I’m not out to depress anyone but
…when you think about all the Tiki bars and Polynesian Restaurants lost to time, what a downer.
Our record in Australia is so bad, no one can really remember what we had or if we had anything at all.
l have fond memories of a Polynesian Restaurant building, and that’s all it was … a building. (The food went “all you can eat” buffet with no real cuisine direction years earlier). I’m talking about the old Smorgy’s in Croydon.
It was demolished about 18 months ago. We did a photo shoot out there for the first Kustom Island show there five years ago under the gaze of the two giant fire breathing Moais. ( l will get those photo’s up on the Careless Navigator once l find them).
I’ve heard stories of Polynesian restaurants of a bygone era in Sydney, Melbourne and on the Gold Coast.
There was one in Melbourne during the 1960′s which l believe was called “The Pacific Rim”. It came complete with baby crocodiles in the lagoon. The story is once the crocodiles grew to a certain uncontrollable size they where flushed down the toilet to live in the sewers under the city. True or not, it makes a great urban myth.
What bought me to this point of reflection and despair?
A couple of vintage menu’s arrived this week in the mail and that is what got me thinking. They once adorned the tables of the Kahiki in Columbus Ohio. Built in 1961 and demolished in 2000, three years after it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. (How that register works has got me baffled)
The building was massive and it’s centre piece was a large Tiki fireplace, luckily someone had the patience to remove it in tact and put it into storage, where it remains with other Kahiki artifacts to this day.
While we are on the subject
…there is talk about a major redevelopment of the Fairmont Hotel on Knob Hill in San Francisco. Unfortunately there has been not much mention of The Tonga Room and it’s future.
Though It has had a few interior style changes since it’s creation in the 1940′s, The Tonga Room has always had the old pool in the middle. Over the years there have been additions both Nautical and Tiki. What can you say about a place that has a floating bandstand and a simulated tropical rain storm where it actually rains? Sensational.
There is a ground swell of concern for the future of the Tonga Room.
You can check out Save The Tonga Room on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52865973611
Cheers CN
What’s happening to the Tonga Room is a crying shame. I hope they manage to save it. Has there been any news on what’s happening to La Mariana since the owner passed on a few years ago?
Hey Kev…good to have you on board. I was wondering when you would show up. La Mariana, as far as l understand is rockin’ away quite nicely since the passing of Annette (her spirit is everywhere). But we should never, ever take it for granted. We should get a boat load together and head back soon. What do you think?
Cheers CN
As a young kid I remember going to a Smorgy’s in Burwood.As CN said, it was an “all you can eat” buffet.I can vaguely recall the interior being mainly wood (there would of have to have been bamboo and thatching),a few aquariums, and “gardens” of plastic plants.
Although I didn’t know it then, this was probably the closest thing to a Tiki/Polynesian bar/restaurant that I experienced as a child.
That place is no longer there, but there is still a Smorgys in Ashburton that has a pair of really cool Moai at the entrance. Well they were cool until they painted them with hideous red paint that is supposed to look like lava flowing around them.
I should go and have lunch or dinner there sometime to check out what it looks like inside. Although i’m sure it will be pretty crappy, and they won’t know how to make a Mai Tai if their lives depended on it, it might just have enough “Tiki” about it to say, “Hey we once did, and still do, have a Tiki bar/restaurant here”.
I believe Smorgy’s in Burwood is now Volcano Joes. Went there once about a year ago. It’s such a shame really. Could have some potential if you could get rid of the awful buffet, screaming kids & bogans. The fountain inside was still there. The volcano & the tikis were still out the front. The website is still up so don’t know if it’s knocked down or not??
Went to the US on a bit of a tiki tour last year. Went to The Tonga Room. Bloody AMAZING!! If they get rid of that place to make way for a parking garage, I will have no faith in humankind! I know there was recently a rally in San Fran to save it. I really hope they succeed. It is definitely a big part of history, and not just in polynesian/tiki pop culture.
Also went to Mai Kai. WOW! Words cannot describe these places! They are as they were way back when & you really do feel like you’re stepping back into the era that I’m sure many of us would have loved to have lived in. Really hoping to get back over for Tiki Oasis again this year & want to head back upto SF & visit Smugglers Cove, & of course head back to the Tonga Room.
Wish we could go to Chin Tiki in Detroit & Kahiki in Columbus. But alas, we’d need a time machine to do that. Let’s hope the Tonga Room doesn’t end up like those classics.
Incidentally & as a side note, my boyfriend’s Aunt was a mystery drink girl at Kahiki…..
Hey TikiNeekie…We also ventured into Volcano Joes last year and your assessment of the place is unfortunately correct. It really does have potential to be resurrected as a classic Tiki Temple. But l will say there still is a fair amount of Sepik carvings from it’s previous life scattered around.
Do you have a photo of which Mystery Girl your boyfriends Aunt was?…l know there was quite a few over the years. He must feel like he is related to royalty…
Thanks for taking the time to share your adventures in paradise, l suspect you have heaps more Tiki tales.
Cheers CN
I just remembered something about Smorgy’s in Croydon. I went there about 10 or so times. The where still heaps of carvings and fittings from its golden era. So caught up in what Smorgy’s used to be l walked up the bar (this is about eight years ago) and ordered a Mai Tai. Looking blankly at me the young barmaid asks “what is a Mai Tai?”. I explain that it is an exotic cocktail. Her response “we only have two cocktails here, a White Russian or a Black Russian”. I guess that really sums up the last years of Smorgy’s for me.
Cheers CN
In my collection I have a few matchbooks from long forgotten Australian “Polynesian Rooms”, which is what they were referred to at the time bassed on what is printed on the Matchbook.
Firstly we have the “Polynesian Room” at the Brisbane Travelodge in Kangaroo Point. Google it and you’ll scarcely find a trace. Secondly there was the Darwin “Beachcomber” – ‘Australia’s finest Polynesian Room’ – which was in the Koala Welcome Inn which probably got destroyed in Cyclone Tracey. Zilch on the internet for this one. Lastly I have one for the “Bamboo Room” at the Melbourne Chevron/Hilton. Google News Archive search brings up quite a few mentions of this one, including a rendering from the early 60s that is Mid Century Modern rather than Polynesian Pop. Perhaps they remodelled?
Hey Buddy, good to see you back on CN. It’s funny every Aussie Tiki matchbook you mention l have in my collection and apart from a few extras that lean more to a nautical theme, that’s about it. Here is some others ‘the Beachcomber” in St Kilda Melb. Plus there was a few resorts in Surfers Paradise…the ‘Islander’ and “Tiki Village” The later l have not only a matchbox but a late 1960′s brochure. I was going to do an article on CN about postcards but maybe matchbooks should come first.
I’d be interested in seeing the Tiki Village ephemera as it’s where my parents had their honeymoon. Unfortunately they bought back no momentoes, or at least nothing has survived the 40 years that have passed.
Kane Tiki…I’ve just emailed you a few photo’s of the Tiki Village stuff. Did you know the place is still there? But it doesn’t look as cool as it once did.