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Luau Hut, Washington, DC (Restaurant) |
GatorRob
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 20, 2004
Posts: 1767
From: 3 hrs 33 mins to paradise
|  Posted: 2009-10-10 4:23 pm Permalink
And let's not forget a favorite of my childhood...
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Or Got Rum?
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jul 29, 2009
Posts: 294
From: Wisconsin
| Posted: 2009-10-28 2:48 pm Permalink
When trying to research Kim's Florida restaurant, I came upon only this (using the Luau Hut name) bit of Ft Lauderdale info. "1958, one of only two multiple-alarm fires for the year occurs at the Luau Hut located at 3306 S Federal Hwy, and causes over $45,000 in damage." Too early for her I'm sure, but another defunct Tiki haunt?
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Johnny Dollar
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Oct 01, 2003
Posts: 2920
From: Baltimore, Maryland, PNG
| Posted: 2010-01-05 06:38 am Permalink
this past year, my brother and sister-in-law gave me this box of mugs, that my SIL's parents had collected from the Luau Hut in their younger days.
disclaimer: i asked her to ask her mother if they were from a location in silver spring, or wheaton, maryland. i asked this since i'd imagine it would be easy to mix up "Luau Hut" with "Hula Hut." sadly, she could not differentiate (silver spring and wheaton are not terribly far from each other).
based on the the evidence that the Luau Hut had a much longer existance, and seemed to use both branded and non-branded tiki mugs, i have made the educated guess that they were from the Luau Hut.
also, this is not conclusive, but you could make a point that the mug shown in the 1968 cocktail menu (courtesy arkiva tropika) is intended to show the collected mug
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[ This Message was edited by: Johnny Dollar 2010-01-05 11:05 ]
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Johnny Dollar
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Oct 01, 2003
Posts: 2920
From: Baltimore, Maryland, PNG
| Posted: 2010-01-06 08:23 am Permalink
my flickr photos attracted the interest of a silver spring based blogger, and injected a bit of tiki history into the perhaps less tiki-aware blogosphere...
http://silverspringpenguin.com/2010/01/06/gratuitous-shot-13/
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10600
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2010-01-06 10:54 am Permalink
quote]
On 2010-01-05 06:38, Johnny Dollar wrote:
also, this is not conclusive, but you could make a point that the mug shown in the 1968 cocktail menu (courtesy arkiva tropika) is intended to show the collected mug
[/quote]
Johnny, actually that would be this one:
(clipped from Ooga Mooga/Tiki Nomad's collection)
...or the other version, both shown on page 2 of this thread. 
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Johnny Dollar
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Oct 01, 2003
Posts: 2920
From: Baltimore, Maryland, PNG
| Posted: 2010-01-06 11:06 am Permalink
i hear what you are saying, bigbro... i guess what i thought might be plausible is at some point for the tiki tumbler drink, there was a crossover from the "branded" unglazed mug design to what i have, a generic unglazed mug with a different design.
i wish we had a damn hula hut menu for comparison!
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10600
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2010-01-06 11:44 am Permalink
Doiinnnng!  I think you're right, if you mean that Tiki restaurants replaced their mugs with similar looking ones once the original that was used for the menu illustrations was out of stock. Hell, they used WHATEVER Tiki mugs, in the latter years of Tiki --until they had no Tiki mugs at all, just glassware.
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Johnny Dollar
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Oct 01, 2003
Posts: 2920
From: Baltimore, Maryland, PNG
| Posted: 2010-01-20 12:09 pm Permalink
this is the weird thing about this thread... there were two distinct Luau Hut locations. anyways. i was in DC today, so i took some detail shots of the now kelly's irish times. the last vestiges of chinese restaurant remain. i didn't have the time to go in and scout around.
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Johnny Dollar
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Oct 01, 2003
Posts: 2920
From: Baltimore, Maryland, PNG
| Posted: 2010-01-20 12:45 pm Permalink
p.s. compare: 1928 --> 2010.
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LuauHut
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Feb 27, 2010
Posts: 13 | Posted: 2010-02-27 2:06 pm Permalink
Hi Everyone - I am Moon Kim's oldest daughter (really!) and I am fascinated by your posts! I just discovered you as I was searching the web for things about my mother - I had no idea that Polynesian Pop was so big. My mother opened the Luau Hut Silver Spring when I was young, so I spent many hours there eating, working, and just hanging around while I was growing up - I just registered for Tiki Central so I can answer a lot of the questions that seem to be floating out there if you are interested...For example, there were 3 Luau Hut restaurants: the first one on Ramsey Avenue in Silver Spring (which was originally called "Moon's Garden"), the 2nd one at 14 F Street (now the Irish restaurant) which was called Luau Hut Capitol Hill, and the 3rd one (short-lived) on 19th Street, which was called Luau's In-Inn. If you are interested in hearing more, just let me know 
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ikitnrev
Grand Member (8 years) 
Joined: Jul 27, 2002
Posts: 1298
From: D.C. / Virginia
| Posted: 2010-02-27 2:32 pm Permalink
I would certainly love to hear more about the Luau Huts - possible topics
- bartenders - where did they learn their recipes?
- uniforms - did the staff wear them?
- What years were the busiest/most popular?
- What was the decor like inside? Any photographs?
and that is just a start.
Vern
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Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3946
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2010-02-27 2:32 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2010-02-27 14:06, LuauHut wrote:
Hi Everyone - I am Moon Kim's oldest daughter (really!) and I am fascinated by your posts! I just discovered you as I was searching the web for things about my mother -
If you are interested in hearing more, just let me know
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LuauHut,
First of all, welcome to Tiki Central, glad to have you here. Second, I can't believe the name Luau Hut was still available and that you, of all people, got it. That is so cool!
There are many of us that would love to hear more information about your mother and the Luau Huts as well as the other restaurants she was involved with. As you can probably tell already, pictures of artifacts, articles, memorabilia are always warmly received.
Dustycajun (DC)
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Big Kahuna
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 11, 2007
Posts: 1923
From: SoMass
| Posted: 2010-02-27 2:59 pm Permalink
WOW! This is great! Welcome to TC. If you have any photos of the Luau Hut from when you were growing up, please post them. We'd love to see them.
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LuauHut
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Feb 27, 2010
Posts: 13 | Posted: 2010-02-27 10:02 pm Permalink
I will be happy to try to dig through our old photos to see what I can find. In the meantime, I do have some scanned images of a few print ads. My mother was very good about buying ad space when I worked on my high school newspaper, so I have some of those. You can see the 3 locations listed in the ad below. The Luau Huts were always a family operation: the band that is pictured was led by my very talented older brother
At first he performed in the basement lounge of the F Street location, but soon after he moved over to the 19th Street location he decided to have more of a big band sound, so in the next ad you can see the change in advertising.
Both the F Street basement lounge and the 19th Street location were really cool places to be - they attracted many politicians and other influential folks in the DC area. I remember all the restaurants were very dark, with those old school red fishnet candles on the tables. The F Street lounge had images of topless Polynesian girls hung on the walls throughout - very controversial at the time. Everyone loved to wear their plastic leis, and everyone always wanted to sit in the big wicker chairs that were scattered around the dining room at special tables. Funny how things are so common today, but back then they were so new!
The last thing I wanted to point out is that I always thought it was funny how some of the ads (such as the 2 above) had the French-looking chef instead of the traditional hula girl, as seen in the ad below.
(Actually, I drew the palm tree in the background of this ad, because for some reason we only had the hula girl image when we were laying out the ad and we needed to put something in the background!)
Also, someone asked about how the servers dressed. Actually, they wore traditional outfits: black pants, white button down shirts, bow ties, and jackets. The uniforms were not Polynesian looking at all, although nearly all of the servers were Asian men (predominantly Korean, our heritage). The idea was to give the restaurant a more formal, high class feel. The hostess wore a more typical bright floral long dress. Taped traditional Hawaiian music played on a continuous loop. During the peak of the restaurants' popularity in the mid-60s, it was not unusual to have to wait over an hour for a table, even if you had a reservation. In the Silver Spring restaurant, the waiting area was a small space on the first floor, while the dining room was on the second floor.
The Luau Hut popularized the po-po platter - I remember twisting specially marinated beef strips onto the "cho-cho" sticks that diners cooked themselves at their tables over a blue crackling flame. Once again, it was special - no one had seen anything like it at the time.
Hope this is interesting to you - I will try to post more later.
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ikitnrev
Grand Member (8 years)
Joined: Jul 27, 2002
Posts: 1298
From: D.C. / Virginia
| Posted: 2010-02-27 10:41 pm Permalink
Great information - I'd love to hear more.
I find the bandname: Kim Tsoy and the Sauce - to be so cool, and so representative of the 60's. Is your brother still around?
A quick google search found some references to a band called 'Kim Tsoy and the Sauce-O-Mania' playing at the Showcase Lounge, at a place called Moonbeam's International Health Club, in Kissimmee, Florida. Was that your brother?
Vern
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