Milan Flores Guanko (1906-1994) had a carving shop at Gray's Nursery on Beach Boulevard in Westminster.

Guanko learned to carve from his father in the Philippines before immigrating to the U.S. in 1928. During WWII, he began carving full-time. His tikis appeared at Disneyland, the Western Hills Hotel, the Royal Hawaiian Restaurant in Laguna Beach, The Islands Restaurant in Phoenix, Ren Clark’s Polynesian Village in Fort Worth, Texas, and many more restaurants, hotels and apartments throughout the world.

He died at age 87 in Glendale, where he’d moved his shop in later years.

*NOTE: The large dark-stained tiki with hands crossed on the far left can still be seen at the Kon-Tiki in Tucson although it has been painted a few times and stood outside for many years (now in their covered outdoor patio).

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.

This location was opened by Captain Dug Picking in the 1960s. A former Merchant Marine, Captain Dug found himself landlocked in Carson City and established a tiki bar serving Polynesian food and tropical drinks.

The restaurant was decorated with tikis and sailing paraphernalia: fishing nets, ropes, anchors, nautical flags, seashells. It boasted a “Shark-Infested Men’s Room.”

The following is from a former employee and was posted on Tiki Central:

"Dug would address all adult males as, 'Governor'.

He loved telling stories to the clientele, and I remember them bellying-up to the bar just to hear a good story. I never heard him repeat one. He did have a little fun with the tipsy, 'know-it-all' clientele: he kept a bridge compass near the middle of the bar area and a nautical map behind the counter. He would bait and bet the uninitiated by telling him that Carson City was farther West than Los Angeles. (He explained to me later that, since Los Angeles is actually on the Pacific and Carson City is east of the Sierras, we create a spatial error. After a few flabbergasting moments, out would come that map and the incredulous client would have to buy rounds.

He said that he and Victor Bergeron went 'way back,' and told ever-growing, ever more embellished stories of their years of carousing and drinking their way around the Pacific Rim, and how he got the best of Victor sometimes and sometimes not.

I got to watch Dug earning his fame with his 'Blue Mai Tai,' from-scratch Pina Coladas, grogs and flourish drinks (he cheerfully did five and seven-layered Pousse cafes on-demand.) He didn’t water-down or scrimp on anything for the guests. Nothing in the place was inexpensive, and, conversely, nothing was cheap. …except for the endless tape loop of Hawaiian music that he had wafting through the place every night."

Starting in 1974, Dug also created a series of liquor decanters themed after Nevada brothels. These decanters have turned out to be very popular with collectors. At least a couple of the decanters focused on Dug's West Indies for the first two years (a clipper ship design the first year in '74 and a sailboat with man and woman the second year in '75).

This location was sold by Dug in the late 70s or early 80s because of financial problems brought about because of his investment in another location that failed -- the Windjammer.

Dug's West Indies persevered for a time as just "The West Indies" but it eventually closed. Today the site is home to a Burger King fast food restaurant.

Opened in 1988.

Andy's Place bills itself as an American Restaurant, and is sort of a Venn Diagram of 1950s diners, rockabilly, tiki, Rat Fink/Kustom Car Kulture, and other vintage pop culture influences.

Located in a very large two-story house, much of the restaurant has a 1950s diner vibe with a light blue ceiling, maroon vinyl chairs, and chrome/aluminum trimmed formica tables setting the tone. Large mascot statues hold prominence in several key locations, including Bob's Big Boy, the Sailor Jerry's Rum Hula Girl, and Universal's Frankenstein -- alongside some actual carved tikis.

There is a full-on tiki bar area trimmed in bamboo and they have produced at least two in-house signature tiki mugs as well.

Additionally, they host an annual Tiki Bash party with live music and other specials.

The Atomic Tiki opened in January 2018 in Memphis, Tennessee's Evergreen neighborhood. The owners were Brian "Skinny" McCabe and Jeff Johnson. The space was dim and minimally decorated. The drink menu included a mix of classic and original tiki drinks, and the food menu was casual with Polynesian restaurant-inspired offerings. Jeff Johnson announced in September 2019 that Atomic Tiki would morph into Parish Grocery and that concluded the chapter for this former tiki location. As of 2024, the Parish Grocery concept, serving Po Boy sandwiches, is still going strong.

The Kon-Tiki opened in early November 2017 in Oakland, California, in a space that had previously held Longitude.

Owned by Christ Aivaliotis and Matthew Reagan.

The Kon-Tiki was born out of Christ’s long standing desire to stop commuting to San Francisco, but still wear a Hawaiian shirt to work every day.

December 22nd, 2024 was the last day of operation.

Pacific Seas is a bar inside of the Clifton's complex in downtown Los Angeles. It opened November 12th, 2016, and pays tribute to the original Clifton's Pacific Seas, which was located a few blocks away on Olive Street and operated from 1939-1960. This Clifton's location on Broadway opened in 1935 and remained in operation until it closed for extensive remodeling (2011-2015) by new owner Andrew Meieran.

In addition to the nod to Clifton's own Polynesian Pop history, Pacific Seas incorporates elements from the later heyday of 1960s tiki, thanks in particular to decor purchased from Bahooka after it closed in early 2013. Pacific Seas was built by Bamboo Ben, grandson of the famous early Tiki decorator and builder Eli Hedley.

Reservations are recommended, and there is a dress code (basically: don't wear shorts and a t-shirt, put a little effort in and you'll be fine, wear some nice vintage aloha and you're golden).

The venue was open sporadically and for special events since closing in 2018 and again in 2020 during COVID.

In September 2022, Los Angeles real estate investment firm Robhana Group acquired Andrew Meieran’s Clifton’s Cafeteria, aka Clifton’s Republic for $8.6 million. It was said Clifton’s signed a long-term lease with the new owner so that the nightclub, including Pacific Seas, would remain open.

However, since then, the Pacific Seas remained closed until the end of August 2024 when it finally opened once again.

The Golden Tiki opened in Las Vegas' Chinatown on July 24, 2015. The man behind The Golden Tiki, Branden Powers, has been part of the nightclub scene in Las Vegas for some time now (he was Creative Director at the Hard Rock Hotel), but is himself a longtime lover of Tiki, having spent some of his youth DJing Exotica tunes at the Islands Restaurant in San Diego's Hanalei Hotel.

The Golden Tiki is in a large space, 4,000 square feet, and split into four different zones. The interior design and build out were done by Danny "Tiki Diablo" Gallardo. The bar has a thatched roof, and is topped by an animatronic talking tiki head, named Goldy, created by Erik "Irk" Hedman. A loveseat-sized artificial giant clam is popular for photos.

A flaming pu-pu platter is available on Friday and Saturday nights.

The greatest honor at The Golden Tiki is to have your head shrunken and enshrined in their glass case, wherein you can see many celebrities, Las Vegas personalities, and Tiki icons.

Rumpus Tiki Bar opened in downtown Budapest in December 2013. It boasts a drink menu a mile long, but it's full of familiar old tiki favorites, and appear to be faithfully executed, right down to the tiki mugs and garnish. There are two levels, one wrapping around as an upper mezzanine, so that there is a mix of dramatic high ceiling area and more intimate low ceiling spaces. There is no break between wall and ceiling, rather sloping arches, adding a cave-like feel. Black fish nets are pinned to the ceiling, studded with globe lights dressed up as float lamps. Reed, bamboo and thatch are used throughout, perhaps more sparingly than we see in American bars, but used to great effect. There are carved tikis, and framed posters of brightly colored tikis.

Opened around 2007.

Surf N Shack mostly specialized in surf and skate apparel, but they also had a good selection of tiki mugs from Tiki Farm.

In 2009, Surf N Shack's owner, Ray Apolskis, donated a tiki carved by local carver Jason Rimmer to replace one that had been stolen from nearby Capitola Beach.

Closed around November 2020.

The Original Tiki Bar opened in 1990, was expanded in 1998, and was renovated after hurricane damage in 2004.

The restaurant had at least a few Florida-style tiki carvings. It is unclear what the "original" was in reference to.

Closed in April 2019. Now home to Crabby's Dockside.

Ming's is a Chinese restaurant with an attached bar area that is semi-Polynesian themed. There is a heavy use of lauhala mats, and all the lamps are made of tapa & bamboo and look like they are probably from Orchids of Hawaii. There are dark wooden masks throughout, but they look like generically-exotic Indonesian imports of recent manufacture. Tiki mugs are behind the bar. The restaurant has a dramatic Chinese facade that looks like it has been there for many decades; the bar feels like it acquired its Polynesian bent in the late '60s or mid-'70s. The restaurant itself apparently dates back to the 1880s.

And now the sad news: Ming's was purchased by a new owner around 2002; this new owner's immigration status precludes him from having a full liquor license, and now Ming's serves only beer and wine. The bar area is still intact, but no longer in active use.