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Mauna Loa, Pittsburgh, PA (restaurant) |
Tiki Shaker
Grand Member (6 years) 
Joined: Jun 28, 2008
Posts: 701
From: Menifee, CA
|  Posted: 2009-04-30 6:47 pm Permalink
Name:Mauna Loa
Type:restaurant
Street:3333 William Penn Hwy
City:Pittsburgh
State:PA
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct
Description:
Only thing on TC about this is a slight mention in the Detroit Mauna Loa description.
http://www.tikiroom.com/tikicentral/bb/viewtopic.php?topic=4786&forum=2&hilite=mauna%20loa%20pittsburgh
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Tiki Shaker
Grand Member (6 years)
Joined: Jun 28, 2008
Posts: 701
From: Menifee, CA
| Posted: 2009-04-30 6:48 pm Permalink
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uncle trav
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 27, 2005
Posts: 1690
From: Kalamazoo
| Posted: 2009-05-01 04:32 am Permalink
Nice Find. Here is a quote from the thread by Tikifish.
"Gabriel and Nakashima will revise and add to the Mai Kai restaurant in Fort Lauderdale and work on another Mauna Loa, this one in Pittsburgh that will be headed by the Detroit project's 40 local stockholders.
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(I assume the Mauna Loa Pittsburgh never happened...)"
TRT puts the Mauna Loa in Monroeville, near Pittsburgh. I not sure if this location is associated with the Detroit Mauna Loa. It seems if the owners opened another Restaurant that the same type of font would have been used for the printed media. This would make items such as mugs, server ware, matchbooks and even company letterhead interchangeable between the locations. A trip to the local library may turn up some more information.
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Mo-Eye
Tiki Socialite
Joined: May 17, 2006
Posts: 620
From: Costa Mesa, CA
| Posted: 2009-05-01 11:56 am Permalink
Wow! Interesting! I'm originally from Pittsburgh, so you sparked my interest here. I always thought Pittsburgh completely missed the Polynesian Pop movement.
This place actually did open. I found a small blurb about it in the March 27 1980 Pittsburgh Post Gazette:
"The Royal Hawaiian Review featuring Chief Tuika and his fire dance finishes its month long engagement this weekend at the Mauna Loa Restaurant, 3333 Wiliam Penn Highway, Wilkins."
Also, by researching the address a little, I found that this Mauna Loa was definitely gone by 1984, as it had become a restaurant called "Sorry Charlie's".
That's all I could find right now, but there has got to be some more info in the Post Gazette somewhere. The google timeline has all of their papers from the 60s and 70s. I'll keep looking.
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Mo-Eye
Tiki Socialite
Joined: May 17, 2006
Posts: 620
From: Costa Mesa, CA
| Posted: 2009-05-01 12:17 pm Permalink
Found some more good info, from the July 16, 1977 Pittsburgh Post Gazette:
"Wilkins Township officials yesterday asked Common Please Court to halt construction of a major new nightclub on William Penn Highway because owners have not obtained necessary building and zoning permits. A request for a preliminary injunction was filed against Thomas J. and Barbara Reilly Jr., 838 Golfview Drive, McKeesport, owners of a former automobile agency at 3333 William Penn Highway on the route to Monroeville Mall. Township officials claimed the Reilly couple intend to open a 500 person nightclub and restaurant at the location without the necessary electrical, plumbing, sanitation and fire protection installed."
So, now it looks like this didn't open until 1977 or later, and was gone by 1984.
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10992
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2009-05-01 12:18 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2009-05-01 11:56, Mo-Eye wrote:
Also, by researching the address a little, I found that this Mauna Loa was definitely gone by 1984, as it had become a restaurant called "Sorry Charlie's".
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Did that place have some sort of post-Vietnam theme? 
Kudos for your research stamina, I get sucked into that engine and just have to pull myself out by the scalp after a while or I'll dissolve!
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Pittsburgh pauly
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 31, 2010
Posts: 383
From: Pittsburgh
| Posted: 2010-04-18 11:43 am Permalink
[ This Message was edited by: Pittsburgh pauly 2010-05-20 12:45 ]
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Pittsburgh pauly
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 31, 2010
Posts: 383
From: Pittsburgh
| Posted: 2010-04-18 11:43 am Permalink
Quote:
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On 2009-05-01 11:56, Mo-Eye wrote:
Wow! Interesting! I'm originally from Pittsburgh, so you sparked my interest here. I always thought Pittsburgh completely missed the Polynesian Pop movement.
This place actually did open. I found a small blurb about it in the March 27 1980 Pittsburgh Post Gazette:
"The Royal Hawaiian Review featuring Chief Tuika and his fire dance finishes its month long engagement this weekend at the Mauna Loa Restaurant, 3333 Wilmar Penn Highway, Wilkins."
Also, by researching the address a little, I found that this Mauna Loa was definitely gone by 1984, as it had become a restaurant called "Sorry Charlie's".
That's all I could find right now, but there has got to be some more info in the Post Gazette somewhere. The google timeline has all of their papers from the 60s and 70s. I'll keep looking.
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There ARE other references in the Post-Gazette, by mid-December 1980 it was the "Organ Grinder Pizza Parlor".
There's also reference that in '81 the parent company was sued by someone who slipped on a dancer's grass skirt when he was being led onstage. Leading his wife to be "deprived of his comfort, companionship and services"!
And unless it's named after another Tuika, it looks like the floor show is still around Pittsburgh as "Tuika's Polynesian Island Magic" http://www.hawaiianshows.com/home.html
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abstractiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 29, 2009
Posts: 603
From: Lodi, CA
| Posted: 2010-04-18 6:02 pm Permalink
I have had these two items from the Mauna Loa for some time now.
The Pittsburgh Press Jan. 31st 1980
Hawaiian Event together with the Hospitality Inn
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Zeta
Grand Member (2 years) 
Joined: Feb 13, 2007
Posts: 2049
From: Atlantis/Basque Country/Spain/Mexico
| Posted: 2010-04-18 11:38 pm Permalink
A complementary Hawaiian gift!
Sounds like it was a fun
Keep posting!
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Tonga Trader
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Jan 23, 2006
Posts: 98
From: Chicago
| Posted: 2010-05-17 1:14 pm Permalink
Found these in a thrift store east of Pittsburgh the other day:
TT
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Pittsburgh pauly
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 31, 2010
Posts: 383
From: Pittsburgh
| Posted: 2010-05-20 07:50 am Permalink
Nice score Tonga! Been living in Pgh nearly 20 years and I've never found Pittsburgh tiki while thrifting. You can tell that that place came at the end of tiki by those glasses for sure!
I know you just got 'em, but if you're ever looking to part with 'em.....
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Chub
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 26, 2005
Posts: 264
From: Detroit, MI but now in sunny Los Angeles
| Posted: 2010-07-07 10:39 pm Permalink
Here are the articles about the guy slipping on the hula dancers skirt and another about regarding it turning into a pizza parlor... MAKE SURE TO COPY WHOLE LINK
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vEQcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Ll0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=2142,1508503&dq=mauna+loa+restaurant&hl=en
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=moUqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5lwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5395,1301055&dq=mauna+loa+restaurant&hl=en
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yirmumah
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Feb 22, 2005
Posts: 50
From: Pittsburgh, PA
| Posted: 2011-03-28 3:50 pm Permalink
So yesterday I was browsing this thread and saw the glasses here. Then TODAY I went to a thrift store in Jeanette, PA just to browse around and I look down and found the blue mountains glass! CRAZY!
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Pittsburgh pauly
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 31, 2010
Posts: 383
From: Pittsburgh
| Posted: 2011-06-07 5:59 pm Permalink
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=TsEdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=B1kEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7068,245857&dq=mauna+loa+monroeville&hl=en
A wedding at the Mauna Loa, December 1978.
Maybe one day I'll figure out how to clip from google's news archives.
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