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Entries from July 2006
July 31, 2006  |
Filed under: Shopping,Tiki — Humuhumu @ 12:53 pm
Mr. Rapa Nui in action Tiki Farm’s moai-shaped chimenea (mentioned here last March), Mr. Rapa Nui, started shipping last week, and our friends Tofu Joe and haole’akamai were the happy recipients of a black one (they were also created in brown and green). The timing was perfect, as they’d planned a bocce & tiki drinks party this past weekend, and we were able to help them break him in. As dusk fell it was slightly chilly, and Mr. Rapa Nui’s radiant wamth was much appreciated. Before lighting, Tofu Joe anointed him with a bit of Lemon Hart 151 rum, for good luck.
Tiki Farm has only a few chimeneas remaining, check the Tiki Farm website to see what’s currently available, and call Tiki Farm at 1 (800) 357-3360 or send an email to holden@tikifarm.com to get shipping costs and place an order.
Incidentally, Tofu Joe and haole’akamai served the delicious Martha Washington’s Rum Punch, as seen on Tiki Central. Very tasty!
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Filed under: Events,Music,Tiki,Tucson — Humuhumu @ 12:11 pm
Ernie Menehune
with Mr. & Mrs. cheeky half An exciting opportunity: Ernie Menehune will be performing on Sunday, August 13 at the Kon Tiki Lounge in Tucson, from 5-7 p.m.
Ernie Menehune is the “Suntanned Hawaiian Irishman,” he was born and raised in Hawaii until he moved to the Mainland at the age of 25, in 1952. He initially settled in Los Angeles, but soon moved to the warmer climate of Arizona, where he eventually began singing there in nightclubs, and eventually developed his own Polynesian revue. He performed in a circuit that included Las Vegas, the Latitude 20 in Torrance, and multiple clubs in Arizona, and he was on the same bill as acts like Esquivel, Frank Sinatra, Harry Belafonte, Buddy Hackett (now THAT’s a show!), and Tom Jones. He and his troupe, which included his wife Beverly and her twin sister, performed thorughout the ’60s and ’70s, and stopped touring in the mid-’80s as their child entered kindergarten.
In recent years, Ernie Menehune had been performing at Ye Old Lantern in Tucson, until it closed a few months ago. Ernie has hosted the occasional luau at his home ranch, Menehune Village, just outside of Tucson. Now comes word that he will be performing at the Kon Tiki Lounge in Tucson, which will hopefully become a monthly engagement. The Kon Tiki Lounge is one of the best-preserved examples of midcentury Polynesian Pop, and is worth going out of your way to check out; a performance by Ernie Menehune (who by all accounts is simply a marvelous and warm fellow) makes it something truly not to be missed.
Seating will be limited, call (520) 323-7193 to make reservations.
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Filed under: Art,Tiki — Humuhumu @ 11:09 am
Sabu the Coconut Boy’s propaganda Sabu the Coconut Boy is responsible for this Tiki propaganda poster; it’s a play on a few different inside jokes at Tiki Central. The result is not just gorgeous — it’s a compelling call to commit yourself to the Tiki Army. Heil Sabu!
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July 28, 2006 |
Filed under: Hawaii,History,Tiki — Humuhumu @ 1:59 pm
Postcard from the Waikikian Hotel I recently found this postcard from the Waikikian Hotel in Waikiki; it was one of the most dramatic examples of modern Polynesian architecture, designed by Pete Wimberley. It was one of the main tourist hotels during the height of the midcentury love for all things exotic and tropical and Hawaiian. This is a nice view of the lobby, but what I love best is what’s written on the reverse:
Reverse of postcard 2/ And here is the Waikikian – built like the prow of a nature ship – where I spend my final week in a “jungle suite” + my “half gone native” room mate with her Hawaiian boyfriend hovering. Now that I’ve moved to the centre of tourist activity “on the strip” I begin to be glad of the Waikikian week – believe it is rightfully the best surviving proponent of old Hawaiian hospitality – despite the bell boys who persistently put an arm across my shoulder + an obsequious manager who persisted in addressing me as Miss Jones! The “Jungle” tapers off to a bay lost beyond this picture – to the right beyond the glaring electric sign. Lobby illumination so “full of atmosphere” too dim to even read newspaper headlines.
It’s apparently #2 in a series of postcards used to log someone’s trip. It’s far more interesting than the typical “The weather is amazing here, I don’t want to come home!” business normally to be found on these old postcards.
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July 27, 2006 |
Filed under: News,Shopping,Tiki — Humuhumu @ 7:38 pm
Tiki Magazine Summer 2006 Tiki Magazine’s Summer 2006 issue has been released, with cover art by none other than Shag. Even cooler than that — the cover depicts Southern California Polynesian Pop revival legend Bosko Hrnjak; both Shag and Bosko are profiled in this issue, which I’m betting is going to be a very hot seller.
More exciting news from Tiki Magazine — they have a new website, created by your old pal Humuhumu! Tiki Magazine publisher Nick Camara requested something “fun, bright and tropical,” which launched me in a slightly different direction than the other websites I’ve created (though I strive to make sure all the websites look different; it’s important to me that the sites I create don’t look like “another Humuhumu site,” and instead reflect my customer’s image). My inspiration this time around was a very bright and beautiful A-line dress from the ’60s in my collection.
New Tiki Magazine website Check out the Tiki Magazine website to see more about the current issue, puchase back issues & fine Tiki Mag swag, and of course — to get your subscription!
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July 26, 2006 |
Filed under: Art,Shopping,Tiki — Humuhumu @ 4:07 pm
Sunrise Tiki by Flounder 
Sunset Tiki by Flounder One of my favorite artists, Flounder, has created two new tiki-themed paintings, Sunrise Tiki and Sunset Tiki. As the names suggest, the two paintings are a blue sunrise scene and a red sunset scene, each with three tikis of very different styles. Each of the two paintings are acrylic on 18″ x 12″ Masonite wood, and each is $500. Hand-signed prints of the paintings are also available for $30 each, plus $6 shipping (shipping is more if outside the contiguous U.S.). The prints are 17″ x 11″ on 19″ x 13″ heavyweight paper, and are mailed flat; shipping is combined if you buy both.
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Filed under: Art,Shopping,Tiki — Humuhumu @ 3:08 pm
Tiki the pug loves his Munktiki Munktiki is looking for Munktiki lovers to submit images for an upcoming book about Munktiki. The book is to be published by The Shooting Gallery in San Francisco. They especially want candid images, showing how Munktiki mugs work their way into people’s lives. It’s okay if it’s one mug or a hundred, but make sure it’s high resolution. You can email them to cheers@munktiki.com. You can see some of the swell pictures they’ve collected so far on their Mug Shots page (warning: NSFW!). Also, be sure to check out their fancy-schmancy new website!
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Filed under: Denver,Events,Tiki — Humuhumu @ 2:56 pm
A mini-golf tournament and celebration are planned in Denver on Saturday, September 16. The event starts at Hyland Hills Adventure Golf at 4 p.m., and later moves to the Red Lantern Chinese restaurant at 7:30 p.m. Here’s a description of the event, from Eleio the Fleet:
On Saturday, September 16th the Denver Ohana wish to welcome all of our aloha spirited family to a day and evening of tiki inspired mayhem as we host our first annual Tiki Links mini-golf tournament and celebration! Wits will be tested and skills tried as competitors vie for unique and exotic tiki treasures, created by some of the most prolific names in all of tikidom! Those brave enough to face snapping crocs, ancient ruins and a fire belching volcano, will gather in teams of two and prove their putting prowess by attempting to master the most exotic 18 holes of mini-golf to be found throughout our island! After our spirited contest is over, we’ll retire to a nearby hut for good food, fellowship and the Tiki Links prizes!
There are room for 20 teams to compete, get your RSVP in soon! The Denver crowd is a good one, and growing nicely — don’t be shy about participating even if it’s your first time meeting up with them.
Hyland Hills Adventure Golf — 9650 N. Sheridan Blvd Westminster, CO
Red Lantern Chinese — 8770 Wadsworth Blvd # 3 Arvada, CO
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Filed under: Central California,History,Research,San Francisco,Tiki — Humuhumu @ 2:25 pm
Large tiki at Bamboo Hut When creating the souvenir passport for this year’s Tiki Crawl, I paid a rare visit to the Bamboo Hut’s website, and noticed a mention that the large tiki near the entrance is from “1948.” It doesn’t say anything else about it — where it came from, how they got it, or whether perhaps it’s supposed to look like a tiki that could be from 1948. 1948 — that’s pretty darned old, and I thought perhaps it could be a typo. In the course of conversation this weekend, I learned from someone (Will the Thrill, I think) that they’d heard when Bamboo Hut opened in 1999 that the tiki had come from some old Chinese restaurant up in Sacramento that had closed. We couldn’t figure out which place it was, no names we could come up with jogged his memory.
I did, however, remember a great thread on Tiki Central that Sabu the Coconut Boy had started about a number of similar-looking tiki signs (I posted about it here on Humu Kon Tiki in February). While we were at Bamboo Hut on Friday I made sure to get some good pictures of the tiki, and just now I finally caught a moment to dig up that old thread and compare.
Coral Reef napkin Sure enough, not only does this tiki echo the look of the tikis in those other signs, one of the places that seemed to have a logo that matched is the Coral Reef, a Cantonese restaurant in Sacramento. Pictured here is a napkin that shows the logo tiki, which looks to be a near-perfect match for this old tiki.
I must admit — I’m not a big fan of the design of the tiki — I honestly thought it was something they’d hacked together with plaster. But knowing it might have an interesting history, while it may not make it more attractive, does make it (and Bamboo Hut) a ton more cool, and the simpleness of the design makes a lot more sense when you understand that it was intended to be viewed from many, many yards away.
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Filed under: Events,San Francisco,Tiki — Humuhumu @ 1:28 pm
On Sunday, we got to sleep in a bit, the pressure was off, and we finally got to just kick back with our friends over drinks and Play-Doh. Once again, here’s the thread on Tiki Central where you can see pictures, and here’s my rundown:
Hubert is a lush Rudy’s Can’t Fail Cafe
It wasn’t on the official schedule, but a few of us had time to kill between waking up and Forbidden Island, so we met up for breakfast and mimosas at Rudy’s Can’t Fail Cafe in Emeryville. The food was delicious, the mimosas were much appreciated, and the patio was deluxe, and the conversation was silly. Compared to the rest of the punk-flavored clientele, with their chain necklaces and mohawks, our bright aloha attire made us look not unlike a troop of clowns. Pictured is Hubert, our Swiss ski instructor monkey friend, getting hopped up on sake screwdrivers. Here are my pictures from Rudy’s.
Forbidden Island Play-Doh Throwdown
Moving the Crawl from early spring to summer made a huge difference; it’s a lot easier to play with Play-Doh when your hands aren’t freezing. Another big plus this year was moving it to the patio at Forbidden Island. I think the turnout was about three times what it’s been in the past for Sunday. Inky Louise was the clear queen of the Play-Doh, but everyone had at least one masterpiece. Here is my link to more pictures, and here are a few selections:
Inky Louise’s Blue Plate Special Inky Louise created this fab chicken dinner blue plate special, complete with mashed potatoes & gravy (I mixed up the brown Play-Doh for her!), carrots, and some very wee, time consuming peas. Mr. Wong made a blue ribbon, so pleased he was with her efforts.
Mr. Wong’s Green Eggs and Ham Mr. Wong made this lovely plate of green eggs & ham.
Mai Tai & Hanford share a Mystery Bowl Time for a volcano bowl break! Here are Mai Tai and Hanford sharing a Mystery Bowl, and below is a volcano bowl made by Coco Loco.
Coco Loco’s Volcano Bowl
Mr. Wong, Phil & Buster’s Undersea Garden Mr. Wong, Phil & Buster made this keen undersea garden — I especially love the pearl oyster.
Coco Loco’s Crab Rangoon Coco Loco made this fab basket of Crab Rangoon, served with french fries & a spring roll — all tasty food items you can get at Forbidden Island.
Humuhumu’s twinkie I made this Twinkie, which has to be turned upside down to really be appreciated.
Korn-Tiki lives! Korn-Tiki lives again! At left is the original Korn-Tiki, created by Hanford Lemoore a year or so ago at Bahooka in Rosemead, at right is the Korn-Tiki resurrection. Inky Louise made the corn, and Hanford carved him up.
Hanford’s impression of a Forbidden Island mug Hanford wrapped some Play-Doh around the front of a Forbidden Island mug to get this relief impression of it, and then stuck it in a see-through cup to hold the shape.
Inky Louise’s sushi Inky made this delish sushi trio, I made the pickled ginger.
Inky Louise’s miso Inky also made this lovely bowl of miso, with toothpick chopsticks.
Tiki Vixen’s sushi Tiki Vixen made this sushi roll, with tobiko by her, Inky & me.
teeny tobiko
Inky tries the kabobs Hanford made these tasty-looking kabobs that Inky is pictured giving a try, and an eerily-accurate Play-Doh tortilla chip.
Hanford’s tortilla chip
Thayer’s Fugu Thayer made this Play-Doh representation of the oft-ordered Forbidden Island drink, the Fugu for Two, served in a Munktiki Fugu bowl.
So, there you go — that was our crawl weekend. If you were there, thanks for coming and making it all so much fun, and if you weren’t there, I hope you’ve had fun hearing all about it, and maybe you’ll come join us next year.
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July 25, 2006 |
Filed under: Events,San Francisco,Tiki — Humuhumu @ 7:53 pm
The third day of the Tiki Crawl came on Saturday, when we visited the East Bay. This day was the biggie, with a bus full of about 50 crawlers, and about that many more on their own transportation. Unfortunately, California has been hit by a crazy heat wave, making the temperature about 10 degrees higher than would have been really comfortable — but at least it wasn’t raining! The bus and all the crawl stops had air conditioning that tried its darnedest to keep up with so many happy bodies in one spot, and we handed out tons of water — overall, we all held up pretty darned well, and there were a lot of very happy faces all around.
Here’s the Tiki Central thread for the Saturday events, and here’s the thread where you can see a whole slew of pictures. Here’s my short summary of the long day:
Mingling at Trader Vic’s Emeryville Trader Vic’s Emeryville
We started off the day at the oldest and nicest of the three Bay Area Trader Vic’s, the Emeryville location. This is not the original location — that would have been the long-gone Oakland location — but it’s chock-full of great tikiness. We had the back room of the restaurant, which includes a very nice patio and outdoor bar. We’ve had that back patio for previous crawls, but it’s always been miserably cold, and the beautiful sunshine was a nice contrast. Here are my pictures from the crawl, and here is the Critiki entry.
Happy crawlers at Forbidden Island Forbidden Island
This was the most highly anticipated stop of the crawl, and thus we spent more time here than anywhere else — three whole hours. Forbidden Island proved yet again why it’s the best danged tiki bar out there — despite having more people at this stop than any other, and despite the drinks served here being more complex and crafted more carefully than at any other, drinks got into people’s hands pretty darned fast. It got pretty roasty-toasty inside with so many people, so the outdoor patio was jumping. Stuckie brought another ‘Ohana Hut prototype for us to drink out of, and Bamboo Ben and Crazy Al made a surprise appearance, sending the whole place into a flurry of flashbulbs. Forbidden Island co-owner Martin Cate, who before opening the bar had been the primary organizer of the Crawl, was beaming with joy to see the Crawl come to his own bar — he loves playing host. Here are my crawl pictures from Forbidden Island, and here is its top-rated entry in Critiki.
Limbo at Conga Lounge Conga Lounge
Our fantastic bus driver executed the most impressive U-turn right on College Ave. (which resulted in much cheering on the bus) to get us to Conga Lounge, which despite its petite size, handled us pretty darned well. A few folks (us included) took the opportunity to get a bite to eat at Pizza Rustica directly below Conga Lounge (the extra clever ones placed a phone order on the drive over), and the rest of the merry group enjoyed the prepared punches upstairs. Iuka Grogg from the Maikai Gents led the group in a rousing Spanish version of Tiny Bubbles, and then there was a limbo contest, and a perfectly-timed conga line back to the bus. Here are my pictures, and here’s the entry in Critiki.
Crawlers fill the Kona Club Kona Club
The last stop of the night was the newly-opened and Bamboo Ben-designed Kona Club. We all settled into the tables in the back room, where we held the much-anticipated prize drawing — each stop on the crawl from Tuesday through Saturday entered a crawler into a free prize drawing, with many wonderful prizes donated by Tiki Centralites. Rather than doing a money-raising raffle, this year Hanford wanted to pay for the crawl out of his own pocket, and do a free drawing as a thank you for supporting Tiki Central, the Tiki Crawl, and Bay Area tiki. To tell the truth, multiple nights of very little sleep, the heat, and the effort of the crawl had taken its toll on me, and I was pooped! But happily so. Here are my pictures, and here’s Kona Club’s entry in Critiki.
One more crawl post is on its way!
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Filed under: Events,San Francisco,Tiki — Humuhumu @ 6:29 pm
On Day Two, Friday, we visited tiki locations in San Francisco — in years past, Saturday has been the day for the city, but with the opening of Forbidden Island and Kona Club in the East Bay in the past year, it was clear that switching the days would be the way to go. Sure enough, we were rewarded with unusually pleasant conditions, both in terms of the bar visits and the lovely weather.
Again, here’s the Tiki Central thread for the Friday events, and here’s the thread to check out tons of photos. Here’s my quick recap of Friday:
Sweetpea and Suzanne dancing
at Trad’r Sam Trad’r Sam
This longtime San Francisco institution wasn’t always a dive bar — it started life as one of the many elegant bamboo bars that dotted the country in the pre-tiki 1930s. Today, it’s a great place to go people watching, as a broad assortment of folks pass through its doors looking for a drink. We met up there in the late afternoon, before most people were off from work, which meant that we got a rare look at a quiet Trad’r Sam’s, allowing a clear view of the gorgeous rattan & bamboo bar and booth framings, and letting Sweetpea load up the jukebox with only the good stuff. Here are my pictures from the crawl, and the entry in Critiki.
Crawlers take pictures at the Tonga Room Tonga Room
From there, we made our way to the historic Tonga Room, in the Fairmont hotel. Ah, the Tonga Room. As ever, the service was bizarrely bad — as I mentioned in a post on Tiki Central, they have taken poor service to the level of performance art, and it has become part of the fun of a Tonga Room visit. They do everything they can to make sure you know that they really would rather if nobody came into the restaurant at all. Despite this, it’s completely worth every visit to the Tonga Room, because the decor so so jaw-droppingly well-done, and it’s so fun to see the faces of those who are seeing it for the first time. My pictures from the crawl can be seen here, and here is the entry in Critiki.
Before crawlers arrive at the Bamboo Hut Bamboo Hut
This was the most wonderful surprise of this year’s crawl. In previous years, the Crawl has made its Bamboo Hut stop mid- or late-night on Saturday, and it’s been jam-packed and loud, in full danceclub mode. This year, we visited at 8 p.m. on a Friday, and it turns out this is the perfect time to see it — its an actual bar at that time! And it’s far more lovely than I realized, too — with massive pufferfish, an outrigger canoe hanging from the ceiling, and that famous massive tiki by the entrance. Many were saying that it was the best visit they’d ever paid to the Bamboo Hut, and if I’d realized it could be so nice, I’d have visited more often. Here are my pictures from the crawl, and here’s the Critiki entry.
Enjoying a Rum Barrel at Trader Vic’s S.F. Trader Vic’s San Francisco
Our final stop of the evening was the elegant San Francisco Trader Vic’s, where the management had kindly prepared a spread of appetizers for us, and reserved the back room and bar for us. Our ranks really swelled at this stop — everybody was done with work, and after all, this was the best place on the tour that day to get drinks. Thanks to bartender Lars and his crew, we were all well taken care of on that front. My crawl pictures are here, and here’s the entry in Critiki.
Stay tuned for more posts about the crawl!
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Filed under: Events,San Francisco,Tiki — Humuhumu @ 4:39 pm
Hanford & I (mostly Hanford) just finished throwing a massive, four-day party — the sixth annual Tiki Central Tiki Crawl. This year, 12 different tiki locations were visited by a roaming horde of modern-day savages. It was incredibly fun, both to put together, and to actually do.
Here’s a thread on Tiki Central that focuses on the Thursday events, and here’s a photos thread that has tons of pictures from every night of the crawl, including this one. Here’s a short run-down of day one, Thursday, when we visited locations in Silicon Valley:
Carving on slit drum at the Papua New
Guinea Sculpture Garden Papua New Guinea Sculpture Garden, Palo Alto
This was the perfect place to kick off the festivities. Most people were seeing this spot for the first time — it’s a cluster of tikis carved by Papua New Guinea artists in 1994 at the invitation of the Cantor Arts Center. It is situated in a shady stand of trees on the northish side of the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto. You can see my crawl pictures here, here is its entry in Critiki and I also profiled it earlier in this Humu Kon Tiki post and this thread on Tiki Central.
Hanford chats at Trader Vic’s Palo Alto Trader Vic’s Palo Alto
Surprisingly, this is a place that very few of the local tikiphiles have visited, at least recently, and many were surprised at how much they liked it. That said, it’s important to have realistic expectations about this Trader Vic’s — it was the first of the new wave of Trader Vic’s to open, and it’s the least like the beloved older Trader Vic’s, with cleaner lines and brighter lighting. What it does have, however, is a great collection of Papua New Guinea art, from the personal collection of the owner of both this Trader Vic’s and the neighborhing Dinah’s hotel. We all gathered on the barside front patio, where the weather was lovely, and we got to take some time to catch up over Mai Tais. What more can you ask for? By coincidence, Trader Vic execs Hans Richter, Sven Koch and Eve Bergeron (that’s Vic’s granddaughter) were there, and Eve showed us around the restaurant. The crawl pictures from this stop are here, here’s the Critiki entry, and here’s a Locating Tiki thread on Tiki Central.
Martini Monkey at the San Jose Airport Martini Monkey, San Jose
Our third stop was probably the biggest hit of the day, and perhaps the surprise find of the whole crawl for many — Martini Monkey. Martini Monkey is off most people’s tiki radar, largely because it is located at the San Jose Airport, which conjures up all sort of off-limits thoughts. In reality, it’s very simple to visit (parking is cheap and directly across from its location in Terminal C), and well worth the trip. The place feels more lounge-y than tiki, but the entire back of the bar is one of Mark Ryden’s popular tiki paintings, giving it a definite Polynesian Pop vibe. The number one reason to come to Martini Monkey is simple: the drinks, crafted expertly by bartender Jay. The cocktails here are simply stellar. I could go on and on about Martini Monkey, and I will in another, dedicated post in the near future. For now, the crawl pictures are here, the Critiki entry is here, and here’s a post on Tiki Central about Martini Monkey.
Crawlers at Smoke Tiki Smoke Tiki, San Jose
Well, every crawl has to have a stinker location, and this was our not-unexpected dud. Smoke Tiki is simply targeting the younguns, and is a thumping nightclub. It might be a better place to visit earlier in the day, but I wouldn’t have traded it for the Sculpture Garden or Trader Vic’s — whaddya gonna do? At any rate, we still had a great time, we just carved out a corner for ourselves on the back patio and chatted with each other ’til the wee hours. Here are my crawl pictures, the Critiki entry, a Tiki Central thread, and an earlier Humu Kon Tiki post detailing our previous Smoke Tiki experience.
Posts detailing the other three days of the crawl are on the way!
- Tiki Crawl 6: South Bay THURSDAY Roll Call [Tiki Central]
- Photos from the 2006 Tiki Central Tiki Crawl [Tiki Central]
- Papua New Guinea Sculpture Garden [Humuhumu's Life in Photos]
- Papua New Guinea Sculpture Garden, Palo Alto [Critiki]
- Tikis at Stanford U. (image heavy) [Tiki Central]
- Papua New Guinea Tikis at Stanford University [Humu Kon Tiki]
- Trader Vic’s Palo Alto [Humuhumu's Life in Photos]
- Trader Vic’s, Palo Alto [Critiki]
- Trader Vic’s, Palo Alto, CA (restaurant) [Tiki Central]
- Martini Monkey [Humuhumu's Life in Photos]
- Martini Monkey, San Jose [Critiki]
- Martini Monkey, San Jose, CA (bar) [Tiki Central]
- Smoke Tiki [ Humuhumu's Life in Photos]
- Smoke Tiki, San Jose [Critiki]
- Game Developers Conference & Smoke Tiki, San Jose
- Smoke Tiki, San Jose, CA, (bar) [Tiki Central]
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Filed under: History,Los Angeles,My Travels,Tiki — Humuhumu @ 2:47 pm
The Cove in San Pedro A few weeks ago, Hanford & I went down to San Pedro for a quick weekend visit, to go to a Tiki Central Beach Burn. While there, we made some time to check out some of the local tiki spots.
The Gateway to the Cove 
Outdoor fireplace at the Cove At the top of our must-see list was The Cove, a.k.a. the old Hedley homestead, as seen in this earlier Humu Kon Tiki post. This stretch of beach, which is currently Royal Palms/White Point park, is where Eli Hedley raised his family of four daughters, making a living creating decor using the items that floated up onto the beach. They became regular hosts to the Hollywood set, and built it up into quite a little industry, essentially spawning the whole Beachcomber look. The home itself is no longer there, but the stone gate sides are, as are the dance floor and two large outdoor fireplaces. If you’ve been following the stories told by Eli’s daughter Bungy on Tiki Central, then you simply must see this place in person — its truly awe-inspiring to be in such a beautiful place, and imagine living there and having such a rich and otherworldly life.
Samoan Sea apartments 
Tiki at the Samoan Sea apartments The next stop was one we stumbled across accidentally, although it had been documented on Tiki Central previously by Sabu the Coconut Boy. The Samoan Sea apartments are right where Harbor Dr. meets Hwy 110. It looks great from the front — two nice large tikis (very similar to the spitting drum tikis at Walt Disney World), and a large A-frame entrance, flanked by piers and large nautical chain. The rest of the small complex looks a bit rundown, however.
Also nearby is San Pedro’s Ports of Call, which once upon a time housed the rather tiki Ports O’ Call restaurant. The restaurant remains, but the tiki details are largely gone. Apparently there are a few beachcomber lamps around here and there, but we missed them.
Hakaluki’s tiki The beach burn was great fun, and Hakaluki made this tiki to burn, which was far too beautiful. It went up in flames so quickly that I missed pictures of the actual burn. It was a lovely day at the beach, the weather couldn’t have been better, and we got to meet King Kukulele’s brand new baby girl, and catch up with lots of old friends.
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Filed under: Events,My Travels,Portland,Tiki — Humuhumu @ 1:44 pm
Spitting fountain at the Alibi in Portland, photo by Hanford Lemoore Last month, Hanford and I paid a visit to the fine city of Portland for the 2006 Northwest Tiki Crawl. The weather was beautiful (if a bit hot on the last day), and the company was grand.
The kickoff night was at Mark and Maggie Axton’s lush backyard paradise, the Castaway Cove, which includes a bar enclosed in a large freestanding building, a small “beach” complete with fire pit, and even a creepy voodoo maze through the shrubberies.
Day two included a visit to the Alibi, pictured above. The Alibi is the shining star of Portland tiki; the bar has a very long history, having started as the Chat n’ Nibble when the road it was on was the main dirt road for horse carts to get to town. It went thorugh a series of evolutions through the years, until becoming tiki in the post-WWII era, and undergoing a remodel and expansion in the ’70s. The natural build-up of dust, cigarette smoke and general grime slowly took its toll, and this past year, the same team of folks who throw the annual crawl started spending every Sunday there volunteering to clean the joint up. The results are outstanding — lamps shine brightly (but not too brightly!), the mural is looking lovely, and there are so many more little details to be seen now. There is more cleanup to be done, but it’s already looking worlds better. The famous neon Alibi sign has also had a refresh, and is looking better than ever. The drinks… well, the drinks still need a lot of work (One gentleman’s Mai Tai came with olives in it! And I thought it couldn’t get worse than the dreaded pineapple juice and grenadine.), but it’s all a big step in the right direction, and gives me great hope.
The next stop was the Jasmine Tree, a Chinese restaurant that years ago inherited tiki artifacts from the Portland Kon-Tiki when it closed. As earlier reported, the building the Jasmine Tree is to be demolished to make student housing for nearby PSU, but they are promising to re-open in a new location. Here’s the thing, though — the food & drinks are absolutely abysmal at the Jasmine Tree, and the space they’re in isn’t too terribly special (though the bar does have a few neat old-school details). The only thing the Jasmine Tree has going for it, in my book, are the cool tiki items that are currently displayed rather haphazardly. I heard the Jasmine Tree say they’re relocating, but I haven’t heard anything about what they plan to do with all their tiki stuff, if it will be re-installed, if they’ll go more tiki (don’t hold your breath), or if they’ll sell some of the tiki stuff off. Ordinarily, I’d blanch at the idea of tiki stuff getting sold off, but if it wound up at another public place, it wouldn’t be much of a change from the current state of affairs. Anyway, it was another typical night at the Jasmine Tree.
The evening events took place at our hotel, the Jupiter, where there was a vendor room (Hanford scored a ton of great vintage aloha shirts), and some bands played. At the afterparty, we made some drinks out of stuff we were able to pull together, and I managed somehow to make something out of Voodoo Rum, lemon juice, sweet & sour and orgeat that tasted just like the brine from a sweet pickle jar. So, maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on the drinks at the Alibi & the Jasmine Tree. Hanford & I finally made it to bed at about 4 a.m.
The next day was a scorcher, with the temperature bumping up against 100 degrees, which is unheard of for Portland in June. It was the day of the home tiki bar crawl, and the stops we made it to (before having to bop off to the airport) were lovely home tiki bar setups. A highlight of the day was a sneak peek of a brand new tiki bar opening soon in Portland, called Thatch. Thatch is being opened by the same chap who owns nearby Pour, a sleek wine bar. Thatch will include a small bridge crossing over a water feature at the entrance, a raised hut area at the back, and a sunken bar area. The booths are original Armet & Davis Denny’s booths, and the place is going to be all decked out in bamboo. A lot of imagination was needed to see how it would be when we paid our visit, but it sounds very promising, and there was a lot of excitement. Thatch is due to open in mid-August.
Mahalo to the Portland Tiki Crawl group for such a fantastic weekend, and for doing to much wonderful work on the Alibi!
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