South Seas Cafe (1937-1977) was San Diego’s first large, Tahitian-themed restaurant, home of ‘rain on the roof’ just like at Ray Haller’s Seven Seas (1935) in Hollywood (later Bob Brooks Seven Seas).

The South Seas Cafe not only had the distinction of being the first large Tahitian/Pre-Tiki restaurant in San Diego — it was a woman-owned business. Opened Saturday night July 10, 1937 by Ruth W. Becker and Charles Thomas, South Seas Cafe was located across from the San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Pacific Highway.

“We feel sure that the atmosphere of the ‘South Seas’” said co-owner Charles Thomas to the press, “in which we produce lightning, thunder and the beating rain of a tropical storm, will delight seekers of the unusual. The South Seas illusion will be enhanced by Tahitian portraits and figure studies, done by Leeteg. The haunting rhythms of Hawaii will be produced nightly by steel guitars and ukuleles in the capable hands of Stone’s Hawaiians.”

Consolidated Aircraft Corporation’s newly-built production facility nearby provided a busy lunch crowd. And the novelty of an indoor rainstorm with thunder and lightning drew in as many patrons as could fit in the Tahitian-inspired restaurant. Their collection of ‘figural studies’ by painter Edward Leeteg certainly didn’t hurt, either.

Along with the Leeteg paintings down in the bar, they prominently featured an 11-foot-tall black velvet nudie by Morris Levine in the upstairs dining area, and on their menus. The Levine was reportedly won in a Las Vegas dice game bet by Wilbur Clark.

Top it off with thick steaks. Fried shrimp. Rum drinks. Entertainment by Stone’s Hawaiians, Teddy ‘K’ and his Hawaiians, Benny Kealoha and his famous ‘Echo Song.’ Comedy by Our Gang actor Spec O’Donnell. All this made the South Seas Cafe a destination spot.

The South Seas closed in 1977 and was replaced by a ladder store. For years it was a GolfMart, and later was part of an AMVETs thrift store properties. Most Recently, as of 2021, the property was vacant and up for lease.

This was a pre-tiki tropical bar.

The site was later home to Tiki Jack's from 1962-1977, but was destroyed by a fire in 1977.

This site, as of 2022, is now Lorin Station Plaza, an apartment building.

The Surf Rider opened in Bakersfield, California in June of 1961. It was the restaurant and lounge for the Wonder Lodge motor hotel. The motor hotel cost an estimated 2 million, and consisted of a 2-story structure with 120 suites and guest rooms, and a pool out back surrounded by manicured grounds.

Both Oceanic Arts and Ed Brownlee worked on the project with Oceanic Arts furnishing much of the interior and Ed handling the exterior decor.

The interior held 170 persons and featured a huge Tahitian fish trap on the ceiling, South Pacific murals, and plenty of carvings and other tropical decor.

This exterior featured Ed's own carvings based on New Ireland tribal art and an application of large abalone shells.

Black & White photos below are from earliest days of construction and Color photos are after total completion.

Later, by 1970, the venue was re-themed as "The Westerner".

Opened Monday, November 6th, 1961.

This bar & restaurant ran throughout the 1960s.

There was a sister location in Boston as well.

There are moai mugs that list both locations on back. The mugs also list "The Hawaiian" in Boston.

This South Seas location is currently the site of Max's Oyster Bar, as of 2021.

This restaurant was located in Boston's Chinatown and ran from about 1958-1983. Henry Oi was the owner and operator there for many of those years. He passed away in 2015.

There was a sister location in West Hartford, Connecticut.

There are moai mugs that list both locations on back. The mugs also list "The Hawaiian" in Boston.

A.F. (Gus) and Loreen Raigosa were a couple of Los Angeles area entrepreneurs who bought property in Newberry Springs (situated in the Mojave Desert about 150 miles from Los Angeles and 20 miles east of Barstow on Highway 66) and built a 7 acre lake (later expanded to 45 acres) at the beginning of 1960.

Next came docks, cabanas, and barbecue pits. Tetherball and volleyball courts and a nine-hole golf course as well as swings for the children followed. Trees and shrubs were planted and a scattering of carved Tiki gods. They stocked the lake with bass, channel catfish, and bluegill and operated the site as a tropical campground with luaus.

The "Tiki Bird" plane with a tiki paint job and tropical pin-up art was another interesting draw.

The restaurant, itself, was decorated in "authentic Tahitian decor" and had two separate dining areas with red carpets, trimmed in bamboo, with Tiki masks, and a large carved tiki overlooking a waterfall effect. The bar served traditional tiki cocktails.

Eventually, the couple sold the property in 1972 and moved to the Bahamas.

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.

This store in Heeia, Oahu, Hawaii flourished in the 1950s and 60s.

It was located across the Pali from downtown Honolulu at Kealohi Point, Heeia...a short distance beyond Kaneohe Town.

Here one could purchase gifts, jewelry, and curios, including koa wood bowls and other serving items.

It was also a photo opportunity and many people posed outside in front of the store next to the large tiki and outrigger canoe.

China Sails was a Chinese restaurant created in 1949 and owned by Dave Wong in Salem, Massachusetts, and was located on 516 Loring Ave (where there is now a different Chinese restaurant called Fantasy Island, which still uses the original China Sails sign, although the sign now says “Fantasy Island”).

Dave wanted to bring his style of Polynesian/Chinese cuisine to his customers and break away from the traditional norm of being grouped with other Chinese restaurants in Boston’s Chinatown. He found an opportunity in Salem, Massachusetts, a traditional working class community, to purchase an existing 60-seat Chinese restaurant, called Red Sails, whose name he quickly changed to avoid any imagined connection to Communism just before the McCarthy Era. In the late 1950’s, Dave expanded the restaurant -- tripling its size. China Sails was so successful that Dave eventually expanded to Revere, Chestnut Hill, Peabody (at the North Shore Shopping Center which is now Northshore Mall), and Danvers (at the Liberty Tree Mall).

China Sails produced a variety of branded Otagiri manufactured tiki mugs, including one with a Chinese junk logo.

Dave retired in 1985.

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.

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.

Open since 2013, just a year before the founder of Chick-fil-A, S. Truett Cathy, passed away.

It would seem like the kind of thing they might try out in the actual Hawaiian islands, but it's not. There are none in Hawaii as of 2021. However, if you are the founder, you can do whatever you want, and Truett decided toward the end of his life that it would be fun to have a Hawaiian-style version of one of his restaurants in Georgia.

This location is much larger and more resplendent than your typical Chick-fil-A but has a similar menu with the addition of some Hawaiian-themed foods like Kalua pork and Hawaiian-style bread pudding. They have Hawaiian-style drinks as well, like their Frosted Hawaiian shakes which are served in souvenir tiki glasses.

There are some tikis located throughout, Hawaiian art, tropical palm fans overhead, and koa wood (or local Georgian hardwood) tables. One seating section actually has booths with thatching and tiki poles.

They are fond of throwing luau parties for children, often featuring hula dancers.