The Tahitian was a tiki restaurant with two locations — the first in Studio City, the second in Pasadena — that lasted from 1959 until (I think) 1968. It was founded, owned, and operated by Don Avalier, a former Hollywood actor, and his partner Bill Dove. Avalier was friends with Joseph Stephen Crane, also a former actor, twice married to Lana Turner and the restauranteur behind Kon-Tiki, a national chain of tiki restaurants. Hey, it was the 60s, the squares loved eating “Polynesian” food while surrounded by island kitsch and knocking back Mai Tais. These photos are courtesy MyTiki.Life.
The Studio City location was located at 12010 Ventura Blvd. across the street from the CBS Studio Center, where GUNSMOKE, MY THREE SONS, and GILLIGAN’S ISLAND were filmed. Here’s Neal Hefti, composer of the themes for BATMAN and THE ODD COUPLE, at The Tahitian.
When the career of child actress Gloria Jean petered out she became a hostess but was later “rediscovered” by Jerry Lewis. Notice the menus, more of which about below. Love her dress and the flower in her hair.
Looks like these dudes had been helping themselves to more than a few Zombies.
Minor celebs aside, it was mainly a place for the average Joe and Jane to toast the island life. If you look again at the photos above the restaurant was like a casino in that there aren’t many windows or natural light, as if the fantasy required shielding you from the outside world.
Miss Studio City held its award luncheon there. Wonder if Lewis “discovered” any of these girls?
The second location was located at 137 S. Lake Ave. in Pasadena. Not many good photos seem to exist of the exterior but I did manage to track down a few. The opening announcement from the Pasadena Independent, December 27, 1961, also features the proprietors.
There’s a better picture in Sven Kirsten’s Book of Tiki. I discovered this while using a urinal at the Purple Orchid, a tiki bar in El Segundo, which papered the men’s room walls with the book’s pages. (I’m not kidding.) Too bad the book is out of print.
The owners upgraded the sign in 1968.
Some snapshots of the neighborhood in 1965 looking north towards Colorado Blvd. These photos are at the intersection of S. Lake and Del Mar. The Tahitian would’ve been a block and a half up on the left/west side of the street. Photos courtesy of the L.A. Public Library.
An ad from the Pasadena Independent.
The restaurant was a popular gathering spot for social clubs as well as civic and business organizations. The South Lake Avenue Merchants Association held a luncheon there hosted by its secretary/treasurer and future bestselling-author Clive Cussler.
Via this Flickr page, a picture of the Pasadena interior.
The jewel of my menu collection.
The chef was one Francois Sirgant. Was he responsible for the epigram by Brillat-Savarin that prefaced the menu? Who thought a dish wrapped in tinfoil, and saying so on the menu, was a good idea?
The Polynesian cuisine got a big assist from Chinese and Indian.
More Americanized Chinese food with a dash of Hawaiian and Japanese under the heading of “Cantonese and Mandarin.” Are you enraged by the inauthentic cultural appropriation?
Love the illustrations at the top of the page.
The illustration on the left recalls the Disney attraction poster for the Enchanted Tiki Room. The Enchanted Tiki Room opened in June 1963 while the Tahitian Studio City opened in February 1959, but I’m not sure when this edition of the menu was printed. Given the Tahitian Studio City’s proximity to CBS Studio Center, was someone from the Disney team (Walt?) inspired by it? Disney originally envisioned the Enchanted Tiki Room as a dinner theater restaurant.
Adventureland used to have a restaurant called Tahitian Terrace. Here’s the menu. Some people are still upset that it’s gone. A Tahitian restaurant sponsored by Kikkoman, a Japanese food manufacturer?
A wine list typical of the era, all that Paul Masson. It would be another decade before the Judgment of Paris changed the American (and international) wine world. On the other hand, it does have some selection from Beaulieu Vineyards. Dunno anything about Louis Martini, but it’s still around and Total Wine carries it. Hmm, I should check that out. Note the Pasadena address at the bottom so this menu is from the Studio City location.
The sign change in 1968 signaled a change to their menu, an indication that the restaurant might’ve been struggling. I assume that “Polynesian” food was falling out of favor so it was deemphasized in favor of “American” food. Damon’s, just down the 134 in Glendale, one of the few surviving tiki restaurants, calls itself a “steakhouse.”
The Christmas menu from 1968. I think this was the restaurant’s last year in operation. It disappears from the record after December. Was this its final hurrah?
The menu was printed by the Lord Menu Company but who was the artist? It’s unclear. It might’ve Filipino-American Andres Bumatay or merely based upon his work. Here are pages about Bumatay’s mug designs and here’s a good forum thread about him. Whoever it is, I like how the idol and torch form a downward-pointing V to contrast with the building A-frame that points up. The menu cover was used for Sven Kirsten’s The Art of Tiki.
The ashtray that sent me down the Tahitian rabbit hole.
Matchbooks are readily available on eBay.
Would a tiki restaurant have been complete without a lounge/exotica soundtrack? Nightly music was provided by organist Pomping Vila.
An album of Vila’s work just sold on eBay mere days ago. I’ll bet the songs on this album are typical of what he played at the restaurant. How rad is that album art? Can someone do it for me on black velvet?
The first Trader Joe’s, whose branding and decor were heavily influenced by the tiki craze, opened just a mile and a half away from the Tahitian Pasadena, on Arroyo Parkway, in 1967.
Trader Joe’s #1 today. Tiki lives! Wonder when they got rid of the bamboo on the roof?
What’s currently at The Tahitian’s former location at 137 S. Lake? Nothing.
That’s Celestino at 141 S. Lake on the left and a bank at 125 S. Lake on the right which means that parking lot had to be the former location. Won’t quote any Joni Mitchell lyrics as apt as they may be.
Related
The folks at Vintage Menu Art sell prints of my menu. (I make no money on sales.)
Given that the artwork is in the public domain, people have put various iterations on t-shirts. Retro retailer m00nshot also sells them.
Exotikon, the exotica and tiki festival, will be in L.A. from June 23rd through 25th.
Tiki was before my time, but as I've grown older, its appeal--thanks to my exposure as a kid to the tiki flavor of Adventureland at Disneyland--has grown. I remember seeing the occasional tiki-themed mug, picture or miscellaneous marketing bit in the homes of my grandparents and other old people. I wouldn't want to go to all the trouble of making my own tiki lounge in my own home, but I'd do everything in my power to support its strange, wonderful, transporting flavor anywhere around me.