This speakeasy tiki bar opened in 2022 in the basement of the Barney's Beanery in Pasadena.

It is a large space and is lined with several booths, a wall lined with coconut monkeys, and many float lamp lights suspended from the ceiling for atmosphere.

It doubles as their live events space with

KARAOKE NIGHT: Thursdays from 10pm to close, Fridays and Saturdays at 9:30pm

and

COMEDY NIGHT: Every Wednesday Home Cookin Comedy! Hosted by Leonard Smith Jr. & Pasadena's Best Free Comedy Night

Opened by Shawn Cantley in May of 2022.

This is not a traditional tiki bar in the mold of Trader Vic's or Don the Beachcomber, with a dark, intimate, and immersive space layered in Polynesian artifacts and art.

Rather, Shawn went for more of a vacation vibe pulling from Hawaiian, Jamaican, and Mexican beach and surfer culture.

South Seas is an 8,400 square foot two-story space with an additional 1,600-square-foot outdoor deck. This is huge, and aside from a traditional bar set-up flanked by booths, there is a large dining hall area, a large outdoor patio, and a miniature golf course with a cocktail theme. This course offers lots of photo opportunities with a life-size "Don" zombie, giant octopus, planet Saturn, and other fantastical props.

*NOTE: December of 2024, the location was purchased by new owners, Ruth Gao and her husband. They have expressed a desire to keep the venue as-is but add on to it with more Hawaiian-style food and tiki cocktail options moving forward.

Opened in 1960.

One of the first mall-type shopping centers in -or around- California's capital, SOUTHGATE CENTER was developed by a joint venture of Sacramento's James J. Cordano Company and San Francisco's Blumenfeld Enterprises. The single level, open-air complex was designed by Los Angeles' Chaix & Johnson firm and W.B. David, of Sacramento.

It has undergone many developments over the years and is hardly recognizable today.

Most recognized by tikiphiles for having a Barney West tiki on display outside, which was viewable at least as late as 1984.

Notably, the phallus was removed from the carving, for fear of hurting the delicate sensibilities of shoppers.

Today the entire statue is gone...

There have been a ton of bars and restaurants named "Pago Pago" over the years.

This one at 319 N. Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs (some ads say 317) was opened in April of 1945 by Eddie Brandhorst (who also owned a Pago Pago in Long Beach).

It was formerly "The Waikiki" and owned by Joe Felix (at least as early as 1941).

It seems to have had a fire incident early on but was quickly remodeled and re-opened in October of 1945.

This pre-tiki establishment was known for advertising dancing and rain on the roof.

According to the Desert Sun, the petition to allow dancing was approved in August of 1946, so they had to wait for a little while after their initial opening.

The interior was also decked out with a large mural of scantily-clad native women, which the owner defended in the Desert Sun, December 6th, 1946, stating: "Ladies, do not fear for your husbands in the Mural Room. I know how they gaze at the Pago nymphs on the Pago walls—but they’re only painted there. Besides, the painter, Allan Woods, also came from Long Beach, 'a stern, unbending Puritan town.'"

Ownership changed, transferring to Don Artz as early as April of 1947 when he took ownership according to Desert Sun newspaper ads.

It was put up for sale in 1948 after Don fell on ill health.

Later, the site was taken over by Lee Bering and the name changed to "Lee Bering's Restaurant" in 1949, apparently making a break from the tropical island theme.

Cora Irene Sund was born in 1910 and died in 1974.

*Her gravestone says born in "1909" but that appears to be an error according to her obituary and other sources.

In any case, she had a remarkable impact on tiki and cocktail history. She built-out Don the Beachcombers as a real business, expanding it across the United States. While Donn Beach's name often overshadows her impact on the business's history, Sunny Sund emerged as the visionary leader, overseeing its growth from a modest twenty-four-seat bar into a flourishing chain of million-dollar restaurants.

Sund met and married Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt (Donn Beach) in Hollywood in the 1930s, with Gantt opening Don’s Beachcomber, the first of what would later be known as exotic restaurants. The bar was wildly successful and Sund became Gantt’s business partner, raising money to expand the business, which they began (first to Chicago) in 1940. The marriage didn’t last, but Sund and Gantt remained business partners, with Gantt as figurehead and host, and Sund running the growing business behind the scenes. Through the 40s and 50s, Sund grew Don the Beachcomber’s to some sixteen locations, selling the business to Getty Enterprises in 1968.

Sunny died on January 8th and was laid to rest Saturday, January 12th, 1974 at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. She was 64 years old.

The Steak Island building, located at 600 E. Riverside Dr., originally housed the Lahala House restaurant, which had a thatched roof, and was built in the early 1960s.

Lahala House was a partnership between Corpus Christi restaurateur Harry Porter and G. Jim Hasslocher of Jim’s Restaurants fame. Porter eventually sold his interest to Hasslocher, who renamed the restaurant Steak Island around 1965/1966.

The round hut-like structure had its thatching removed around 1965.

The establishment billed itself as “Austin’s Most Exotic Restaurant,” and was built on the shores of Town Lake (now Lady Bird Lake) at a time when there weren’t many businesses on the water. Though the Steak Island menu was more steak and seafood than pupu platter, the decor and sarong-wrapped waitresses were definitively tiki. It was considered fine dining by Austin standards of the time and was a favorite haunt of President Johnson when he visited Austin.

In 1973, Steak Island became a Magic Time Machine, later it was a Landry's, then a Joe's Crab Shack, and is now a Cidercade.

No Polynesian-themed details remain, but the structure still stands.

Built in 1963.

Comprised of 37 units. The property is a two-story, garden-style building situated on .75 acre of land near the northeast corner of Tampa Avenue and Saticoy Street.

The building is rather spartan in appearance and other than the cool lettering on the front, there is little to distinguish it.

This is why the apartment was chosen as the filming location of the 1984 film, "The Karate Kid" featuring Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso and Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi.

The director wanted a bleakness to show why the Daniel LaRusso was so miserable in his new home. They emphasized this by taking the apartment's otherwise well-kept swimming pool and emptying out most of the water and leaving some dirty water in the bottom with an abandoned children's inflatable. Today, the pool is looking good again, but due to the cutting back of vegetation around the complex, it looks bleaker than ever.

This store is run by David Condon and opened on June 14th, 2025.

Here you will find tiki related items, collectible tiki mugs, misc.

The store also carries vintage Hawaiiana, Elvis memorabilia, fountains, artwork, and an epic Titanic display.

Movie memorabilia for sale also, as well as sports cards, vintage Hawaiian shirts, and a bit of Disney.

Adding cool finds daily!

Opened in 1954 at the Hotel Minnesotan.

Photos show an early shot of the Hotel Minnesotan and later, in 1959, with a skid row resident outside the South Seas Bar.

The Hotel Minnesotan was demolished in 1965, and some of the remaining decor from the South Seas Bar was recovered and used to create the McGuire's Tiki Room a couple of months later at the McGuire's Restaurant where they had several themed rooms over the years.

Opened in early 1957, this pre-tiki nightclub is associated with one of the most notorious Southern California mob murders from the era.

The same year as the nightclub's opening, on March 9, 1957, Leslie Simpson was robbed at the South Seas, by a small group of gun-toting outlaws. Simpson was able to identify Joseph “Little Caesar” Rosoto as one of the bandits – because of Rosoto’s distinctive limp.

Rosoto was later charged with the armed robbery of Simpson at the South Seas bar, and his trial was set for April 20, 1959.

Rosoto, a known mobster, was not about to go down on a robbery beef. The little (5-foot-1) gangster hired his bodyguard, John “The Big Fisherman” Vlahovich (6-foot-7), and Donald Glen Franklin, a burly loner, to murder Simpson to keep him off the witness stand.

Leslie Simpson was returning with his wife, Fern, to their Anaheim home early one morning (February 7, 1959) when out of darkness came a menacing figure.

A shotgun-wielding assailant ended Simpson’s life with a blast from close range. Fern saved herself by throwing up her arms to protect herself, but both of her hands were blown off.

It was a headline-making case from the beginning, but when Anaheim police detectives discovered the sinister motive for gunning down the 46-year-old Simpson, it became one of the most notorious cases in Orange County history.

With the star witness dead, Rosoto was eventually acquitted of the robbery charge.

However, Rosoto was in bigger trouble. Rosoto, Vlahovich and Franklin were arrested for Simpson’s murder. In 1960, the trio was convicted and sentenced to death.

They were once just 20 minutes from execution in 1964, but a last-hour reprieve saved their lives. Eventually their sentences were commuted to life in prison. All three were paroled in 1975 after serving only 16 years for first-degree murder.

In 1978, Rosoto was bludgeoned to death at his home in San Gabriel. No one was ever charged...

...and in the meantime, the South Seas survived, at least for a time, purchased by Viviane Laird who was already known for her other locations like the Garden of Allah, Bohemia, and The Brass Rail.

It closed not long after, though.

Opened in February 2024.

In 2020, branding & design specialist John-Patrick approached Shag with the concept of The Shag House. They would find a Midcentury home in need of rescue and transform it into a Palm Springs experience like no one has ever seen before. Shag would design the look of the house and its furnishings, and JP would connect all the dots, pulling together a dream team of Makers and supply partners.

The wheels began turning in Shag’s mind, and he immediately said he was in. Initial sketches were soon underway, and JP set off in search of a property where they could execute their ambitious vision.

JP and realtor Morgan Janney found what they were looking for in a tired but much-loved house perched on the edge of Prescott Preserve—a recently established 120-acre nature preserve on the site of the former Mesquite Golf Course.

The residence we now know as The Shag House was constructed in the Little Beverly Hills neighborhood of Palm Springs in 1958. It was designed by midcentury modern “starchitects” Palmer & Krisel, and built by the famed Alexander Construction Company.

The house appeared on the real estate market in spring of 2021. Prompted by Shag and JP, Palm Springs businessman and philanthropist Brandon McBurney purchased the property and renovation work began in earnest shortly after.

From the very beginning, the artist Shag had one charge: to wildly reimagine the 1958 home so that future visitors would feel as though they’ve climbed into a life-size version of one of his paintings.

He went to work creating illustrations for every area of the property, making sure that each room and outdoor space was a distinctive work of art. As the Creative Director and Lead Designer of The Shag House, he made all the design decisions. Colors, textures, tiles, furnishings, fixtures… from top to bottom, the property’s aesthetic is totally Shag!

With its bold midcentury design, vibrant ambiance, and commitment to community, The Shag House has quickly become one of Palm Springs' most distinctive and sought-after event venues.

This stunning 4-bedroom, 3-bath midcentury modern estate was built for entertaining. The thoughtfully planned layout includes: a symposium courtyard, poolside bar and grill, interior service bar, deluxe catering alley for seamless hospitality, and an all-tiki themed bedroom.

Opened September 23rd, 2021.

This tiki bar and restaurant is close to the harbor of Trieste (Italy).