Beverly Hills Trader Vic's more prudish than Dubai!

Our exclusive report that the Trader Vic's bar at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills is covering the bare breasts of cartoon Polynesian women on its iconic cocktail menu has caused uproar around the world. The story has been picked up from Los Angeles to London and is sure to be fodder for late night talk show monologues and editorial debate.

Amid the hoopla over the defacement of the pop culture artwork with sloppy splotches meant to be bikini tops, a commenter in the Tiki Room Forum makes a startling observation:

"I was just looking at a Trader Vic's menu I got in Dubai and noticed that the wahines wear two leis to cover their 'boobies'. I thought that was odd, but maybe expected, Dubai is 'liberal' but has limits. Ridiculous to see that LA has even taken it a step FURTHER than UAE!"


There are two Trader Vic's restaurants in Dubai, where Westerners have been arrested for "indecent" clothing at public beaches.

Trader Vic's was founded by Victor Bergeron Jr. opened a small restaurant-bar called Hinky Dink's in Oakland, California on November 17, 1934. As its popularity spread, the menu and decor developed a tropical flair, and Hinky Dink's became Trader Vic's. Thhe first franchised Trader Vic's opened in Seattle, Washington in 1940. Bergeron opened a Trader Vic's location in Hawaii ten years later and in 1951 in San Francisco.


During the Tiki culture fad of the 1950s and 1960s, as many as 25 Trader Vic's restaurants were in operation around the world, all featuring the popular mix of Polynesian artifacts, unique cocktails, and exotic cuisine.

DUBAI

BEVERLY HILLS

Las Vegas is losing its Trader Vic's

The Las Vegas outpost of Trader Vic's is closing.


Word's been spreading all day on Twitter that the bright upscale, reincarnated and reinterpreted 21st century version of the dark Tiki classic is set to shutter within 24 hours, but all that's been confirmed is that the eatery and drinkery-- and a Vegas office of the TabloidBaby.com newsteam-- is closing.


Trader Vic's would seem a natural for the Vegas crowd, but with its location at the end of the Miracle Mile shopping mall and its decor a far cry from the dark, exotic Tiki classicism of the original, the place really was a bit pricey for the crowd dripping in from the Planet Hollywood slots.


Trader Vic's opened in Vegas in 2007, one of many franchises around the world. Coincidentally, official word came today that the Los Angeles Trader Vic's is up and running at the LA Live-Staples Center complex downtown. We suggest the Marina and raise a Mai Tai and crab rangoon in memory of the Vegas Vic's.