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Save Luau Room in Louisville, KY |
uncle trav
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Joined: Apr 27, 2005
Posts: 1531
From: Kalamazoo
|  Posted: 2009-05-12 6:55 pm Permalink
I thought someone would pick up on that. Not only the image but the font and the decorative band on the glass, all from the Dobb's menu.
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Trad'r Bill
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Joined: Oct 14, 2008
Posts: 450
From: Hercules, CA
| Posted: 2009-09-10 10:26 pm Permalink
He're's a Luau Room order ticket I was given when I purchased some spears that hung at this location (need to photograph those too)
 
Trad'r Bill
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Dustycajun
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Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3916
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2010-01-16 08:06 am Permalink
My question here is why couldn't this location have been related to the Dobb's House chain? The Dobb's House Luau paper ephemera advertised a location in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Luau Room first opened on the second floor of the terminal building at the Standiford Field airport and then moved. I know that I have read that Dobb's operated restaurants and bars at various airports. Here is a matchbook from the original Luau Room - sure looks like a Dobb's place with the torches and the font. Also the same phone number from Uncle Trav's glass with the Dobbs House graphics.
Here is a story from the net.
in Louisville, back in the '70s, there was a restaurant called The Luau Room in Standiford Field. It was one of those '70s-type "Polynesian" restaurants with flaming appetizer platters and drinks with little umbrellas in them, but by the standard of the time, it was one of the city's relatively few dress-up-dine-out spots. I'll bet some of the regulars here remember it. (Was pronounced "Loo-aw Room by locals, by the way.)
DC
[ This Message was edited by: Dustycajun 2010-01-16 08:31 ]
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Dustycajun
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Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3916
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2010-01-16 08:29 am Permalink
Found another little clue. A complaint letter from Mr. Bumppo to the Standiford airport with a reply that they would contact Dobbs House about getting a restaurant.
DC
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uncle trav
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Joined: Apr 27, 2005
Posts: 1531
From: Kalamazoo
| Posted: 2010-01-17 05:07 am Permalink
Great detective work Dusty. I with you on this one. Now it seems we have a bit of a mystery.
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Swanky
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Joined: Apr 03, 2002
Posts: 4806
From: Hapa Haole Hideaway, TN
| Posted: 2010-01-18 09:21 am Permalink
The Dobb's Management were the caterers for the airlines in the south. Out of that grew the restaurants that also were operated at the airfields. Dobb's bought the Dinkler Luau in Atlanta in I think 1958 or 59 and then began making their own chain of Dobb's House Luaus. I am sure this was also in that "chain" and just got moved for whatever reason away from the airport.
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uncle trav
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Joined: Apr 27, 2005
Posts: 1531
From: Kalamazoo
| Posted: 2010-01-18 3:53 pm Permalink
Here is a shot of the location from Google. It is in a not so good part of town these days and the building is for lease. If the Luau Room was a Dobbs property as it now seems to be getting more and more the case, why was it not branded as such. Dobbs was heavily branded and it seems strange not to have the name attached to this one location. It would be great to get down there and do some research.
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Swanky
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Joined: Apr 03, 2002
Posts: 4806
From: Hapa Haole Hideaway, TN
| Posted: 2010-03-22 12:43 pm Permalink
Just got these off Ebay along with a pair of the Mai Tai glasses.
Envelope image:
Mai-Kai rip off
Letter and business card:
Mai-Kai rip off
Menu front:
Inside:
BIG Mai-Kai rip off.
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Limbo Lizard
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Joined: Aug 24, 2006
Posts: 604
From: Aboard the 'Leaky Tiki', Dallas
| Posted: 2010-03-22 5:07 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2010-01-17 05:07, uncle trav wrote:
Great detective work Dusty. I with you on this one. Now it seems we have a bit of a mystery.
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Maybe Dobbs House had a managing partner/investor in the Louisville restaurant, and they had a falling out, a la Victor Bergeron and his partners in the Honolulu Trader Vic's. So the partner bought out Dobbs House' interest, was allowed to keep the Luau name and styling, and moved it out of the airport space.
Just wild guessing.
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[ This Message was edited by: Limbo Lizard 2010-03-22 17:08 ]
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Swanky
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Joined: Apr 03, 2002
Posts: 4806
From: Hapa Haole Hideaway, TN
| Posted: 2010-03-23 09:09 am Permalink
The $3.50 price for the Mai Tai likely means this menu, location on the airfield is pretty late. Early 70s, late 60s?
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Or Got Rum?
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Joined: Jul 29, 2009
Posts: 289
From: Wisconsin
| Posted: 2010-03-23 09:25 am Permalink
Spot on guess about the date Swanky. The tiny "new" Coca-Cola logo was not introduced until late Oct/early Nov 1969, making the menu 70's for sure.
[ This Message was edited by: Or Got Rum? 2010-03-23 09:26 ]
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Limbo Lizard
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Joined: Aug 24, 2006
Posts: 604
From: Aboard the 'Leaky Tiki', Dallas
| Posted: 2010-03-23 10:33 am Permalink
I wonder if the public library in Louisville has a collection of Yellow Pages, going back. Someone could figure out a few things, that way: ad copy and graphics, approximate time it opened, when/if it moved, did it change names or was the Luau Room a separate establishment and concurrent with Dobbs, and when it/they closed.
Added, on edit: You can search business records with the Kentucky Sec. of State.
LUAU ROOM, INC. filed for incorporation on 4/15/85. It's last annual report was filed 5/6/88, and they apparently were out of business by 5/89, since they failed to make their annual filing. After not responding to a 60-day warning notice of 9/1/89, it was administratively dissolved on 11/10/89.
Here's the link.
There are also records for Dobbs Houses, Inc. (1947), Dobbs Houses Restaurants, Inc. (1982), and DH Restaurants, Inc. (1989), but I wasn't able to directly deduce a spin-off or connection with Luau Room. But, considering the date, they may have bought the rights to the graphics, licensed the concept, or bought the whole restaurant, from Dobbs. When did Dobbs last use their Luau concept? Maybe they realized it was played out, by '82, and sold to Luau Room, Inc., who tried a few years more.
These filings just don't tell enough of the story; we're still missing something, but at least there's a time frame.
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[ This Message was edited by: Limbo Lizard 2010-03-23 11:46 ]
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Swanky
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Joined: Apr 03, 2002
Posts: 4806
From: Hapa Haole Hideaway, TN
| Posted: 2010-03-23 11:28 am Permalink
Oh, and the Lancer's on the wine list makes it definitely 70s!
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Trad'r Bill
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Joined: Oct 14, 2008
Posts: 450
From: Hercules, CA
| Posted: 2010-03-23 10:33 pm Permalink
Nice Swanky... the cocktail section matches up exactly with the ticket I posted earlier.
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Sabu The Coconut Boy
Grand Member (8 years) 
Joined: Aug 20, 2002
Posts: 2784
From: Carson, California
| Posted: 2010-03-24 1:43 pm Permalink
Yep, nice Rip-off of imagery...
...from the Mai Kai drink coaster...
... which has been compressed from the postcard image...
... which was originally done by Al Kocab for the "Great Restaurants of the United States"
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[ This Message was edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy 2010-03-24 13:45 ]
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