Opened October 15th, 2022.

There are two distinct Trader Vic's spaces at the Palm Jumeirah property including a Trader Vic’s restaurant and bar and a Tahitian Village beach club.

The Trader Vic's Restaurant is modern and sleek, lined with an impressive row of carved tikis upon entering and a massive bar with a huge chandelier overhead.

Unique features include a concrete wall in the dining area with hundreds of glass fish floats embedded in it and lit from the other side.

The Tahitian Village is an outdoor space overlooking the beach and features resort-style relaxed food and beverages including frozen Tiki Puka Pukas. Throughout the day guests have access to a fresh fruit bar and as the sun sets, the venue hosts international DJs and more.

Tommy Wong worked at the Chicago Don the Beachcomber and at the Aku Aku in Las Vegas before becoming a successful restaurateur in his own right.

In 1977 he purchased the Islands restaurant in Phoenix and re-branded it as Tommy Wong's Island Restaurant.

Wong expanded on this purchase and created a mini chain with this Island Restaurant in Denver (currently, as of 2025, a parking lot next to a kosher deli) and an Island Restaurant (or "Islands Restaurant" depending on the advertisement) in Colorado Springs (circa October 1975).

All of his Island restaurants in the chain went under in the 80s along with the first one in Phoenix. The Denver location closed in 1983.

*NOTE: This location is not to be confused with The Islander (formerly the Tiki Kai), which opened in 1971 about 11 minutes north of the Tommy Wong Island location and closed in 1975.

Like many popular nightspots of the day, Leon and Eddie's began as a speakeasy. In its case it started in 1928, in the basement of a converted house at 18 West 52nd (for a $700 investment) and could take as many as 30 customers at a time.

They later moved across the street to 33 W. 52nd after the end of Prohibition in 1933. Their new quarters had a retractable roof, rising stage and room for 475 customers. This retractable roof allowed air flow in a time before air conditioning was common. Like many places that became sweltering hot in the summer, they advertised a "Summer Garden" with open air flow from the roof that made dancing a possibility without everyone fainting from heat exhaustion. It was this Summer Garden that offered a pre-tiki atmosphere complete with (fake) swaying coconut palms. Advertising materials also featured dancing girls made up like hula dancers -- offering the exotic veneer to their otherwise normal bump and grind burlesque.

One of the most famous burlesque performers to perform there was Sherry Britton, who performed regularly for at least 7 years.

Leon & Eddie's was one of the more reputable spots on this block known for hot jazz, strippers and mob-run clip joints. Unlike its fabled neighbor '21', Leon and Eddies did not cultivate celebrities and socialites through a policy of exclusivity. This was a rowdy joint patronized by local businessmen and out-of-towners who enjoyed the bawdy humor, singalongs, vaudeville-like revue and strippers the club featured. It was very well-known, being frequently mentioned in the press or in magazines.

The sign out front of the club said "Leon and Eddie" without the apostrophe s. Another sign at the door was a takeoff on the famous Earl Carroll slogan and read "Through these portals, the most beautiful girls in the world pass out!" A sign posted over the swinging kitchen doors stated “Through these portals pass the most beautiful waiters in the world!" The walls were covered with tongue-in-cheek murals. On either end of the back wall, Leon Enkin and Eddie Davis thumbed their noses at each other in caricature. The gravel-voiced Davis was the face of the place and frequently performed his repertoire of risque songs.

The club did not last long into the postwar period. Leon and Eddie dissolved their partnership in 1947. Charlie Davis kept it going until his retirement in 1953 when Toots Shor, who had been day manager, and some say part-time bouncer, at Leon and Eddie's in its early years, opened a restaurant at the site.

Built in 1957, Coffee Dan's was designed by Architect William Krisel of the firm Palmer and Krisel.

Coffee Dan's was a chain located throughout Southern California, Arizona, and New Mexico.

This location was special, though, because of its architecture and the inclusion of the Outrigger Room bar.

Today, as of 2023, the entire corner has been re-built and this location houses a Subway Sandwich shop.

This apartment community was built in 1957 and has 2 stories with 159 units.

The lush 10 acre estate in the heart of Sherman Oaks has 120 Palm Trees, Fountains, an 18 Hole Par 3 Golf Course, a recording studio, Health Spa, 4 Pools, Tennis Courts Singles, 1 & 2 Bedroom Apartment Homes Plus 15 Individual Family Homes.

They also have a party/banquet room, the Aloha Room, which can be rented for special events. The Aloha Room Rental Office can be reached at (818) 995-6827.

NOTE:

• First black & white photo is dated April 12, 1963 and is of Horace Heidt, owner-developer of the Magnolia Estates and new Hawaiian Village apartments and homes in Van Nuys showing actress Joan Huntington the entrance to his colorful new apartment complex.
• Fourth image attribution: Adsausage Archives - https://www.adsausage.com

The Roosevelt Hotel opened in 1930, named after the 26th U.S. president, who’d visited Seattle in 1903. Its architect, John Graham Sr., was one of the city’s most prominent: the firm he'd founded was behind iconic city structures like the Seattle Exchange Building, the Frederick & Nelson department store (now the downtown Nordstrom), and, under his son’s leadership, the Space Needle. Graham’s designs account for the hotel’s distinctive, modernist Art Deco style. The 18-story building remained Seattle’s tallest hotel for decades, with 234 rooms and an ornately furnished lobby detailed in the French modern style. In contrast to the hotels that catered to residents (the norm at the time), the Roosevelt Hotel positioned itself as a traveler-oriented hotel.

The Lanai or Lanai Room as it was called, flourished in the 1960s. It was known for its "musical fountains" seen in photo below and their cocktail menu is notable for sharing tiki mug designs seen at the Kalua Room in Seattle and commonly associated only with the Kalua Room. In 1962, both the Roosevelt Hotel (the Lanai) and Windsor Hotel (Kalua Room) were managed by Gwynne Austin. Gwynne Austin had previously managed Hawaii's Kona Inn, the Halekulani and opened Kaisers Hawaiian Village... he left Hawaii to take over the Windsor in 1954.

In 2015, Provenance Hotels purchased the hotel, and began floor-by-floor renovations, spearheaded by Seattle-based Susan Marinello Interiors. Fully refreshed, the hotel reopened in 2017 under the name Hotel Theodore, a nod to its historic namesake.

*NOTE: Exact dates on the opening and closing of the Lanai are unknown but it was definitely open from 1962-1965.

The Tahitian Room was a Polynesian-themed restaurant and bar in the U.S. Grant Hotel's northern annex that opened in 1960. It closed 10 years later and the annex was demolished and replaced with a parking lot.

Opened in 2010.

It occupied a space formerly filled by an R.J. Gator's.

This was a scaled-down concept, or "Trader Vic's Light" if you will.

Closed July of 2013.

The property, including the stand-alone building and surrounding 2.2 acres, was listed for $1,995,000 on Loopnet.com and the interior was liquidated. A few of the more authentic pieces went to a Tiki Centralite. Most of the remaining carvings had been created by Indonesian carvers, and weren't as coveted as pieces you might see in other long-standing Trader Vic's locations.

The original pre-tiki location of Tropical Hut opened in 1941 on Fifty-Seventh Street near Kenwood Avenue (1320-24 1/2 E. 57th St.).

Urban renewal pushed the original restaurant out in 1966 and it moved into this pagoda-like building at Ninety-Second Street and Stony Island Avenue (9156 S. Stony Island Ave.). This second location lasted into the early '90s. The last incarnation of this second location was as Nipsey's, a southern food restaurant, which burned down on March 2nd, 2022.

The Tiki Hut was open and running circa 1962 -- with "exotic beverages" served in the Shell Room lounge -- and continued into the 70s (at one point also know as "Hope's Hut"). In the 80s it was the Blue Hawaiian Restaurant (still featuring the Shell Room) until becoming Lee Chee Garden in the late 80s. It was later known as Chen's Village from 2005-2018.

As of 2022, this location is a Sisters and Brother Nashville hot chicken restaurant.

There was also a second location for Tiki Hut, at one point, in Lynnwood at 5621 196th S. W.

*NOTE: The menu below mentions a Harvey Wallbanger cocktail and lists 3! cocktails with Galliano which seems to date it to the 1970s.

Jimmy Wong's was located at 426 S Wabash Avenue in Chicago. Although it was a Chinese restaurant, it was quite famous in its day and extremely "tiki adjacent".

Eventually 2 other locations were opened. One of them was at 3058 West Peterson. The third was at 423 S Clark (Nan Yan).

Jimmy Wong's was known for its Cantonese cooking, Hong Kong Steak, and whole fish dishes. It was also known for celebrity sightings.

The two-floor restaurant had an impressive neon sign out front, a pagoda-like skylight, Chinese green tile divider screens along the booths, bamboo trim on the walls, and a bubbling Buddha fountain.

Although it was marketed as a Chinese restaurant, like so many other Chinese restaurants of this period, they borrowed classic tiki elements that were all the rage in the 60s. Waiters wore flowered Aloha shirts and there was a Polynesian cocktail menu with take-home mugs marked for Jimmy's. All five shown in their menu are represented in this site's collections. See menu below…

This original Jimmy Wong's opened in 1959 and stood for nearly 40 years under the Wabash El between Van Buren and Jackson. The building was closed and torn down in 1997.

As a South Loop restaurateur, Jimmy Wong was best known for his Hong Kong Steak and the opportunity to spot celebrities at his restaurants -- see him with Sammy Davis Jr. in the photo below.

Mr. Wong passed away in 2001 -- a beloved entrepreneur of Chicago's 50's & 60's.

Sunken Harbor Club is an intimate nautical cocktail bar tucked away on the second floor above Gage & Tollner.

After eight years as a weekly pop-up at owner St. John Frizell's Red Hook mainstay Fort Defiance, The Club finally anchored in Downtown Brooklyn in October 2021.

Though this bar has no tikis, they certainly excel in making tiki style cocktails and various craft rum drinks.

They also have a mid-century friendly 200+ hour-long soundtrack that boasts Exotica, Surf, and Bossa Nova, for a retro feel -- and some thunderstorm sounds and other special effects mixed in to give a bit of that Don The Beachcomber rainstorm vibe.

The bar was profiled in Exotica Moderne Issue 17, 2022 and a good comparison was made to other nautical bars that are "tiki adjacent" such as the Molokai Bar at the Mai-Kai in Ft. Lauderdale.

While some tiki purists may bemoan the lack of actual carvings or artwork, they do not claim to be a "tiki" bar. However, there is no doubt that this venue appreciates tiki connoisseurs, understands tiki history, and has created a wonderful nautical bar that any mid century modern or tiki enthusiast would have a very difficult time not enjoying.