This new Trader Vic's location opened in November 2004, marking the return of Trader Vic's to San Francisco proper. Until the early '90s, Trader Vic's had a location in San Francisco at Cosmo Alley. This new location had most recently held the famous Stars restaurant. Renovations were rumored to be budgeted at $3.5 million dollars.

The restaurant had several dining rooms, many suitable for private parties. The main dining room and bar area were large and open, with many Papua New Guinea masks and very large carved tikis. There was a bit of a rough start as the restaurant first opened, but after a series of improved bartender hirings, the drink quality improved.

The restaurant never quite found its footing, and closed in December 2007, after just three years in operation.

Before becoming Latitude 20°, this was The Polynesian (1957-1964).

The Polynesian opened in 1957 and closed due to fire in 1959, but was refurbished and re-opened in 1960 to run for 4 more years before being sold in 1964.

Hop Louie re-opened it as Latitude 20° on July 15th, 1966. Latitude 20° ran through 1980 before being sold to developers who decided to stray from the Polynesian theme and go Country. It was a Waco's and then a Calamity's before the structure was finally leveled in 1984.

This location is now a strip mall.

This is one of a growing chain of Islands restaurants in the Southwest (California and Arizona) that started in West Los Angeles in 1982.

Islands restaurants have a vague and generic tropical theme that leans towards "Surf" but usually has a few tiki masks and other tiki-friendly decor.

For some time they were using masks and other wall-hangings from Oceanic Arts, although less in builds in later years.

This particular location in the Rolling Hills shopping plaza does have a rather nice, large tiki inside.

This Redondo Beach apartment building is from the '60s and still has plenty of tikis, both in front of the building and in the pool courtyard. It's particularly notable for its large, beautifully lettered sign that simply says "Tiki". It is just blocks from the beach.

Some of the apartment building's tikis are speculated to have been carved by students of Trader Luke, Mike & George Gildea (and friends from Manhattan Beach), who were known for their unique cartoon-like and elongated mouths on their carvings.

Documented on page 221 in Sven Kirsten's The Book of Tiki (and 150/153 in Tiki Style).

This Polynesian paradise consisted of the Kapu-Kai Coffee Shop with an attached bowling alley. The bowling alley also boasted an Outrigger cocktail lounge and Tahitian Fire Room. The complex stood on the corner of Foothill and Vineyard and was active from 1962 to 1969.

What shut the Kapu-Kai down was the Great Inland Empire Storm & Flood of 1969, which by the storm's end had caused over $500 million in damage, killed 60 people, and damaged and destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses.

The ruined buildings of the Kapu-Kai held on until 1994, after which they were bulldozed, according to Charles Phoenix’s “Cruising the Pomona Valley.”

Nobody could figure out an economical way to salvage the unique structure.

The name "Kapu-Kai", Phoenix says, translates to "Forbidden Sea" which is appropriate when one considers the flood of water that brought its demise.

That corner is now famous for having two Starbucks outlets, one at the edge of the parking lot and a small one inside the Albertsons.

Years later, Bosko was able to trade for one of the salvaged interior tiki support poles from the Kapu-Kai which he installed at his home bar (The Kapu Tiki Room) and was actually married beneath in a ceremony conducted by noted mixologist Beachbum Berry.

Club Kona dates from the pre-tiki era when elegant tropical nightclubs were themed with palm trees and bamboo. It was owned by Henry, Dolly and Phil Molino. It was initially located at 316 San Pablo Ave., and reopened at 303 San Pablo after a fire in early 1938.

From February 1948 to February 1949, Club Kona was temporarily leased to Lloyd Johnson while the Molino family took a vacation necessitated by Henry and Phil Molino being on probation for a gambling charge.

Some time around 1954 the numbering system for San Pablo Ave, was changed and the address became 9901 San Pablo Ave. This is directly across from the west entrance to the El Cerrito Plaza shopping center. The cross street was Carlson. After the Club closed (in about 1960) there was a McFarlands Ice Cream/candy store. A Payless Shoe Source now occupies the site.

Opened in March, 1943.

Also referred to as "Eddie's Pago Pago" for owner Eddie Brandhorst.

Apparently, Eddie opened a second Pago Pago location in April 1945 at the former location of the Waikiki at 319 North Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs but he only ran it for a short time.

This was a 20-unit hotel with bar and restaurant in Avalon on Santa Catalina Island.

Group photo below dates to 1948.

Some time after 1955, it appears the site changed hands and underwent a name change from "Ted Enoch's Waikiki" to "The New Waikiki".

It burned down in a fire on March 5th, 1979 along with the Hurricane Cove Bar (a pre-tiki bamboo bar).

Bob Brooks 7 Seas night club was a pre-tiki establishment (although they did have both physical tikis and tiki graphics in their menu and advertising...so a case could be made they they were full-blown tiki earlier than many think), originally opened at 6904 Hollywood Boulevard by Ray Haller in 1935. Capitalizing on the popularity of the South Pacific as a dream vacation destination, Haller borrowed ideas from the popular Don the Beachcomber club a few blocks away and decorated the 7 Seas with a collection of tropical plants, nautical items, lava rocks, and other items of decor that fit the Polynesian theme. The most notable feature was a corrugated tin roof upon which nightly tropical rain storms--complete with thunder and lightning effects--rattled with considerable realism. Don the Beachcomber "borrowed" this idea.

When Bob Brooks took the club over a few years later (before 1951, since that year he was indicted for tax evasion), he upped the ante by stealing some of Don the Beachcomber's bartenders (including Ray Buhen of Tiki-Ti fame) along with their recipes for exotic rum drinks for an extra $10 a week which was a lot back then. Brooks also added an authentic Polynesian floor show, which was unique among South Pacific-themed clubs at the time. Another factor adding to the 7 Seas' popularity was its proximity to Grauman's Chinese Theater. Movie-goers had only to cross Hollywood Boulevard for an exotic climax to their evening on the town.

Another highlight of the 7 Seas was that Bob Brooks had several Edgar Leeteg paintings hanging up from his visits to Tahiti. These were removed in the 1950s after Leeteg's death when their value suddenly skyrocketed. However, he hired a Leeteg protege to make duplicate replacements.

Under new ownership in the 1960s with the notorious Eddie Nash, the popular night spot became the Seven Seas Supper Club. By the 1970s, however, the 7 Seas was declining into nothing more than a seedy bar. To make matters even worse in the early 1980s, Nash was tried with porn star John Holmes for the "Wonderland" killings and for drug trafficking through his nightclubs, including the 7 Seas.

Toward the 1980s, the restaurant evolved into a dance club, which added Scream nightclub in 1986, (and replaced the Seven Seas name with 'Club Hollywood' a year later).

Eddie Nash plead guilty to racketeering in 2001, and sold the place in 2007.

The 1921 building was sold again in 2013 to a Maryland real estate investment firm.

Today there is nothing left of this one-time Polynesian paradise but picture postcards, matchbook covers, and memories.

*NOTE: Bob Brooks had a second Seven Seas location in Las Vegas at the Nevada Biltmore, but it was short-lived, lasting just from 1942-1944.

Trade Winds was erected by developer Martin "Bud" Smith, and opened March 4th, 1964. It quickly became the hot place to be in town.

The restaurant had a lagoon leading up to a soaring A-frame entrance; inside were a series of themed rooms, including a central gazebo-shaped structure, the Samoa Hut/Tiki Temple. The predominant theme was Polynesian, but some of the rooms included an East Indies room, a Sadie Thompson room, and a Zanzibar room, all designed by 20th Century Fox designer Fred Moninger, and decorated by Ione Keenan. There were many tikis, carved by Richard M. Ellis. There was a Polynesian floor show.

Some time in the 1960s, Hop Louie (of Latitude 20 in Torrance, Minnie's in Modesto and the Islander in Stockton) took over the restaurant. In the late '70s, it became a Don the Beachcomber.

In later years, it became Coconut Joe's Warehouse Restaurant, and then later still around 1981, it became Hawaiian Cowboy (some of the decor was removed to make room for a mechanical bull and a BBQ pit. About a year later, it became an ice cream parlor, and in 1984, the building was demolished. The site is now a road.

Tiki Room in Pomona was open at least as early as 2000 and was a rental space used for bands to have live shows.

It was a spacious venue, with dim lighting, glow-in-the-dark paintings, caged go-go dancers, a stage for dancing and a maximum capacity of about 2,000 people.

It closed in 2007, and the building that housed it has been demolished.

Gene’s Hawaiian Village opened as a dance pavilion about 1932. Run by Harry Eugene Long.

This pre-Tiki venue featured native performers.

The “village,” located to the north of the cafe itself, consisted of Samoan huts, canoes, beachcomber shacks, and “everything authentic enough to transport you in imagination to another world,” according to columnist Win Morrow.

The building had a large neon sign across its flat front, and the entrance was flanked by two large, blocky tiki guardians.

Gene’s operated into 1948.

At some point, the building was demolished, and today a hotel is on the site.