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the lost chapter: Hop Louie and the Stockton Islander (image heavy) |
limptiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 26, 2003
Posts: 137
From: bay area
|  Posted: 2007-07-05 11:22 am Permalink
I'm sure no tiki in history has been more groped.
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danlovestikis
Grand Member (8 years) 
Joined: Jun 17, 2002
Posts: 3551 | Posted: 2007-07-05 3:50 pm Permalink
Hi Tiki Clean, we are so happy for you. We have visited that pole so many times while having lunch there. We would love to visit it again at your home one day. Here's a bit of information that may or may not be valid any longer. On Pacific Avenue there is a jewelery/pawn shop a few miles north of March Lane. The jewelery part is all old beautiful jewelery and worth a visit. A couple of years ago the husband of the owner told me they had a four foot long outrigger that use to hang from the ceiling in the Islander resteraunt. We tried a couple of times to speak with the wife about buying it but she always had customers for the jewelery and we always gave up. If they still have it maybe you are the one person who could get them to part with it. Good Luck, Wendy
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dogbytes
Grand Member (8 years)
Joined: Mar 24, 2002
Posts: 2240
From: seattle, wa
| Posted: 2007-07-05 6:36 pm Permalink
cleen! thats great news ~ i'm suprised i didnt read about it in your blog! so glad its home with you and Hat, where it belongs!
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aquarj
Grand Member (8 years)
Joined: Apr 02, 2002
Posts: 1040
From: SF bay area, CA
| Posted: 2007-07-06 1:14 pm Permalink
Alright, you can't fool us, time to come "cleen" and let us know what the markup's gonna be when you flip the tiki. Clearly all that research and legwork was merely part of an elaborate resale plan.
Just kidding. If you look closely at the newer photo, I'm pretty sure the tiki has an ever-so-slightly happier and more content expression. Good job, and looking forward to seeing him in his new home someday.
-Randy
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tikicleen
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 11, 2003
Posts: 324
From: ripon: almond capital yet no orgeat
| Posted: 2007-07-10 6:09 pm Permalink
thanks for the cheers all around! i need to give a major nod towards ptd and bo for making this happen. if it weren't for them, i'd still be SOL and writing ranty emails about it. which brings me to thank those who put up with said ranty emails (you know who you are), and people who were too kind to run away in terror while i was drinking and ranting about this (you know who you are as well). 
hey wendy~ thanks for the tip - im on the case! not sure if it will work out, but at least i got to meet a former bouncer at the latitude 20 who is a grandmaster in taekwondo and competed against chuck norris. he was pretty neat, except when we got on the topic of jim kelly.
if anyone finds themselves in the middle of nowhere sometime, you're probably in or near ripon and you are welcome to come visit* it. just drop us a line. zazz.
(*groping optional.)
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Jungle Trader
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 04, 2003
Posts: 3691
From: Trader's Jungle Outpost, Turlock, Ca.
| Posted: 2007-07-11 6:03 pm Permalink
mmmm, goin' to The Dark Marq Room soon to derinc a FEW world famous Monkey Mai Tai's. Can't wait to see it in it's new home. DIG!!
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danlovestikis
Grand Member (8 years)
Joined: Jun 17, 2002
Posts: 3551 | Posted: 2007-12-29 10:33 am Permalink
Any news on the Islander Outrigger? Wendy
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tobunga
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 12, 2008
Posts: 896 | Posted: 2008-04-23 8:46 pm Permalink
I would like to join the chorus of MAHALOs to Tikicleen for this excellent bit of research!
I grew up in Stockton, and remember seeing the Islander as a wee tyke from the back seat of the family car. I never went to the restaurant myself, but I distinctly remember being afraid of the big tiki mask sign out front. This was probably due to the fact that my older cousin told me that it was a cannibal island restaurant, and they served human flesh there. Too bad I was such an impressionable youth, I would have loved to have memories of the inside of such an historic site! (But then, I used to be afraid of the Mobil Oil Pegasus as well... I thought it was a giant horse fly, and a bug that big was frightening to me.)
I was actually quite flabbergasted to find out that one of the locations mentioned is literally around the corner from the house where I grew up (and my parents still live). The Minnies at 140 Harding Way I always knew as Gong Lee's. I was in Stockton this week, took a stroll up the block to Gong's, as it is now called, and snapped a pic.
Quote:
| puamana~ yes! definitely take a picture of that minnie's menu and post it on here. too bad there isnt a date....i never could get a firm answer as to when gong lee took it over. |
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The sign says "Established in 1957" hopefully this is at all helpful!
I've just been bitten by the tiki-bug, so I'm relativley new to this whole world, but I can feel myself becoming obsessed with the Islander!
Thanks again!
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tikivixen
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 28, 2002
Posts: 724
From: Vallejo CA
| Posted: 2009-02-22 2:27 pm Permalink
A few years ago I was in LA's Chinatown and took a pic of old Hop Louie's. I noticed that the one in this thread is teensy weensy, and since this is such a great thread and I just retrieved my own image from a three-years-dead laptop (thanks HP  ) I thought I'd drop it by:
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mrsmiley
Grand Member (8 years)
Joined: Apr 03, 2002
Posts: 3153
From: Las Vegas, NV
| Posted: 2009-02-22 11:05 pm Permalink
Here are a couple sunset pictures of Hop Louies in LA from a few years ago.
[ This Message was edited by: mrsmiley 2009-02-22 23:08 ]
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tobunga
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 12, 2008
Posts: 896 | Posted: 2009-05-28 5:00 pm Permalink
YAY! Tikicleen reposted a couple of old photos of the Islander on page 3! Quick, everybody, take a look!
Mahalo tikicleen!
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http://ericoctober.com
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rico
Member
Joined: Aug 28, 2009
Posts: 3 | Posted: 2009-08-28 2:53 pm Permalink
Thanks for all of the great information about this place and the photos! I just bought a Wan-fu mug on Ebay for $10 for my wife. We love this stuff!
I grew up in Stockton and lived about 6 blocks from Gong Lee Minnie's. My family seldom went there - it was a little pricey - but I do remember that when you walked through the doors, there were goldfish ponds on either side filled with Koi and elaborately decorated with palm trees and foliage. My dad was a sign painter in Stockton for 50 years* and so I also know that the guy who painted all of their signs was named Glen Martin and had a 1-man shop Stockton for just as long as my dad was there. This guy might be dead now, but he would have pics of the old signage (which was a huge billboard on the the west-facing wall). I live in Seattle now, otherwise I would try to track him down.
*Unfortunately my dad is dead, too, but he was the foreman at Ad-Art Signs from it's start in the 50's/60's through the 1970's. He was involved in large projects - like making the patterns for the Stardust motel in Las Vegas for instance (at the time the largest sign in the US) - so there is a likelihood that he may have been involved with the Islander sign. Alas, it's too late to ask him about it, but In thought it worth a mention. He probably painted the sign at the end of that gang-plank,too, damnit!
Anyhow, thanks for the information and stories. this place is great!
I never got to visit the Islander, but I remember it, awkwardly placed in the parking lot with a K-Mart. I did go to the Polardville Chicken Kitchen; which was a western-themed, audience-involved, vaudille type showplace. It was cheesy.
but the food was okay.
[ This Message was edited by: rico 2009-08-28 14:57 ]
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abstractiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 29, 2009
Posts: 582
From: Lodi, CA
| Posted: 2009-08-29 7:44 pm Permalink
Well here is an update on the Stockton Islander. It was never demolished by who ever bought the land and it's still standing, although it is in super serious disrepair. I went on expedition today, making it passed the guard dog i found a way inside (dangerous!). The place is trashed, its so very sad. It is beyond repair. Almost every thing tiki is gone. The only treasure I found was a plank of wood that is cut tiki style. I hate to be there bearer of bad news but here are some of the pics i took while there.
Long Live The Islander!
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Fres-tiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 11, 2007
Posts: 109
From: Fresno, CA
| Posted: 2009-08-29 8:27 pm Permalink
Wow, thanks for taking those interior pics - no doubt risking life and limb in the ruins of the building! I thought I was seeing things when I passed by there a month or so ago and saw the building still standing - I also thought it had already been demolished.
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10556
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2009-08-30 12:04 am Permalink
Treasure hunting? Risking life and limb? Looks like an exemplary urban archeology expedition to me, with the successful recovery of an artifact to boot! Congrats.
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