Opened October 19th, 2021, at the site of the former Larry's gastropub.

Belles comes from the Wish You Were Here dining group, the group behind the Eveleigh in Sunset Strip, Kassi Club (which closed and resurfaced in Las Vegas’s Virgin Hotels), and the Elephanté in Santa Monica.

The interior gives the feeling of being at a Hawaiian resort, bright and airy with high open ceilings, lots of bamboo and natural materials, and intimate clusters of couches and coffee tables for lounging in small groups. There is a large tiki carving and giant clamshell in front as you come in. The bar has several unique looking ceramic pendant lights with the appearance of large tiki mugs.

Not a lot of densely layered art or bric-a-brac like traditional dark-interiored tiki bars, but clean and upscale in appearance with a few signature pieces on each wall.

Belles focuses on Hawaiian izakaya (snacky bites) but also has a selection of sushi and main dishes as well. Their cocktail list has many traditional cocktails (margaritas, mules, old-fashioneds) and there is a house mai-tai, but they are not trying to offer a menu of traditional tiki cocktails. Other than the mai-tai, the other drinks with Hawaiian or tropical influences are frozen slushie drinks.

There is also a large outdoor patio space.

Opened December 3rd, 1946.

Joe Chastek was first introduced to Polynesia when he and a high school buddy stowed away to the Philippines when they were both 17. Joe was one of the first to open a club with the South Seas motif. His first pre-Tiki bar was the Zamboanga. His second was the Tradewinds. His third was Vagabond's House. The name came from Don Blanding's poem of the same name. Don and Joe were acquaintances.

The interior combined tropical motifs and decor from many countries, including the South Pacific, the Philippines, Africa, and Mexico. There was lots of bamboo, matting, totem poles, glass floats, etc...

Joe often threw luau styled parties but the signature dish on the menu was curry.

The building in which Vagabond's House was located is a prime example of the Spanish Churrigueresque style practiced in the mid-1920s by the firm of Morgan, Walls and Clements and perfected by its chief designer, Stiles O. Clements.

The building was designated as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1983.

Several popular Wilshire restaurants have occupied the space, notably the Cafe Opera in the 1930s and early '40s and the Vagabond's House later. La Fonda opened in 1969 as a venue for mariachi music. After being open for nearly forty years, La Fonda closed in 2007. The restaurant reopened in 2016, and it once again regularly offers live mariachi music.

Opened September 30th, 2021.

This bar is underground, below Shannon's on Pine. The build-out was completed by Bamboo Ben.

Some features include a poured resin bartop with a "stream" of resin running along the middle of the wood surface, a "lava" throne for photo ops, a floor with bright orange/red "lava" rivulets painted where you might normally see grout lines, and plenty of thatch and tikis.

This is also a live music venue.

The entire building is under one owner, so they are able to utilize several different levels and areas of indoor space for marketplace events as well (beyond just the bar). They started their own marketplace in June 2022 -- held roughly at quarterly intervals throughout the year.

Located in a surprisingly welcomed proximity of just over 3200 feet from the North tarmac of the Los Angeles Airport, the Polynesian Village Apartment complex was the epitome of primitive, space-age bachelor pad living when it opened in 1962. Designed by prolific mid-century architects, Armet & Davis, the immersive environment featured a stylishly themed atmosphere, complete with 24/7 flaming gas Tiki torches and cascading lava rock waterfalls. Made in a series of three sister developments across Los Angeles county, the dingbat cubist apartment structures were adorned with redwood carvings by the renowned sculptor team of Andres Bumatay and Richard Ellis.

Torn down in 2003. Many of the tiki carvings were salvaged and some are on display at Max's South Seas Hideaway in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Opened in May of 2020, Makai Island Kitchen and Groggery on the Santa Cruz Wharf features what owner Peter Drobac describes as Hawaiian food and beyond, with flavors that draw on influences from Chinese, Thai, and Japanese cuisine.

Housed in the same space that was previously occupied by Splash.

The food, décor, and music are all themed toward a tiki bar kind of atmosphere with an upscale Pan-Asian menu.

This Chinese Restaurant was located directly across from the Kuo Wah Restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown.

Like Kuo Wah, Imperial Palace had its own cocktail mugs, many of which were patterned after ancient Chinese serving vessels.

The Imperial Palace was in this location up through at least the mid 90s. At some point thereafter, they moved around the corner to 818 Washington St., where they are still located as of 2021.

An episode of Season 4 of Beverly Hills 90210 was shot inside the old location, called "Emily" (a.k.a. The Pink Pearl).

Chin Mon Wah (Young family patriarch) and his childhood friend, Chin Kwok Yen, purchased the building in the late 30s. Prior to placing a restaurant in this location it had at the ground floor a photo studio at 942 and stores at 946-950 Grant Avenue with the remaining two floors above being the Gum Mon Hotel.

At this time they remodeled the building to house the Kuo Wah Cafe at 942 Grant Ave which served American Style food and 946-950 to serve Chinese food. The Lions Den Nightclub was in the basement and its entrance was at 942. This is where the bar was located at that time. The Lions Den had shows featuring Chinese performers that would sing, dance and tell jokes just like all the mainstream nightclubs of the era. The Gum Mon Hotel still remained. Sometime after WW II, in the mid to late 1950s, the Lions Den Nightclub ceased to exist due to the changing times and became a dining room. Its bar was relocated from the basement to the main floor location of the Cafe which served American food. Many politicians, heads of state and other dignitaries were hosted.

In the early 60s, Chin Mon Wah's son, Andy Young, had by that time became general manager, and again undertook major construction. The Lions Den basement, main floor Kuo Wah Cafe and second floor hotel rooms were remodeled into a single restaurant called the Kuo Wah Restaurant instead of "cafe". A new bar was built in the basement, the kitchen was relocated from the main floor to the basement. A second remodel of the existing bar took place and the 2nd floor hotel rooms were cleared to make way for a 300+ person dining room. An outdoor courtyard was created at the front entrance of the building so that diners could sit out on nice days to eat or have cocktails.

Upstairs, they had a burlesque dance review based on a number out of the hit play (1958) and film (1961), Flower Drum Song. In the film, “Fan Tan Fannie” was performed by the strip-teasing female comic lead, Linda Low, played in the film by sex symbol Nancy Kwan. Their postcards advertised the dancing girls doing 3 shows a night along with "togetherness dancing" whatever that meant...

Between 65' and 68' there was a nightclub in the basement called The Drag'on A' Go-Go, which featured local bands. This is when they started to offer free tiki mugs with any of their exotic Polynesian cocktails. These mugs were exclusively from Otagiri Manufacturing Co. This continued until 1975 at which time they sold the restaurant to investors who rebuilt once again to make a Hong Kong style dim sum eatery. At this time the restaurant was still called Kuo Wah.

Since then the restaurant changed hands at least two more times. Its name for 20 years or so was Grand Palace.

Then, in 2021, owners with a love of history decided to bring back a version of The Lion's Den Club as the new Lion's Den Lounge and Bar. The address for this newer club is 57 Wentworth Pl, San Francisco, CA 94108, but it occupies the same footprint as the old club and honors its style and memory.

Owned by Herman A. Klabunde and operated 1939-1947.

This pre-tiki establishment served tropical cocktails and Chinese food.

They also had a "rain-on-the-roof" effect with lights, sounds, and running water.

Located at 327 Broadway in Santa Monica, at what is today a thriving shopping area just at the edge of the Third Street Promenade.

This apartment complex was built in 1961.

It has 47 units and the front features a very large A-frame. There is also a smaller A-frame pool house building in back.

Traveling from north to south along Rosemead boulevard, this was a frequent stop for tiki enthusiasts before hitting other landmarks like the Kahlua Apartments and Bahooka.

It was remodeled in 2008 and re-named "Huntington at Pasadena" to cash in on their proximity to The Huntington Museum, but before this, it was known as "The Outrigger" and had a unique tiki in front that was partially obscured by shrubbery.

Sven Kirsten, when referring to Tiki Archaeology, often showed a photo of this tiki completely covered in foliage with one hand sweeping the leaves aside to reveal a tiki eye peering out.

Opened in 1979 by Helen Yue and her husband (Cheeda).

They previously had opened Yue's Cantonese Restaurant in Gardena in 1957.

A prominent Barney West tiki sat out front of Lahani Haloha.

The restaurant was short-lived, however, and they sold the property about a year later. Helen and her husband retired in 1983 and closed their other restaurant as well.

The Lahani Haloha octagonal building went through at least one name change. One photo shows a sign out front advertising "Beach Garden" around 1980-1983.

The Barney West tiki appears to have remained for a time but was relocated to the Polynesian at some point.

Then the pier suffered a fire in 1988. Luckily the octagon building wasn't damaged but as a result of the fire, the area was getting a lot less foot traffic which hurt business. The owner of the octagon building wanted to be compensated for their losses. In the end the taxpayers ended up footing the bill and the city took ownership of the building. Over the years the building stood abandoned. There were countless ideas for what to do with the building but they couldn't agree on anything. It was referred to as Parcel 10 from this point forward in city discussions.

Probably most notably it was used as the exterior location of "The Bait Shop" in Season 2 of The O.C. television series.

In 2013, after a storm caused extensive damage, the city voted to have it demolished.

As of October 2020, a $110,000 skatepark was approved for Parcel 10.

This grab-'n-go style Trader Vic's "Outpost" opened in the San Jose Airport in May 2021.

This location was originally a spinoff from the original Christian's Hut in Newport Beach from 1940s to 1953.

Later this location became the Doll House and Kona Hut.