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Tiki Bob's, San Francisco, CA (restaurant) |
martiki
Official Mixologist
Joined: Mar 29, 2002
Posts: 3056
From: http://www.smugglerscovesf.com
|  Posted: 2003-11-17 9:10 pm Permalink
Name:Tiki Bob's
Type:restaurant
Street:599 Post Street (at Taylor)
City:San Francisco
State:CA
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:ORdway 3-5857
Status:defunct
Description:
From the Book Of Tiki:
\"....“Sneaky” Bob Bryant had worked as Trader Vic’s bar manager, but when they had a falling out in 1955, Bob moved down a block from the Trader’s Cosmo Place location and opened his own watering hole. An attempt to franchise his concept at the Capitol Inn in Sacramento was short lived. Bob also opened “Tiki Bob’s Mainland” on 333 Bush Street where he offered lingerie fashion shows to draw in the business crowd at lunchtime....\"
The Sneaky Tiki was the specialty of the house, and the Super Sneaky Tiki was served in the signature mug that was yours to take home.
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martiki
Official Mixologist
Joined: Mar 29, 2002
Posts: 3056
From: http://www.smugglerscovesf.com
| Posted: 2003-11-17 9:26 pm Permalink
From a San Francisco Hotel Guide October, 1955:
Back cover of the menu:
A special of the day that is stapled inside my menu:
[ This Message was edited by: martiki6 on 2003-11-17 21:30 ]
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BornTiki
Tiki Centralite
Joined: May 29, 2004
Posts: 24 | Posted: 2004-05-29 7:13 pm Permalink
Hiyas,
How cool...I didn't think anyone remembered. I was practically raised in Tiki Bob's...My Aunt Florence bought out Bob in the 60's...my mom was a waitress/hostess there and I was stuck making crab puffs in the kitchen. We had the best 3.5 thick pork chops anywhere and our drinks knocked plenty of people out. Fact is I think I still have some mugs in storage and the original drink recipes on the original index cards. Not only was Bob the only one that came from Trader Vics...all the waiters and cooks all worked at Trader Vic's at one time.
Kal
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lanikai
Tiki Socialite
Joined: May 15, 2004
Posts: 490
From: Hawaii
| Posted: 2004-05-29 7:48 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2004-05-29 19:13, BornTiki wrote:
....all the waiters and cooks all worked at Trader Vic's at one time.
Kal
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cool history and cool name, Borntiki!
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CaseyJPS
Tiki Socialite
Joined: May 14, 2003
Posts: 184
From: Palm Springs
| Posted: 2004-05-29 11:52 pm Permalink
This is truly wonderful! Thanks for the memories. What's the latest incarnation of the corner space? I remember the newstand (that moved to Geary) and Thrifty Car Rental, but can't seem to recall any others.
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BornTiki
Tiki Centralite
Joined: May 29, 2004
Posts: 24 | Posted: 2004-05-30 11:09 am Permalink
Hiyas,
Yeah...Harold's newsstand...Tiki and all. It's been awhile since I've been downtown...don't know what's occupying the space now.
Kal
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BornTiki
Tiki Centralite
Joined: May 29, 2004
Posts: 24 | Posted: 2004-05-30 11:38 am Permalink
Hiyas,
Yeah...Harold's newsstand...Tiki and all. It's been awhile since I've been downtown...don't know what's occupying the space now.
Kal
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BornTiki
Tiki Centralite
Joined: May 29, 2004
Posts: 24 | Posted: 2004-05-30 11:45 am Permalink
Hiyas again,
Been perusing this thread....shame there isn't any more Tiki bar's in San Francisco...'cept for Trad'r Sam's which is a dive...though I remember, what was it called?...P-38 Dive Bomber?...15-20 dollars? Came in a bowl...2 of them would do a good job of getting one blotto, other than the decor I've never considered the Tonga room at the Fairmont as being a real Tiki Bar. Good news though is Trader Vic's is opening a new location downtown in little while...lease has been signed and all that, last I heard.
Kal
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martiki
Official Mixologist
Joined: Mar 29, 2002
Posts: 3056
From: http://www.smugglerscovesf.com
| Posted: 2004-06-01 09:42 am Permalink
Quote:
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On 2004-05-29 23:52, CaseyJ@Calientetropics.com wrote:
This is truly wonderful! Thanks for the memories. What's the latest incarnation of the corner space? I remember the newstand (that moved to Geary) and Thrifty Car Rental, but can't seem to recall any others.
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The space is still empty.
BornTiki- It would be great if you could scan and post some of those recipes. Thanks for the background!
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aquarj
Grand Member (8 years) 
Joined: Apr 02, 2002
Posts: 1040
From: SF bay area, CA
| Posted: 2004-06-01 4:39 pm Permalink
Quote:
| Fact is I think I still have some mugs in storage and the original drink recipes on the original index cards. |
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Wowee, I bet a lot of people here would flip a wig over a Tiki Bob show-and-tell session.
-Randy
[ This Message was edited by: aquarj on 2004-06-01 16:41 ]
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10600
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2004-06-03 12:11 am Permalink
Kal, I met your aunt when I was researching for the Book of Tiki and she lend me the menu and the photo you see in the book. Could you tell us a little about Raffles down on Market Street, where some of the Tiki Bob artifacts migrated to? From when to when did your family run that place? I think very few Tiki Centralites know that Tiki Bob's lived on for a while in this reincarnation.
[ This Message was edited by: bigbrotiki on 2004-06-03 00:13 ]
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Tiki Diablo
Grand Member (8 years)
Joined: Jun 24, 2002
Posts: 1896
From: socal
| Posted: 2004-06-03 12:31 am Permalink
Here's the gang on our recent SF Tiki Crawl . We stopped for the photo opp. and tried to get a covert group to restore the white and black paint on Bob's tiki. Next year!
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BornTiki
Tiki Centralite
Joined: May 29, 2004
Posts: 24 | Posted: 2004-06-05 12:51 pm Permalink
Hmmm...let's see, that was some time ago, I always remember going to or being at TB's and that was in the '60s, I usally got to sit at the booth next to the fish tank where the crew would distract me with yd. long straws, Tiki mugs filled with 7up and grenadine syrup and all I could eat Sesame fried chicken. The crew was Perry the Bartender, he was very good and could mix with the best of them, very old school, Jimmy, a very nice man and one of the more popular waiters and of course Walter, he would smile and bow, all the while cursing your mother for having the nerve to give birth to you, in cantonese of course, and making it seem as if he was simply repeating your order in chinese, he was also in charge of the salad dressings, he's the only one who knew the whole recipes. There was Jimmy the cook, never saw a duck deboned so quickly, he was a great cook...and there was this one cook...always smoked...always had this cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth with a 3 inch long ashe that he never got in the food, ever. The food in the polynesian genre is simply cantonese cooking usally with a island flavor. Of course that's changed now but then that was the norm. The walls, most noticeably the ceiling in the bar was of the old corrugated tin sheets...frugality being embraced, these were plastered in chinese newspapers dating from the 50's and remained there 'til the end, as did most of the fixtures, the various Fugu, velvet paintings of naked women, lit glass globes and netting, spearguns etc.. They mostly were there till the end. Raffles #1 at Market near Polk? I think, it 's the Fox Plaza building, actually coexisted with TB's, it came along later. It catered to the business crowd, lunch, happy hour and dinner...wasn't a Tiki place inasmuch as it was polynesian themed. The waiters at TB's also moonlighted at Raffle's for lunch a lot. Raffles #2 was on Market and 1st St., it also catered to the business crowd. We became 'uninvolved' in the late '70's...TB's never recovered, alot of regulars had passed on and times were changing as they are prone to do. Raffles #2 closed some time before TB's. So that left Raffles...Aunt Florence(not my real aunt, I was just raised calling her that) continued on with her daughter Kim taking over Raffles for a time. I totally forgot that some of the 'stuff' from TB's ended up in Raffles, but I hate to say it...a lot of stuff didn't and I know it wasn't saved, shame really. So if any memorabilia shows up, be cynical, aside from mugs( we served a lot ), there really wasn't much that survived...and if the attempt to repaint the Tiki is a success...it should be Brown and off-White.
[ This Message was edited by: BornTiki on 2004-06-05 12:58 ]
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BornTiki
Tiki Centralite
Joined: May 29, 2004
Posts: 24 | Posted: 2004-06-05 1:16 pm Permalink
Hmmm...let's see, that was some time ago, I always remember going to or being at TB's and that was in the '60s, I usally got to sit at the booth next to the fish tank where the crew would distract me with yd. long straws, Tiki mugs filled with 7up and grenadine syrup and all I could eat Sesame fried chicken. The crew was Perry the Bartender, he was very good and could mix with the best of them, very old school, Jimmy, a very nice man and one of the more popular waiters and of course Walter, he would smile and bow, all the while cursing your mother for having the nerve to give birth to you, in cantonese of course, and making it seem as if he was simply repeating your order in chinese, he was also in charge of the salad dressings, he's the only one who knew the whole recipes. There was Jimmy the cook, never saw a duck deboned so quickly, he was a great cook...and I there was this one cook...always smoked...always had this cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth with a 3 inch long ashe that he never got in the food, ever. The food in the polynesian genre is simply cantonese cooking usally with a island flavor. Of course that's changed now but then that was the norm. The walls, most noticeably the ceiling in the bar was of the old corrugated tin sheets...frugality being embraced, these were plastered in chinese newspapers dating from the 50's and remained there 'til the end, as did most of the fixtures, the various Fugu, velvet paintings of naked women, lit glass globes and netting, spearguns etc.. They mostly were there till the end. Raffles #1 at Market near Polk? I think, it 's the Fox Plaza building, actually coexisted with TB's, it came along later. It catered to the business crowd, lunch, happy hour and dinner...wasn't a Tiki place inasmuch as it was polynesian themed. The waiters at TB's also moonlighted at Raffle's for lunch a lot. Raffles #2 was on Market and 1st St., it also catered to the business crowd. We became 'uninvolved' in the late '70's...TB's never recovered, alot of regulars had passed on and times were changing as they are prone to do. Raffles #2 closed some time before TB's. So that left Raffles...Aunt Florence(not my real aunt, I was just raised calling her that) continued on with her daughter Kim taking over Raffles for a time. I totally forgot that some of the 'stuff' from TB's ended up in Raffles, but I hate to say it...a lot of stuff didn't and I know it wasn't saved, shame really. So if any memorabilia shows up, be cynical, aside from mugs( we served a lot ), there really wasn't much that survived.
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ohwitch
Member
Joined: Apr 29, 2006
Posts: 1 | Posted: 2006-04-29 1:42 pm Permalink
Oh,how I remember the great times at Tiki Bob's. The drinks, the munchies were the best. Lunch at Raffle's in Fox Plaza was almost a daily need. Does anyone have the recipe for the salad dressing? Would love to have it.
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