This year one of the world’s grandest institutions of tiki culture celebrates its 80th anniversary; Trader Vic’s, bringing South Pacific fun to the world since 1934. Before coming to London’s Park Lane, this famous bar was founded originally in Oakland, California, by eccentric San Francisco bartender, Victor Jules Bergeron. The prohibition had just ended and people were once again beginning to drink and celebrate alcohol again. Victor harnessed colour and tropical flavours from his travels in the Caribbean and brought them to war time America, sparking an appetite for rum and filling his sites with exotic South Pacific artefacts the likes of which the public had never seen. Trader Vic’s multiplied swiftly. By Victor’s death in 1984, he had overseen openings across North America, Havana, Munich, Tokyo and, of course, London.
| These restaurants-cum-bars quickly established themselves, drawing in celebrities and royalty; Queen Elizabeth II chose Trader Vic’s Oakland as the site of her first ever US restaurant dining experience in the 1980s, and, as I discovered on a visit to the London site, the visitor book is filled with the rum-soaked scrawlings of historical legends from Charlie Chaplin to Winston Churchhill. This continues in its 80th year and I spotted several entries from premier league footballers, models and actors. |  |
 | It was in the original Oakland Trader Vic’s that one of the world’s most loved and famous cocktails was born; the Mai Tai, now celebrating its 70th anniversary. Named from the Tahitian word for ‘out of this world’ this drink became so popular that within a year Trader Vic’s had exhausted all the 17 year old J Wray and Nephews Jamaican rum originally used in the recipe! Nowadays Trader Vic’s do modern takes on this classic, including versions with bourbon, vodka and even tequila. |
The cocktail lists are huge and stick to the tiki theme and are characteristically flamboyant, served in goblets and punch bowls with flowers and hula figurines!
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Whilst tiki can often come across as kitsch, what must be recognised with Trader Vic’s is the abject quality inherent in every quirk. The garishly bold wallpaper of swirling patterns is handmade by tribes in the South Pacific, the leering tiki masks nodding from walls are antique and the London kitchen has the only Chinese smoking ovens of their kind in the UK. As for the latter; what food it produces. Their BBQ spare ribs are made by the original 1972 recipe and fall off the bone in glutinous, finger licking luxury.
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Indeed, the food is reliably good – and indeed, they have a special birthday menu on at the moment for their 80th. For me however it is when the last bones are picked clean, prawn heads sucked, that Trader Vic’s comes most to life. Post 8.30pm the space rings with the rattle of shaken bostons, glasses clink and the tempo of this unique bar rises. Live music is nightly and varied. We were lucky enough to see one of London’s best Latin bands take to the stage and after one of Trader’s Tiki Puka Pukas (a heady blend of three rums and spices) it didn’t take much to get us to our feet.
And so, Trader Vic’s, I congratulate you on 80 years of magic. Without this entrepreneurial man of eccentric habits and his vision of bringing tropical glamour to a world at that time less bright, it is undoubtable that tiki culture would not be as we know it today.
See here for a video of their cocktails!
And so, Trader Vic’s, I congratulate you on 80 years of magic. Without this entrepreneurial man of eccentric habits and his vision of bringing tropical glamour to a world at that time less bright, it is undoubtable that tiki culture would not be as we know it today.
See here for a video of their cocktails!
