Looking For Info About "The Waikiki" In Washington D.C.

Aloha all - I was watching this Ku style mug on ebay which on the back says
The Waikiki, Washington D.C. with a yellow lei wrapped around it like a Tiki Bob mug, any one have any information on this bar? The auction said it was from around the 50's or 60's.. I was outbid on the mug, over my budget at this time.. but was just curious about this place..

Here's the link :
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=330268001396&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=014

Thanks & Mahalo!

[ Edited by: beachbumz 2008-09-10 13:16 ]

[ Edited by: beachbumz 2008-09-10 13:17 ]

[ Edited by: beachbumz 2008-09-10 13:43 ]

[ Edited by: beachbumz 2008-09-11 16:01 ]

[ Edited by: beachbumz 2008-09-11 16:02 ]

In case that link goes dead.. here's some pictures of it..

BuMp ...

Interesting mug, and typeface. Never saw it before, or remember any other material about the place. Might have been around for only a short time. Also, "Waikiki" is a very generic name.

Thanks for the input BigBro.. yeah I searched everywhere to get some information on the place but nothing at all came up.. I really liked the design of this Ku style mug and the typeface made it even more interesting to me as well.. I guess well just keep it a mystery.. (well for awhile at least..).
Scott

[ Edited by: beachbumz 2008-09-15 17:07 ]

Wish I could help, but this I'd never heard of it before nor seen the mug.

You've provided an interesting research project! Mahalo!

i have asked my local resources, but no luck yet...

to my knowledge, the known tiki places in dc/md were:

Aloha Hut
1715 G. St. NW - not too far west of the White House
Washington, D.C., 20006

Diamond Head in Loehmann's Plaza

Junkanoo - location of current Chipotle Mexican Grill north of Dupont Circle
1629 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington, D.C., USA
20009

Kona Kai, Marriott Hotel, Washington, DC

Luau Hut - 14 F St NW, Washington D.C. & 8407 Ramsey Ave, Silver Spring, MD

Orchid Isle, Washington, DC

Trader Vic's, Capitol Hilton - just two blocks directly north of Lafayette square (White House)
1001 16th St. NW
Washington, D.C., 20036

Here's another one that sold on ebay today from this bar "The Waikiki",
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200315754778&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&viewitem=&salenotsupported

and another auction of the mug posted earlier..
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200315753680&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&viewitem=&salenotsupported
I was outbid!! BIGTIME!
Anyone these get one of these?

Aloha's

[ Edited by: beachbumz 2009-03-08 23:05 ]

[ Edited by: beachbumz 2009-03-08 23:09 ]

I was watching that one myself. A very interesting mug, but it quickly reached a point to where I didn't bother bidding. (Looks like a couple of guys got into a bidding war and they both got sniped at the end.) I'm guessing it's an OMC or Orchids piece, and curious as to why it drew such a high price.

Hmm, they were on my watch list, that's about as close to winning them as I came. Actually, I've barely bid at all in the past six months; eBay lost me as a seller over a year ago and I've not bought much in that time as well. I did receive an email from Paypal saying how they "miss" me.

So, bad economy, eh? Only $356 an $405 respectively. That's a lot of do-ray-me, but I don't ever recall seeing that second version of the mug. Sorta rare then?

Twenty bucks says we see another Waikiki mug listed within a week or two.
Soothsayer midnite

I actually emailed the seller to see if she if possibly she knew anything about this place, but she just bought them at an estate sell and knew nothing about them... SCORE!!

Hopefully well see some more and find out more about this place..

Goodnight.. Aloha

On 2009-03-08 23:30, LOL Tiki wrote:
I was watching that one myself. A very interesting mug, but it quickly reached a point to where I didn't bother bidding. (Looks like a couple of guys got into a bidding war and they both got sniped at the end.) I'm guessing it's an OMC or Orchids piece, and curious as to why it drew such a high price.

The one full Tiki Mug does come up on Ebay ever so often and is in a few peoples collection. One you can find for sure. But that second Fogcutter type I can say it is a very rare mug as I have never seen one before either.
It's not in any books that are available nor has it been shown here anytime that I can remember. The mug is very cool and has crisp details and comes from a place there is very little information about.
Also a rare mug as it has not been seen with any other establishments name on it. Oh, and also not in the OMC or Orchids catalogs. I would say it is OMC anyway but not 100%. They made some very nice Fogcutter mugs this style for other restaurants.

My two bits.
TabooDan

..probably the handiwork of kohalacharms...looks like a mug he would have been after. I've never seen it before till this auction....very cool to know it's out there.

An older thread I know, but as I grew up in the DC (NOVA) area I have been hunting this one for a while. This is all I have so far. Meager, but gives us a time period.

Organization Name: WAIKIKI RESTAURANT, INC.
State: DC
Status: REVOKED
Initial Date of Registration: 2/4/1959
File No.: 591183
Organization Type: DOMESTIC BUSINESS CORPORATION

Registered Agent

Washington, DC

I think I solved the mystery of the Waikiki! I was doing a little research on the internet last night and came across this fuzzy picture of a matchbook from the Waikiki restaurant located in Washington DC. The matchbook has the same lettering used on the two custom mugs shown in this thread, so I am pretty sure that these all came from the same place.

The really cool part about this find is the location at 14 F Street NW. This is the same location as the second Luau Hut restaurant! Here is the Luau Hut matchbook from that location posted by TabooDan.

Given the information included in the post by OGR about the Waikiki business license getting initiated in 1959, it looks like the Waikiki preceded the Luau Hut. I will post this over on the Luau Hut thread as well. Maybe we can get Moon Kim’s daughter (LuauHut) to provide some info on this development.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=32449&forum=2&start=0&hilite=luau%20hut

DC

Right On DC!!! Looks to be the same place as the two mugs were from.... So that's were the Luau Hut used to be ..very cool..
Mahalo's

Very cool thread- I've often wondered about this place myself.

I was lucky enough years ago to score a pair of the first mugs in this thread on Ebay.

Havent seen any others til this thread, and have never seen the OMC version.

I can post some better mug pics if anyone is interested..

Yes, I am! Good to have you drop in here from time to time, Brian, hope all is well.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2010-06-05 07:26 ]

I'd love to see them as well, thanks..