Opened in the mid 90s.

The Lava Lounge was not truly a tiki bar -- it was mainly a beer joint -- but those who are into such places dug the dim lighting, booths and music. They did have a small cocktail menu, shown below.

The back bar was supported by two carved tiki posts, and there were a few great old tiki mugs among the collection of jetsam & flotsam behind the bar. That was about it.

From the late '70s through the '80s, this space was occupied by a bar called Hawaii West.

Closed January 2022 ahead of a redevelopment of that block of Belltown. Apartments directly in back of the site caught fire in June 2022, and the site remained boarded after that.

Opened in 1998 by Gail Stringer.

A medium-sized store in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood, which seems to be targeting the homesick among Seattle's Hawaiian community. It's not unusual to hear the lilting tones of pidgin english spoken here. There is a food section, and leis can be ordered straight from Hawai'i. Tiki Farm mugs and other tiki and party supplies can be found here.

They also run a travel agency out of the store as well.

Most people are acquainted with Archie McPhee's through their line of bizarre and inexpensive novelties, Accoutrements. The Accoutrements stuff, including the basic but useful tiki items they produce, are amusing and interesting, but at the store you'll see a whole lot more. The old catalogs featured odd items, mainly surplus items purchased from lord-knows-where, and were printed in black & white newsprint, with halftone photos, and descriptions that made you wonder why, oh why, you've been able to live this long without a ceramic glove mold or an alarm clock that shouts BEEBOH! At the online store, the Accoutrements items have pretty much taken over, but at the actual, real-life store, the old Archie McPhee's is alive, with row after row and bin after bin of fantastic items. It's a must-visit if you're in the Seattle area. It's also right nextdoor to a liquor store.

Opened in 1995.

This bar may have a tiki or two but it's not really a tiki bar.

The focus is on beer or whiskey shots. They may have a few simple cocktail specials on certain days.

It has much more of a college dive bar vibe.

Food menu is limited - corn dogs, pizza, burgers, chicken wings, etc...

This location opened in 1962 and closed in 1990.

It was well-known for, among other things, the large Barney West Bird Man carving in front. This carving was auctioned off after the close, donated by the new lease-holder of the building, Eric Denk, to the Scottsdale Junior Arts Forum as a fundraiser for their annual masked ball.

Eric re-named the location "Eric's Tradewinds", in an attempt to continue the Polynesian theme, but his effort was short-lived. Remaining interior decor was reportedly given to the Scottsdale Conference Resort for luaus.

As of 2021, this location is Citizen Public House, an upscale gastropub.

Kowloon opened on August 22nd, 1950 as The Mandarin House. In 1958 the Wong family purchased it and changed the name to Kowloon. Over the years they have expanded the restaurant into a broad complex of rooms, and it now has room for 1,200 dining patrons. Several of the rooms have Polynesian theming, including the Tiki Lagoon Room and Luau Room.

Fun Fact: The exterior Ku tiki below the A-frame is made of foam.

The restaurant has been a landmark in the north Boston area for decades, and photos of many celebrities visiting the restaurant are proudly displayed. They have a comedy club within the complex called "Kowloon Komedy".

The food is traditional Chinese American fare, and includes a flaming pu pu platter. Tropical drinks are served in tiki mugs.

As of 2024, the owners have announced that the restaurant is going to close. However, it sounds as though they have construction plans and that the end goal is to open a smaller venue on part of the same site. See 2024 Breezeway interview episode with Spike (Matt Marble).

This location was formerly called The Zen Trading Post, but is now called Zen Island.

It is a women's clothing and bikini boutique.

They also have a large selection of jewelry, art and coastal home decor, including tiki mugs, although it's not clear at this point how many of the mugs shown are for sale and how many are just store decoration (especially along top wall rails).

Built in 1963.

The structure looks to have stayed intact and it still appears to have its original fish-shaped sign.

From postcards, it appears that the lobby once had hanging globe lights and some Witco furnishings that did not survive remodeling, but much of this motel is still very much the same.

The hotel now in this location is called "Inn by the Harbor." It doesn't look like it could have once been Polynesian, it looks too Spanish-influenced, and seems probable that the original Polynesian Motel has been razed.

Built in 1950.

This restaurant at the Villa Hotel closed in 1988.

The Lanai had a dramatic neon palm tree sign, and an almost identical one stood at The Leilani in Fresno until 2014.

The Villa Hotel has now been converted to apartments -- The Villa at San Mateo.

Originally, this location was named Lo Curto's Gardens in 1933.

It was renamed Lo Curto's Hawaiian Gardens in 1938 and remained so until 1966, so it spanned both the pre-Tiki and Golden Tiki Eras.

The last incarnation was Italian Gardens, a banquet hall specializing in weddings and Lockheed Christmas parties.

Today it is Italian Gardens Family and Italian Gardens Senior, two government housing projects.

The Tonga Room is a great example of an old, classic Polynesian restaurant. It can be found in the basement floor of the upscale Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. The Tonga Room has gone through several incarnations over the years, themed initially upon opening on September 18th, 1945 as a cruise ship (the S.S. Tonga), then in the '50s as a Mondrian-esque Chinese restaurant, then finally in the '60s the current theme of a Polynesian paradise took hold. Before becoming a restaurant, the space was the hotel's swimming pool.

The bar area of the restaurant has some impressive nautical theming, complete with a large ship's mast and sail, and plenty of rigging. There are two long dining rooms. The left dining room lies beneath a peaked-roof A-frame structure of impressive scale, with gorgeous carved details. The right dining room includes tables clustered under smaller round thatched huts, each one filled with large, colorful float lamps. Around the entire restaurant there are no shortage of old carved pieces tucked in between tropical foliage.

The dining rooms and the bar wrap around the real star attraction: a water-filled lagoon (the remains of the room's swimming pool origins), with a small tapa-lined boat with a thatched roof, where a band plays. Every thirty minutes a thunderstorm erupts, and rain falls into the pool. Unfortunately, this grand spectacle is also where the Tonga Room experience goes sadly sideways: while earlier in the evening the soundtrack is appropriate Hawaiian music, the house band plays dance hits of the '80s. The band starts playing at 8pm, at which time a cover charge is added to all bills (adding insult to the injury). The more low-key Happy Hour buffet at the Tonga Room, which goes from 5-7pm Monday-Friday, is quite popular.

In early 2009, the Fairmont announced plans to add a new tower of condominiums; this plan would have displaced the historic Tonga Room. This led to a fight against the removal of this unique piece of San Francisco history. The end result was positive: the Tonga Room is now protected under special landmark status by the City of San Francisco. The owners could still choose to close the Tonga Room, but every artifact within must be painstakingly cataloged, tracked, and preserved, and hopefully that daunting task will stave off any dreams of converting the space. The hotel has since changed ownership, and the new owners have no interest in the old condo plan.

In 2013, the menu was revamped; the tropical drinks being served are now much truer to the traditional recipes, and prepared with more care. Tonga Room's management has said that this new menu has led to a dramatic increase in bar sales, giving hope that this new trend towards a higher quality experience at the Tonga Room will continue.