Opened June 1975 (the hotel opened the year before).

This Kona Kai was part of a chain of restaurants that included locations in Chicago and Philadelphia. This location was the second to be built in Kansas City and was at the Plaza International (later the Hilton Kansas City Airport Hotel).

The second Kona Kai location was at the Plaza Inn just a block away from The Castaways.

Both Kansas City locations closed in the 80s and both locations featured "signature" 8-foot tall tikis carved by Oceanic Arts in Whittier, California (the tiki at this location has somewhat smaller nostrils -- a shorthand to tell them apart -- see last photo below). These tikis now reside in a private collection.

The Hilton Kansas City Airport Hotel is still running but all traces of the Kona Kai appear to have been removed. Instead, they now have the Asado Urban Grill as their hotel restaurant.

Opened in 2016.

The Hotel Tiki Tiki Tulum has only fifteen rooms and is surrounded by a magnificent jungle. Its architecture was inspired by mid-century modern architecture and it would be right at home in Palm Springs or Miami Beach.

There is a lounge area with bamboo bar, but other than the name, there are no tikis on site. However, they have started embracing tiki imagery and recently created some drink coasters with tikis and might be adding some other flourishes to match the namesake.

The hotel is an hour and a half from Cancun International Airport.

It is a 10 minute drive from the beach and not far from the Tulum Monkey Sanctuary.

Opened March of 2020.

Phat Sammy's began as a pop-up restaurant in spring of 2017. Co-owner Jeremy Esterly would do them at places like karaoke dive-bar Moody Monday's, cupcakery Sugar Belle and local brewery Yellowhammer. His Asian flavors/American dishes mashups quickly earned a local following.

Esterly was considering pivoting to a food truck for his next step forward, but he quickly found support and with 3 other co-owners was able to make this restaurant a brick-and-mortar reality.

Phat Sammy's has a very low key entrance marked outside by a small neon yellow and green pineapple sign -- located down two flights of stairs in a basement level room that is able to hold that perpetual state of twilight, blocked off from the outside, upon which tiki bars thrive.

With a capacity around 100, Phat Sammy's décor includes a mural, painted by local artist Logan Tanner, a full bar populated by tiki mugs and glassware to showcase signature as well as classic tiki cocktails (and rum flights).

They are a bit light on actual tikis, having a few signature pieces like the large molded Moai in their entryway and a giant filipino ifugao mask in their lounge area, but hopefully they will add more with time.

Burnt Ends opened in March 2021, above the Dr. BBQ Restaurant, located in the EDGE District of St. Petersburg.

Frank Simontics, known as the Tiki Rancher, was called on to blend classic tiki design with Dr. BBQ’s smokehouse roots in the second-floor bar. Design elements included charred end cuts of wood with red backlighting, and simulating glowing embers. There was also a thatch and bamboo awning and an 8-foot moai-like figure of Ray “Dr. BBQ” Lampe greeting guests at street level.

Closed December 2022. Though quite popular, the restaurant was only leasing the space and the owners were offered a deal to sell the property which they could not turn down.

The Tiki Apartments were an example of dingbats -- boxy apartments, usually supported by stilts, with open stalls below for parking. (Their name is likely to have been coined by architect Francis Ventre while he was lecturing at UCLA in the early '70s.) Thousands of the inexpensive 16-unit structures were built in the late '50s and early '60s to accommodate the huge number of people moving to the West Coast. Dingbats are being demolished by the dozen to make way for multi-story complexes with underground parking, so they are doubly ephemeral when paired with a tiki theme and tiki imagery.

Other than the sign, there doesn't appear to have been any other tikis or tiki features about this property.

Permits were issued for demolition in 2019 to build a 6-story, 56-unit new complex called Lake City Apartments.

The Tahiti Motel was opened in 1963. Its original owner was Robert Gerhardt Jr.

It is commonly referred to as being a part of the Doo Wop style of architecture, named after the popular music of its time, but this style is also referred to as Googie architecture in California and other parts of the country.

The Tahiti Motel was demolished in December of 2004.

It appears the letters of its sign were saved and displayed (at least at some point) at the nearby Tangiers Hotel which is also from the same era and has an A-frame out front that used to be a coffee shop but is now their office.

Opened in Fall 2020.

Located in a secret lounge above the Downtown Grill.

You needed a reservation to go and they only sat 8 people at a time.

The Monkey's Paw closed their Downtown Grill location and re-opened at a new location in the basement of Pearl Passionate Cuisine & Cocktails (which closed June 23rd, 2024).

The Pearl venue became a new location called The Monkey's Paw Tropical Tapas on July 11th, 2024 with tapas dining upstairs and the Monkey's Paw Tiki Lounge downstairs.

Kahala Koa opened in August 2020 and is located in Arlington Heights (Prospect Heights), about 27 miles (1 hour) from Chicago.

Located in what used to be Secret Garden, next to a Thornton's 24-hour gas station.

They are a family owned and operated pizza place (Lola's Pizza Palace) that developed a love for tiki and made a delightful transformation.

You can sip your tropical cocktails underneath the giant outrigger (originally from Chicago’s Kona Kai, relocated to California when they closed, and now recently returned) while enjoying some thin crust.

Opened January 2018.

“Tiki’s all about escapism,” says owner and general manager Christopher Straub. “We really want people to feel like, when they come in the door, this is a portal to a new world.”

Inside the dining room, there are bright blue vinyl-seated rattan bar stools and orange-tufted vinyl banquettes, hand-painted scenes by Boston artist Joanna Ciampa, tiki masks on the walls, and a wall of scallop shells—culled by Straub’s mother in Chatham—near the restrooms.

One lounge area features several Design Toscano tiki head tables (one of which is a design based on the signature tiki from the Crown Plaza/Hanalei Hotel in San Diego, California).

The kitchen serves Polynesian-inspired food like sushi, Crab Rangoon, and barbecue skewers, with classic and proprietary tiki cocktails made with fresh juices, homemade syrups and eccentric garnishes.

Live music acts play here on occasion.

Opened November 2018.

From their website: "Shore Leave is our interpretation of a tropical escape through the lens of our love for Boston's rich dining scene. Named after a sailor's leisure time on dry land, Shore Leave's tropical cocktails take you away from the hustle and bustle. We hope this space, music, and most importantly, our Shore Leave family, make every moment here feel like watching the sun go down with your feet in the sand. Tucked in off the main drag and just below the street in Boston's South End, Shore Leave is here to bring you along on our everyday vacation."

This bar and restaurant has received high praise for its cocktails and cuisine. However, if you are going there to check out tiki carvings, you will be disappointed. In one interview about building out the concept for the bar, Chef Lynch explains: We were really excited to work with them on figuring out how we can make tiki interesting in a basement without cultural appropriation. Trying to bend more towards the tropical and jungle themes and less towards the Polynesian idol themes was really important to us, and to not make it look like we just hung a bunch of knickknacks everywhere.

Despite this avoidance of idols, you may still have spotted some vintage tiki mugs on display if you looked carefully...although in May 2021 the bar announced a re-doubling of their efforts to stamp out anything that might be interpreted as cultural appropriation or insensitivity.

This was the first location for Albert Gee's Poly-Asian.

It had three distinctly defined spaces: The Poly-Asian Dining Room, The Kabuki Tea House, and The Club Luau -- a private section of the Poly-Asian.

Albert Gee sold it to Peter Chin in 1962 and it continued until 1969.

A second location was opened at 5200 Westheimer Road, Houston, TX (sometimes listed as 5138 Westheimer, Houston, TX) by Albert Gee after selling his first location in 1962. This second location had, until recently, been a Dobb's House Luau location.

Both Poly-Asian locations advertised themselves as serving Polynesian, Cantonese, and Japanese cuisine as well as Tropical Beverages.

Jane E. Gee, Albert's wife, outlived her husband of 38 years but passed away in 2019 at the age of 98. She was a co-owner of the business.

The original Poly-Asian was located at 9530 S. Main St., Houston TX. Albert Gee sold it to Peter Chin in 1962 and it continued until 1969.

This second location was opened at 5200 Westheimer Road, Houston, TX (sometimes listed as 5138 Westheimer, Houston, TX) by Albert Gee after selling his first location in 1962. This second location had, until recently, been a Dobb's House Luau location.

The Poly-Asian advertised itself as serving Polynesian, Cantonese, and Japanese cuisine as well as Tropical Beverages.

The second floor of this location was home to the "Club Luau".

Jane E. Gee, Albert's wife, outlived her husband of 38 years but passed away in 2019 at the age of 98. She was a co-owner of the business.