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April 27, 2014 by tomdalzell

Pub Tiki, Philadelphia

My friend knew the Pub Tiki and asked if I cold track down any more images.  I found a few, presented below.  My memories of Pub Tiki are slightly traumatic, given (1) the exotic nature of the food by Philadelphia 1962 standards, and (2) my Very picky eating proclivities.  But, the images are great:

PT 1 PT 2 PT 3 PT 4 PT 5 PT 6My friend reminded me that Pub Tiki wasn’t the only Tiki joint in Philadephia at the time, that there was also the Kona Kai in the Marriot.  It opened in 1961.  I remember that Gabby was partial to it, not Pub Tiki.  It was pretty wild too:

KK 1

konakai-postcard Kona Kai KK 2 KK 3 KK 4 KK 5 KK 6

Before my time there was the Tahiti Bar on South 16th Street.

Tahiti Bar 2 Tahiti Bar Philadelphia

The Tahiti Bar was a strip joint.  The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania disapproved and the First Amendment issue – sex dancing as expression – went to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.  The bar lost.

Across the river in Jersey was the Hawaiian Cottage.

Matchbook

HC 5 HC 4 HC 3 HC 2 HC 1

 

HC 6

A giant pineapple to boot!  The interior:

Interior 4 Interior 3 Interior 2 Interior 1

And the clientele!

Customers 2 Customers 1

Girls night out!

Lastly, closer to home for me was Langerman’s Lounge at 915 Montgomery Avenue in Narbeth, on the eastern edge of the Main Line.

543_jumbo4643_jumbo 4644_jumbo 215_large Langerman's 3 Langerman's 915 Montgomery Langerman's Lounge, Narbeth4646_medium

When I had gathered these images I went to my friend’s study to show him.  He had stumbled on a series of photos of honey-gathering in central Nepal.   He was stuck on this one picture:

Screen Shot 2014-04-26 at 6.03.11 AMWhen I say stuck, I mean stuck.  In the end I just took the picture away and asked him to look at these of Pub Tiki and Kona Kai and the other Philly Tiki joints.  His verdict:

IMG_3677

 

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2 Responses to Pub Tiki, Philadelphia

  1. alyr says:
    February 11, 2021 at 7:42 pm

    Awwww, my mother took me to each one of these as a child on my birthdays! Thanks! OH and don’t forget about the iconic Zaberers! Where we all went from our Philly offices on Friday nights for a night out on our way down the shore for the weekend!

    Reply
    • tomdalzell says:
      February 12, 2021 at 5:13 am

      Those are great memories. Thanks for writing and making them part of the record here. Nothing to do with my core mission of Berkeley, but I make the rules so I can break them. Onward. Tom

      Reply

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