywood set designer Ed Lawrence, who had also reportedly worked on some of the Don the Beachcomber restaurants. He designed a beautiful restaurant, full of Polynesian artifacts, tapa cloth, bamboo, thatch, and A-frames. Work began in 1959, and the restaurant opened in 1961. The restaurant sat on the shore of the Indian River, just inland from the Atlantic Ocean, and the development included a marina that was dredged alongside the restaurant. Lawrence remained as the restaurant's manager until his retirement in 1977, after which he remained on the payroll and continued to assist with the restaurant.

Langford leveraged her star power, and featured heavily in the branding and marketing of the restaurant. Langford was often there as hostess, sometimes performing for her guests. She attracted many famous figures to the restaurant, including Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Jackie Gleason, Burl Ives, Richard Nixon, Dwight Eisenhower, and the Prince of Tonga.

Langford had a large Polynesian-themed private structure built on her property nearby to entertain guests, and also house peacocks and swans, she called it The Hut. Her 110-foot yacht, The Chanticleer, was often moored in the marina and was a dramatic sight for visitors.

In 1988, the restaurant was sold to new owners, who stripped out all of the theming and turned it into the Key West Restaurant, to capitalize on the then-current Jimmy Buffett craze. The locals were reportedly horrified. The building then stood empty for a few years, until becoming the Dolphin Bar and Shrimp House in the 1990s, which remains to this day. The Dolphin Bar was created with Lanford's blessing, and she was a regular through her later years. The building shape is unchanged, and some carved posts and beams from the Outrigger days can still be seen.

Frances Langford passed away in 2005, at 92. She is still fondly remembered in the area, especially for her philanthropic support of the area and environmental causes. An exhibit dedicated to Langford, including artifacts from the Outrigger, are on view at the nearby Elliott Museum.

*NOTE: A couple of the restaurant cocktail menu lists are shown below. You can tell which is older by the jump in prices. Still, by today's standards, either price list would be a bargain.

This Trader Vic's location is the original. It started out as Hinky Dink's, opened by Victor Bergeron a few years earlier in 1934 and had its name changed in 1937. Hinky Dink's had some great atmosphere and cocktails, but wasn't Polynesian until Bergeron was inspired by a visit to Hollywood, where he experienced Seven Seas and Don the Beachcomber.

In 1949, Bergeron opened a second location, initially called The Outrigger but later becoming Trader Vic's, in Seattle. In 1951 a location opened in San Francisco that was considered a powerhouse in the restaurant scene for decades. From there, it exploded into a number of restaurants that still pepper the globe today.

Bergeron is credited with being among the first to incorporate actual tikis into a tropical bar/restaurant concept. Bamboo bars and tropical restaurants had been around for a long time, and folks like Eli Hedley and Don the Beachcomber had created a more gritty, flotsam & jetsam inspired "beachcomber" look, but Bergeron took that a step further into look that was both refined and primal at the same time. But most of all, he brought in the tikis. He also brought a focus to the food, innovative for its time, blending the exotic tastes of many ethnic cuisines and presenting them for the still-developing American palates.

In the mid-1990s, many Trader Vic's locations in the United States closed, including the San Francisco and Seattle locations. International locations, including many in the Middle East, continued opening. In more recent years, the number of Trader Vic's locations in the United States have been growing again, with mixed results.

The original Trader Vic's location closed in 1972, when the company shifted its flagship location to Emeryville.

Hinky Dink's was Victor Bergeron's first restaurant; in 1937 it was renamed Trader Vic's, and became the launching point for a group of restaurants that heavily influenced the world of Polynesian Pop.

Bergeron opened Hinky Dink's in 1934 when he was 32. Advertisements for Hinky Dink's declared it the "Home of the Frankenstein." Hinky Dink's had great cocktails and unusual decor, but it wasn't the tropical paradise we think of with Trader Vic's today. Menus were printed on wooden cigar boxes.

Inspired by a trip to Hollywood, where he saw the tropical Seven Seas and Don the Beachcomber, he came home and upped the ante, coming up with the "Trader Vic" persona and developing the food & interior design.

Opened in 2004, the Reef is a tropical restaurant in downtown Boise, with Latin, Caribbean and Polynesian cuisines mixed together, and furnishings from Indonesia. The restaurant has a huge outdoor patio with lots of round thatched huts, a stage for live music, and at least one tiki. They also have several prints on the wall that celebrate tiki bartending history (one for Don the Beachcomber, one for Trader Vic, one for Ray Buhen, etc...). In addition to their house tiki mug which premiered several years ago and was an adaptation of an older Tiki Farm "Warrior" design by Squid, they sometimes have promotional tie-ins like the more recent Zafra Rum tiki mug available.

Trade Winds was erected by developer Martin "Bud" Smith, and opened March 4th, 1964. It quickly became the hot place to be in town.

The restaurant had a lagoon leading up to a soaring A-frame entrance; inside were a series of themed rooms, including a central gazebo-shaped structure, the Samoa Hut/Tiki Temple. The predominant theme was Polynesian, but some of the rooms included an East Indies room, a Sadie Thompson room, and a Zanzibar room, all designed by 20th Century Fox designer Fred Moninger, and decorated by Ione Keenan. There were many tikis, carved by Richard M. Ellis. There was a Polynesian floor show.

Some time in the 1960s, Hop Louie (of Latitude 20 in Torrance, Minnie's in Modesto and the Islander in Stockton) took over the restaurant. In the late '70s, it became a Don the Beachcomber.

In later years, it became Coconut Joe's Warehouse Restaurant, and then later still around 1981, it became Hawaiian Cowboy (some of the decor was removed to make room for a mechanical bull and a BBQ pit. About a year later, it became an ice cream parlor, and in 1984, the building was demolished. The site is now a road.

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.

Opened in September of 2016.

This bar describes itself as a "Tropical leisure cocktail bar located in the heart of La Placita de Santurce."

They serve tiki and tropical cocktails with a rum focus, and use a variety of tiki mugs.

Like many recent bars, the decor is lightly tropical but not immersive with tiki carvings and artwork in the way that Trader Vics and Don the Beachcomber set the standards with -- and probably why they do not use the "Tiki" label for themselves, preferring to focus on the cocktails.

However there is at least one actual wood tiki carving in the outside patio area and the overall ambience is dimly lit and inviting, sure to attract tiki aficionados who might be in the area and thirsty for a crafted beverage.

Opened September 2nd, 2022.

A collaboration between the team behind Liberty Street Bistro—chef/owner Michael Kelly, his wife Alex, and executive chef Maggie Lloyd—along with designer Pat Nunnari and beverage director Jessica Gonzalez. Located in the old Blue Martini space, next door to Primo Waterfront.

Inspired by a visit to the Fuschia Tiki Bar, who also did consultation on the initial cocktail list.

The name "Jet Set" harkened back to the glory days of air travel, with bartender as pilot.

Although there was decor you would normally see in a tiki bar, with lots of tropical foliage and thatch, fish floats, and tiki mugs, there were no carved tikis and the tiki decor was rather sparse by traditional standards set by Trader Vic and Don the Beachcomber.

“Tiki itself has its origins in post-war escapism,” Nunnari says. “These guys who came back wanted to think back on paradise. It’s an Americanized sort of thing—it’s kind of fake in that respect, which leaves a lot of room for you to put your own twist on it.”

“It’s very hard to talk about tiki history without the appropriation of cultural iconography, specifically tiki gods, coming up,” says Alex Kelly, another partner in the project. “We get that, acknowledge it, and are not looking to add to the fetishization of Pacific Islander culture with The Jet Set. We have leaned heavily into the idea of mid-century modern air travel. What we aim to do at The Jet Set is focus on the quality of the cocktails our guests will be drinking.”

Best intentions aside, the bar did use plenty of mugs with tiki iconography and one of the most prominent pieces of bar art was a flip-up gate with a western-style painting of a cartoony pin-up native with a bone stuck in her hair (and holding a tiki mug). So, there was a little inconsistency in the application...

There was lots of stuff to love, though. The Jet Set had a very cool 30' aluminum jet fuselage with lit-up passenger windows in their dining area and a large outdoor patio as well. Unlike many tiki bars, they also had a great deal of space to work with and there was plenty of seating.

As time went on, they added to their decor with vintage style lamps and other details. They also became known for their live music presentations.

Unfortunately, they closed September 28th, 2024. No official reason given for closing...

Opened May 12th, 1967 at 12125 S. Lakewood Boulevard in Downey.

The exterior with its rough wood exterior and heavy plantings of palms could easily be mistaken for the old Bahooka in Rosemead or, maybe because of the A-frame opening, the old Don The Beachcomber's/Sam's Seafood in Huntington Beach. But it is neither.

The Sandpiper's logo porthole can be seen on the front door in one of the photos below. Looks like the top of a tiki head sticking up right behind the engine of the drag racer but hard to tell.

They served steak, seafood, and European dishes.

The space was immense, but the interior was carefully divided into more intimate dining areas for a labyrinth effect that those who are familiar with the old Bahooka in Rosemead probably remember getting lost in.

The main dining room was designed like a 19th century whaling ship with a massive mast and yardarm. Its walls, like those throughout the restaurant were covered in brightly varnished yellow woods, including Pecky Cypress containing numerous holes which resemble those pecked by birds. Pecky Cypress is hard to come by in the modern era and when you spot it somewhere (like in the interior of The Tonga Hut in North Hollywood) you can rest assured you are in a vintage interior.

The sandpiper also had a gigantic outdoor luau garden which accommodated 200 and had 20-foot waterfalls.

Black and white photos below show a drag racer posing outside the Sandpiper circa 1967, the year the restaurant opened.

The old Sandpiper building is no longer there anymore. Looks like the closest commercial property would be Bill and Steve's Foreign Auto at 12121 Lakewood.