Tiki Bars
Joker Joe's Typhoon Club - Chicago
Chicago, Illinois, United States (Closed)
This pre-tiki establishment had two locations -- this one in Chicago and a second one in Niles, Illinois. Joker Joe (Joe Siciliano?) is featured on all memorabilia, including matchbooks and postcards of that era and apparently liked to throw on a hula skirt and jump on top of the bar to do some impromptu dancing from time to time.
These locations were open as early as 1945, but exact opening and closing dates are unclear.
In addition to postcards, there are quite a few memento photos with printed paper sleeves that were sold by shutterbugs roaming through the bar at that time.
The bar's name was probably inspired by the 1940 film, Typhoon, starring Dorothy Lamour.
Shore Leave
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
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.
Albert Gee's Poly-Asian
Houston, Texas, United States (Closed)
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.
Albert Gee's Poly-Asian West
Houston, Texas, United States (Closed)
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.
Gene Kamp's Island Home
Chicago, Illinois, United States (Closed)
Opened in 1954.
A vintage postcard from this bar touted it as "Unique in providing a relaxing Polynesian atmosphere, where you can listen to the sound of a waterfall and Hawaiian music, gaze at tropical birds and fish, and leisurely enjoy the finest in cocktails, expertly made to your individual taste."
Now known as the Paradise Club and under the same ownership since about 1991.
Samoan Joe's - Spon Street - Coventry
Coventry, United Kingdom (Closed)
This bar opened around April 2015.
The hula girl banner behind their back bar has been used at several Lola Lo's locations, but the rest of the bar has its own distinctive look with rum barrel tables, fishnet hanging from the ceilings, and several large grinning tiki masks against support beams.
In 2020, in response to Covid, they opened a "Cocktail Garden" adjacent.
The closing of this location on Spon Street was announced for June 24th, 2023 with a re-opening at the Coventry Skydome on June 30th. Skydome is a huge multi-purpose entertainment arena with ice rink and theater as well as many other smaller venues.
Vincent Dundee's Kona Kai Inn
La Crescenta-Montrose, California, United States (Closed)
Former pro boxer Vince Dundee Sr. and his son Vince Jr. operated the successful Kona Kai Polynesian-themed restaurant at 3034 Foothill Blvd., and opened the equally successful Scotch Mist steakhouse across the street.
The Kona Kai was running at least as early as 1966, and probably earlier...
In 1977 Vince Jr. passed the torch to his sons, Vince III and Scott, both in their early 20s. The site of the Kona Kai, was transformed into a faux-Tudor styled restaurant and disco called Sherlock’s.
By 1980, the restaurant had been remodeled into an “entertainment center” which included the disco (Sherlock’s), the restaurant, renamed Café 34 Restaurante, and a retail Record World record store.
On the night of Oct. 9, 1980, the site burned to the ground.
The Aloha Club - San Diego
San Diego, California, United States (Closed)
The Aloha Club, (1950-1965) was a burlesque tiki bar on Third Avenue’s sailor’s row, under management of Gaspare ‘Jasper’ Matranga.
Along with their other clubs next door on ‘Neon Row’ (The Cuckoo Club and Club Royal), The Aloha Club stayed open until 2am nightly. Large neon signs and tropical murals graced the exterior. It featured music by Billy Jones and his Beachcombers, a five-piece combo, with sultry burlesque acts of Dorothy Eddy, Vivian Lee and Joy Damon ‘in the flesh!’
And B-Girls galore – waitresses who mingled with the sailors, enticing them to gamble, buy more drinks, and God knows what else. The city passed an ordinance outlawing the practice, giving San Diego Vice one more excuse to raid the bars.
Tom Sheng’s popular restaurant, Sheng Haw Low, was originally located on the second floor and rooftop garden patio above The Aloha Club. After the Matrangas were forced out, he leased the entire ground floor of the building. Sheng opened it up as his Aloha Room, serving exotic drinks in the tropical atmosphere leftover from the club. He even kept the big ALOHA neon on the building’s facade. Smart thinking, as his was the biggest eating establishment closest to the newly built Centre City convention hall. Sheng Haw Low was the last holdout on the block before it was razed for the new Westgate Plaza Hotel.
Island Trade Store
Midway City, California, United States (Closed)
Eli "The Original Beachcomber" Hedley ran his Island Trade Store on Beach Blvd in Midway City in the 1950s-1960s.
Today, the location is now home to a Jack-In-The Box fast food restaurant.
In Disneyland, Eli also ran “The Island Trade Store” gift shop in Adventureland for about a decade, which was located where the Bazaar is today.
Eli is a legend among fans of Polynesian Pop, his carvings and decor graced countless tiki bars and locations, and his shop featured tikis by other noted carvers such as Milan Guanko.
Today, Hedley's grandson, Ben Bassham (Bamboo Ben) continues the tradition.
The Elephant's Eye - at the Clarion Inn & Suites and Convention Center
Kearney, Nebraska, United States
Vintage tiki bar from the 1960s located in Kearney, Nebraska. Elevated pagoda-style with original Oceanic Arts tiki lamps. Its round layout and perch above a swimming pool gives it a treehouse feel and possibly qualifies it as the coolest lifeguard tower ever built.
The bar was shut down in 2019 but opened again in November 2021.
As of 2024, the Ramada closed for renovation but was re-opened in 2025 as the Clarion Inn & Suites.
Bob Loo's
Salem, New Hampshire, United States (Closed)
Bob Loo's was located in a former Howard Johnson's which was built in 1962 and closed around 1972. A steak house moved in almost immediately, but closed within a year. Then, in 1972, came Bob Loo’s, Salem’s first Chinese/Polynesian restaurant. In typical fashion, the top portion of the Howard Johnson’s cupola was removed. Likewise, the orange tile roof was replaced with a standard asphalt roof, and the trapezoid sign was taken down. Aside from these surface changes though, the building retained most of its visual lines and remained largely recognizable as a former Howard Johnson's. Bob Loo’s continued a successful operation here until late 1998, when the owners decided to retire and close the business for good.
They produced at least three collectible glasses -- a hi ball with a moai on front to serve their house Fog Cutter cocktail in, a hi ball with a Fu Manchu to serve the Dr. Funk Cocktail, and a hi ball with a Tiki Leilani on it to serve "Volcano Acid".
Robert N. Loo (Bob) passed away in 2010. He was known for this restaurant as well as the highly successful Silver Dragon Restaurant in Methuen which was started around 1962 and burned down in March of 1985.
Sea and Jungle Shop
Glendale, California, United States (Closed)
Sea and Jungle Shop sold tiki and jungle themed props from their Glendale store for decades. The last owners ran it for over 24 years, starting in 1962. They were competitors with Oceanic Arts (who opened in 1956) and later benefactors of the younger store -- although it's not clear how long Sea and Jungle were open before they were bought out by the last owners -- but they probably existed in one form or another since the 1940s.
Sea and Jungle props decorated Rick’s Cafe Americaine in “Casablanca" (1942), and carried natives over the waves in “Mutiny on the Bounty”(1962) And they adorned countless other television and movie sets. They also supplied much of the decor for Disneyland, especially the Jungle Cruise ride (opened in 1955).
The front of their site was known for giant carved tikis and in later years for a giant pink fiberglass elephant that became kind of a company mascot.
How did it all start?
It was originally opened by Victoria White and "Jungle Jim" Joslin in the 1940s-1950s. (They titled themselves "Specialists in Tropical Atmosphere" on old postcards).
The matriarch of the last family to own the business, Virginia Langdon, was 17 and enrolled at Hollywood High School, when she eloped to Hawaii with her 16-year-old boyfriend because her parents opposed the marriage. They lived there five years, developing a lifelong passion for things tropical, their daughters recall.
The couple returned to Glendale and bought Sea and Jungle in 1962. There they ran a thriving business, making occasional forays to the South Pacific and Africa to replenish stock. Their children drifted naturally into the business, but it was Beverly Achtien (Virginia's daughter) who managed the shop in recent years.
Young people liked the place because it sold wacky items, she said. So did movie stars. Comedian Pee Wee Herman once bought a lamp shaped like a giant clump of yellow bananas. John Wayne favored nautical gear. Dorothy Lamour bought decorative wall hangings for her bar.
Sven Kirsten (author of The Book of Tiki) fondly remembers visiting Sea and Jungle when he first came out to Los Angeles and buying a couple of smaller items. Now, looking back, he wishes he had bought much more, but this was before his dedication to tiki had firmly taken root and nobody knew that Sea and Jungle's days were numbered. Sven has a great vintage ad from the store in his book, Tiki Pop - page 92.
When Sea and Jungle closed their doors on June 30th, 1986, Oceanic Arts bought two truckloads of various décor for $600 from them. They even gave Bob and LeRoy their office chairs, source-books, and their Customer List. This last item helped to get Oceanic Arts started in the Movie Supply and Rental business.