Trade Winds - Oxnard

Oxnard, California, United States

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.