The Bahooka
Fake Polynesia gives way to authentic Asia in Rosemead
The Bahooka was a chain of two Polynesian restaurants located in the San Gabriel Valley. The first, in West Covina on the corner of Sunset Ave. and Francisquito Ave., was open from 1967 to 1980. The second, in Rosemead at the intersection of Lower Azusa Rd. and Rosemead Blvd., operated from 1976 to 2013. Not much ephemera has survived from the West Covina location. This picture, taken from a postcard which you can usually find on eBay, is the only image I’ve seen of it. I couldn’t locate any pictures of the interior.
The Los Angeles Public Library has the menu from the West Covina location in its collection. This cover art would be updated for its Rosemead location.
Here’s the food menu. God forbid you don’t order dinner by number or sandwiches by letter. Not sure what they mean by a “Polynesian oven,” but gonna doubt it was one of these. “Polynesian” restaurants during their heyday were usually based on Americanized Cantonese cuisine but this is mostly somewhere between a basic steak restaurant and diner. Love the “Kosher Salami (Polynesian Style)” and how Kraft American Cheese is prominently featured.
The chef’s salad came with “Bahooka’s Own Unique Dressing.” I found the recipe published in the L.A. Times in 1977. Haven’t made it but my guess is that it’s a variation of 1000 Island.
Here’s the drinks, which this page claims is from 1973. Nowadays tiki bars are nearly all rum-based but here gin and vodka are featured first. It’s hard to read but the Tiki Demon on the right-hand page in the lower left — “Inspired by the Devil” — notes that the mug is yours to keep. I’d pay a lot for one of those.
The menu contains a bit of history by way of atmospheric hokum. The Polynesian/beachcomber/tiki restaurant was all about selling an island fantasy.
With the help of this transcription from I assume a later menu, I’ve done my best to reconstruct the text from the nearly unreadable lo-res scan:
ALOHA from the BAHOOKA!
BAHOOKA means shack; Aloha means many things: love, friendship, good wishes, farewell. Welcome from the BAHOOKA.
As you crossed our threshold, you became shipwrecked on a deserted island. Or such is the illusion we at BAHOOKA hope to create. It is more than an illusion; it is the inspiration and dreams of a group of people who have gathered all these castoffs so uniquely arranged to create an unusual atmosphere for your dining pleasure. We have created a shack for you, the public. A place where you can enjoy delectable Polynesian ribs and exotic drinks. Our ribs are marinated in our secret formula and slow baked in our Polynesian ovens. Our drinks are concocted from the nectar of the islands gods. Both food and drink are prepared fresh daily for you under the matchless guidance of one of our associates. The food and drinks will speak for themselves, but the surroundings may warrant some explanation.
When the BAHOOKA was in the planning, we scanned the islands to gather much of the decor for our restaurant. The doors, if you will [?], are of heavy slabs cut from giant [? ?] trees. The structural bamboo in building has been imported from the Philippines and hand wrapped by the natives (native [?]). All lamps were hand crafted from castoffs, port holes, parts of ships, etc., and sprigs of imagination. Globular lanterns are actual glass floats from Japanese fish nets. Blow fish, dried and hollowed, hang with lights. On our ceiling, 400 lights blink at you like distant stars. The tortoise shells are from giant tortoises of the South Pacific. The decorate rock behind the bar is not rock, but several hundred abalone shells arranged to appear as rock. Our [?] tap is hand crafted from many [? ? ?] imported from all over the world [? ?] is white sand from the beach of Wakiki. At the far end of the dining room, our nautical section, note the beacons of “Port” and “Starboard,” the ships’ flags, the mast and, last but not least, the wreck of an old Spanish galleon. On our warrior wall you will note native weapons, spears, etc. And did you ever see such unusual fish tanks? Some you will recognize as old tires and gasoline pumps. Here again, imagination and creativity prevail. The tapas (figured panels on our walls) are from Fiji, Tonga, Tau, Tahiti, Samoa, and Hawaii. These tapas are made from mulberry bark and are hand blocked with native vegetable dyes. All art work is hand painted to create an island atmosphere for you.
Pay homage to “Taaroa,” the great Tiki god. He stands majestically nine and a half feet tall.
HE WAS THERE, TAAROA WAS HIS NAME
ALL ABOUT HIM WAS EMPTINESS
NOWHERE THE LAND, NOWHERE THE SKY
NOWHERE THE SEA, NOWHERE MAN
TAAROA CALLED OUT…NO ECHO TO ANSWER
THEN IN THIS SOLITUDE HE BECAME THE WORLD
THIS [KNOT?] OF ROOTS IT IS TAAROA
THE ROCKS ARE [HIM?] [AGAIN?]
TAAROA, THE SONG OF THE SEA
TAAROA, HE NAMED HIMSELF
TAAROA, [?]
TAAROA, ETERNITY
TAAROA, THE POWERFUL
CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE
[WHICH IS BUT?] THE SHELL OF TAAROA
WHO BESTOWS ITS LIFE IN BEAUTIFUL HARMONY(From a Polynesian [?] the creation of the world.)
May you always enjoy the blessings of the great Tiki God, Taaroa, and return often to dine with us.
The poem is apparently based on a real Tahitian creation myth and I found a translation that closely matches the menu copy.
Although I have nothing from the West Covina location, I recently purchased a unique object from the Rosemead one. Sven Kirsten — author of The Book of Tiki, Tiki Modern, Tiki Pop, and The Art of Tiki — recently auctioned off a large part of his collection.
Sven tells a story about the birth of the tiki revival in the early 90s. He was having dinner at the Rosemead Bahooka with fellow enthusiasts. After talking to them he realized he knew more about the history of tiki than anyone else there so he took it upon himself to write a book. Next time I run into him at a convention I’m going to ask if this menu was from that dinner. If he says no, I’m going to lie and claim it is anyway.
The Rosemead art updates the surfboard tikis and changes the color scheme of the West Covina menu.
The food offerings are substantially the same. They dropped the claim about the “Polynesian oven,” any mention of their specialty dressing, but maintained their odd numbering system. They note some dishes are made with “low cholesterol” canola oil. Have you been seedpilled, anon?
The drinks menu is likewise substantially similar to the West Covina location and still features gin and vodka before rum. Nothing about any drunks coming with a souvenir mug but the text in the lower left notes they sold their drink mixes.
This edition of the menu omitted any legends about the restaurant’s history or odes to Taaroa but, at least according to this post, the restaurant had a carving of the fearsome idol.
Was the food any good? Legendary Los Angeles critic Jonathan Gold was a fan but probably more for the drinks and atmosphere than fare itself. This is from his 1998 L.A. Times review that he included in his book Counter Intelligence:
Fish puffs go with a Monsoon or a Jet Pilot or a Flaming Honey Bowl better than you could possibly imagine, though the leaden deep-fried balls of food aren’t anything you’d want to look at by the light of day, and the onion rings aren’t half bad. (Shy away from the “wingettes” by the way). There is no rumaki. Sorry.
When the steel-guitar lowings on the P.A. start to sound good, it’s time for a Shark’s Tooth or a Cobra’s Strike. Halfway into one of those, a sticky order of Exotic Ribs may seem like just the thing, because the ribs are moist, soak up a lot of alcohol, and come with fries, sweet baked yams, or cobbettes. The cobbettes, definitely the cobbettes. You can also get teriyaki chicken breast, ham with sweet-and-sour sauce, roast beef, or fried golf balls of shrimp, but you won’t. What will happen is that your date will suck up the last of his or her Jolly Roger Bowl and carve your initials in the booth. Don’t worry, it’s happened before.
Others were more blunt, like this anonymous L.A. Times reviewer from 1992.
You can find mugs on eBay and at tiki marketplaces but given their rarity and fame of the restaurant, they tend to be pricey.
The design of the latter is similar to this newspaper coupon.
Look, I like odd things but even I have my limits.1
Gotta mention that the restaurant was featured in this scene from Terry Gilliam’s FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS.
During the 70s they sponsored a baseball team called the Bahooka Islanders that had an 0-4 record. (Take a look at the fast pitch league on the left. Really hope one year the World Series saw a contest between the Pomona First Church of the Nazarene and the Master Batters.)
The restaurant closed in 2013 when the owners finally retired, but I think it’s fair to say it was also a victim of changing tastes because it was located at ground zero of the San Gabriel Valley’s hub for authentic Asian food. Inauthentic Polynesian was being pushed out by authentic Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese.
It’s now a Chinese-Vietnamese seafood restaurant called Boston Lobster. Tragic that the building has been turned into a dull white box but at least they kept the Bahooka’s anti-aircraft gun.
Much of the Bahooka’s decor ended up at Clifton’s South Seas in downtown L.A. but some can be found at Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco and the Tonga Hut in Palm Springs. When I was last at the Palm Springs Tonga Hut the owner, Kevin Murphy, gave me a tour of the hidden “speakeasy” room where the Bahooka decor is located but, alas, my pics didn’t turn out.
Related
A good photo essay of someone who ate at the Bahooka before it closed.
Architecture critic Alan Hess on its closing. I’ll be reviewing Hess’s book about Googie architecture in a future post.
I wrote about The Tahitian in Pasadena, and shared my menu, here.
A dark bit of trivia: the second Night Stalker victim was murdered just down the street from the restaurant.
It’s been listened for at least a year. There’s a good chance I’ll have one too many mai tais one night and buy it.