This pre-tiki establishment was opened on April 12, 1939 by Niel Murphy.

It was across the street from the RKO Studios backlot. The RKO Forty Acres (1927-1976) was best known as Forty Acres and "the back forty," it was also called "Desilu Culver," the "RKO backlot," and "Pathé 40 Acre Ranch," depending on which studio owned the property at the time.

The Coral Isle featured murals by Frank Bowers, decorative matting, and bamboo everything. The house specialty was chicken dinners.

Harold La Van took over Coral Isle in July 1941 and by this time it had transitioned to serving Chinese food and tropical cocktails. La Van had operated a previous cafe in Venice, the Bambu Hut as well as the Rhumba Cabana in Santa Monica. La Van expanded the Coral Isle in 1944. It was soon taken over by brothers Phil and Lou Stein and their partner Bob Sassner, then Bob Axelrod in September 1946.

In 1956 it became the sophisticated Culver House.

Located at what used to be Bandits’ Grill & Bar. Opened May 6th, 2025 by Pizza Man Dan with the concept that all food and drink will be $9.99.

To accomplish this, the cocktail menu is limited to 9 choices, and all drinks are pre-batched.

Build-out of bar was done by Bamboo Ben.

Notable features include hidden Easter Eggs with a pizza theme worked into the tiki art and design elements. There is also a huge wall-sized "Vision Screen" television that plays surf footage or other videos.

999 Tiki Bar is located 2 blocks east of House of Bamboo, a more traditional and immersive Tiki Bar. House of Bamboo had setbacks during the construction phase (and did not open until February 2026) and even though the project was started earlier, 999 Tiki Bar was a relatively easier build-out and seized the title of "Camarillo's First Tiki Bar". Still, there seems to be room for both concepts as 999 Tiki Bar caters to a family crowd and House of Bamboo aims for an adult audience looking for an immersive adventure. What is clear is that Camarillo has very quickly become a clear tiki destination!

The Mandarin was a Chinese Restaurant and not a tiki establishment, but it was extremely influential and deserves some recognition for the part it played in the development of American Chinese restaurants and tiki restaurants going forward.

The Mandarin Restaurant was founded in 1968 by Chinese food doyenne Cecelia Sun Yun Chiang. What Julia Child did for French cooking in the United States, Cecilia Chiang did for Chinese cuisine in America. Trader Vic (Bergeron) became a sort of mentor to Cecilia Chiang, especially when she moved to Ghirardelli Square where he had Senor Pico. Trader Vic brought columnist Herb Caen to The Mandarin, Caen wrote about it, and off it went. (Note: This writer was handling public relations for Trader Vic’s at that time.)

The interior of the Mandarin Restaurant also looked very similar to many tiki establishments with its large screens of Chinese temple tiles and wall sections comprised of thatch, lauhala, rattan, and bamboo. See photos below.

And, The Mandarin also served cocktails in their own signature mugs, much as her mentor, Trader Vic, did in his own restaurants.

In the heyday of the Mandarin’s success, Cecilia presided over an elegant restaurant that achieved a national reputation. Visitors from all over the country came to seek authentic and fine Chinese dining. She held cooking classes that saw students the likes of Julia Child, James Beard, Alice Waters, Marion Cunningham, Jeremiah Tower and Danny Kaye come through.

Her cooking undoubtedly influenced Trader Vic's appreciation of Chinese food going forward with his Trader Vic's restaurants and set a high bar for tiki restaurants wanting to incorporate high quality Chinese food.

After 23 years, Chiang sold her interest in the business in 1991.

This Ghirardelli Square stalwart closed its doors in 2006.

However, the family legacy lives on...Chiang's son, Philip, is a co-founder of the restaurant chain P.F. Chang's. He also ran a sister version of the Mandarin in Beverly Hills (1975-2001).

This was perhaps one of the biggest pre-tiki locations on the West Coast.

The location has a long history, but its pre-tiki history began in 1933 with its first incarnation as Club Kamokila.

Club Kamokila was located at 960 Bush St., in San Francisco. Founded in 1933 by pineapple heiress Alice Kamokila Campbell, it was originally called Kamokila's Temple to Art. The temple was the auditorium, as the building was a former church that became a speakeasy. Legal issues arose after the club was raided for unlawful liquor sales, and Campbell closed the club in April of 1934, & moved back to Hawaii. It was then taken over by Kamehameha Corporation, and renamed the Royal Hawaiian.

The Kamokila mascot was a pineapple wearing a top hat and monocle (very similar to the Planter's Peanuts mascot from a distance) and the pineapple mascot was kept for the new location for a time as well.

At some point, this location was connected to the Hawaiian Gardens in San Jose, which was considered for a time to be a sister location.

Closed and then re-opened in 1943 as the Bush Street Music Hall.

Built in 1965 as the Halemaki Apartments with 127 units.

There used to be a lot more color and details as can be seen in the first photo below (redwood color with what look to be PNG inspired designs).

The units are now condos and have been re-named "Point Loma Villas".

The basic A-frame architecture survives, as does the unique indoor/outdoor pool, and even some of the original (or at least period) rattan furniture.

This pre-tiki establishment was open at least as early as 1952, but probably even earlier right after WWII.

Advertising proudly proclaims it is "G.I. owned and operated."

Decor and theming probably didn't extend much past the impressive sign out front.

Built in 1955.

Located in the Point Loma area of San Diego, this motel was right across the street from the famous Fisherman's Landing fishing docks.

Originally, this motel featured the name in a very cool font sign along with a large actual outrigger canoe out front.

The building is still here but appears to have been converted to condos and has been re-named several times and barely resembles its former self.

No outrigger canoe to be seen...

There was also an Outrigger Motel on Atlantic Avenue in Ormond Beach, Florida (now the Outrigger Beach Club Resort) but there appears to be no connection to the San Diego motel other than the name.

Built in 1961, this complex has 42 units and is 2 stories tall.

Pop Polynesian features include a lava wall, outrigger beams, an A-frame entrance, and a pool hut (originally with large outrigger extensions, but now long since cut away).

Smaller photos below from 2002 provide contrast to larger 2025 background image.

Most recently, the building has had a severe pruning of all its palms and tropical foliage and many of the outrigger beam extensions have been cropped. This, combined with a much lighter paint job than in previous years makes the property much less "exotic", but it still survives and with the original name intact as of 2025 (see background image).

The original long and low building was Pike’s El Rancho back in the 1940’s.

Arne and Carolyn Jacobson added the A-frame and theming. They opened Arne's Royal Hawaiian Motel in 1957 and it closed in 2009.

Originally, those staying in one of the 43 rooms could enjoy color TV, a rec room, tennis court, and a swimming pool.

The rooms featured Hawaiian inspired motifs, including palm tree murals and rattan furniture.

The iconic sign and the impressive A-frame with curved beams (even more impressive in an interior view) caught the eye of many a traveler on their way to Las Vegas.

Unfortunately, after its closing, it became a focus for graffiti and vandalism.

Many hoped that someone would re-open or salvage this site, but it was not to be.

The building was leveled in 2025.

Joe Chastek was first introduced to Polynesia when he and a high school buddy stowed away to the Philippines when they were both 17. Joe was one of the first to open a club with the South Seas motif. His first pre-Tiki bar was the Zamboanga. His second was the Tradewinds. His third was Vagabond's House.

The Trade Winds was opened during the war, in December 1944. He kept the same monkey theme that worked for him at the Zamboanga.

This tiki adjacent location opened in the 1980s and closed in 2000.

No tikis to be seen and the Caribbean is not the South Pacific, so wrong body of water....however this was a hugely influential bar and (along with pop culture influences like the TV series LOST) has inspired many modern tiki locations. Last Rites bar in San Francisco seems to echo the theme and carry on the crash landing tradition. The Jet Set bar in Newburgh, NY also had a plane fuselage for customers to sit in (closed in 2024). Many other tiki bars incorporate aviation history into their interiors, from newspapers about the bombing of Pearl Harbor, to propellers and other repurposed plane parts, to aviation pinups, or nostalgic 1960s travel posters and memorabilia from the Golden Era of plane travel. Aviation may not be quite as popular as nautical on the Tiki Venn Diagram of sub-categories, but it definitely has a presence. Perhaps the future of this trend lies with Mothership in San Diego -- Mothership goes sci-fi and explores the crash landing theme on an alien planet!

The Caribbean Zone was located in the SOMA district of San Francisco. It was hidden under a now defunct freeway overpass in an alley behind a bus terminal, next door to what was then Club DV8. Their kitchen was actually located inside of Club DV8, and when it went under during the dot com bubble, so did the Caribbean Zone. They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot. Literally.

The theme of the restaurant was an airplane that crash landed in a tropical jungle. It was a full restaurant that served Caribbean fare, such as Jamaican Jerk Chicken, and fried plantains. Drinks were also Caribbean style, with choices like a Bahama Mama, Goomba Boomba, or a Mai Tai with pineapple juice served in a brandy snifter.

You would approach a small looking quansit hut in the middle of what was then a semi industrial wasteland. You entered through a plain non-descript door, and then you would be immediately whisked away to a tropical paradise.

The back bar was actually the fuselage of a DC-3, at one time the actual tour plane for the Doobie Bros. Someone bought it, removed the wings, and installed it as the back bar. The cool thing was, you could actually go up into the plane, and have cocktails! The waitresses would come up and take your order, then return with your drinks. And they had placed small tv screens on the outside of the plane windows, so when you looked outside, it gave the illusion that you were flying.

There was a lot of great tropical foliage throughout the restaurant, and there was a huge waterfall feature in the back, that was big and loud enough that you could not carry a conversation if you were seated next to it. There also was a banquet room that sat about a dozen people, and it was done up like a cave with stone walls.