Trader Vic's

Trader Vic's is a restaurant and tiki bar chain headquartered in Martinez, California, United States. Victor Jules Bergeron, Jr. founded a chain of Polynesian-themed restaurants that bore his nickname, "Trader Vic". He was one of two people who claimed to have invented the Mai Tai.[1] The other was his amicable competitor for many years, Donn Beach of the "Don the Beachcomber" restaurants.

History

Bergeron attended Heald College in San Francisco.[2] On November 17, 1934, using $500 in borrowed money, Bergeron opened a small bar/restaurant across from his uncle's bar at San Pablo Avenue and 65th Street[3][4] in the Golden Gate District of Oakland.[5] He named it Hinky Dink's. In 1937, Bergeron made a trip to Cuba to expand his bartender skills. When he returned to the United States, he toured Don the Beachcomber in Hollywood. These two trips inspired him to start decorating the bar with an increasingly tropical flair. To match the bar's new tiki theming, Bergeron changed the name from Hinky Dink's to Trader Vic's.[4][6]

In 1949, Western Hotels executive Edward Carlson convinced Bergeron to open his first franchised location in the Benjamin Franklin Hotel in Seattle.[7] Originally a small bar named The Outrigger, it was expanded into a full restaurant in 1954 and renamed Trader Vic's in 1960.[8] Due to the restaurant's success, Bergeron worked with Western Hotels to open Trader Vic's locations in a number of their hotels. In 1940, Bergeron opened a Trader Vic's location in Hawaii[9] and in 1951 at 20 Cosmo Place in San Francisco.[5]

Because Bergeron lacked the capital to expand, he partnered with Hilton Hotels. Conrad Hilton opened his first Trader Vic's in The Beverly Hilton in 1955. Two years later, Hilton opened another Trader Vic's in The Palmer House in Chicago, and then licensed the Trader Vic's brand for use throughout his chain for $2,000,000, retaining Bergeron to oversee the decoration, staffing and operation of the restaurants for an annual salary of $65,000.[10] Hilton soon estimated the popular Trader Vic's establishments were earning his hotel chain $5 million a year. Sheraton Hotels quickly opened competing chains of tiki restaurants in their hotels, known as Ports O' Call and Kon-Tiki.[10]

During the Tiki culture fad of the 1950s and 1960s, as many as 25 Trader Vic's restaurants were in operation worldwide. They all featured the popular mix of Polynesian artifacts, unique cocktails, and exotic cuisine. The chain of restaurants grew and is credited as one of the first successful themed chains, a marketing model that many other restaurants followed.

In 1972 the original location in Oakland was closed and replaced by a bayfront restaurant in nearby Emeryville, now considered the chain's flagship restaurant.[11][6] In the 1980s and 1990s, the chain began to shrink as the tiki theme carried little resonance with a younger generation. Poor locations or less trendy addresses took a further toll on the chain's popularity. While many of the original locations have closed, Trader Vic's once again grew to 18 locations around the globe as of July 2018.[12]

As of 2024, there are three Trader Vic's restaurants in the United States, one in Europe, ten in the Middle East, two in Asia, and one in Africa.

The Trader Vic's Corporation has also franchised restaurants and bars under the names the Mai Tai Lounge (all locations defunct), Trader Vic's Island Bar & Grill (opened 2010 in Sarasota, Florida, shuttered in 2013 – where the company experimented with a Margaritaville-like concept), and Señor Pico.[13][14] There is one remaining Señor Pico location at The Palm Dubai.

Drinks

According to the Trader Vic's website, the Mai-Tai was invented by "Trader Vic" Bergeron in 1944 in Oakland, California.

Beyond the Mai Tai, Bergeron's other more famous drinks included the Fog Cutter and the Scorpion Bowl.[15] Both drinks were served in a specific and highly decorated mug or bowl. His take on a Hot buttered rum was also an early example calling for a specific ceramic mug, in this case a skull.[16] The Scorpion Bowl in particular and its many variations proliferated onto the cocktail menus of virtually all subsequent Tiki bars.[17] The menus from his restaurants could list dozens of different tropical drinks.[18] As was the case with Don the Beachcomber, rum was the hallmark ingredient in most of his cocktails, but Vic is also credited with creating the Eastern Sour, which employed less common (for Tiki drinks) rye whiskey, and another drink using even more rarely used tequila (the Mexican El Diablo).

Headquarters

The company is headquartered in Martinez, California.[19]

At times the company had its headquarters in several locations in the San Francisco Bay Area, including Emeryville, California, Corte Madera and San Rafael.[20][21][22]

Current locations

Former locations

Books of recipes and stories

• Trader Vic's Book of Food and Drink (1946)
• Bartender's Guide by Trader Vic (1947)
• Trader Vic's Kitchen Kibitzer (1952)
• Trader Vic's Pacific Island Cookbook (1968)
• Trader Vic's Bartenders Guide (1972)
• The Menehunes (1972)
• Trader Vic's Book of Mexican Cooking (1973)
• Frankly Speaking: Trader Vic's Own Story (1973) (ISBN 0385031750)
• Trader Vic's Rum Cookery & Drinkery (1974)
• Trader Vic's Helluva Man's Cookbook (1976)

Books published by third parties

• Trader Vic's Tiki Party!: Cocktails & Food to Share with Friends
• Cocktails of the South Pacific and Beyond (with a detailed early history of Trader Vic's original location)
• Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki by Martin Cate with Rebecca Cate[62] discusses the franchise

In popular culture

The song "Werewolves of London," a Top 40 hit co-written by Warren Zevon and appearing on his 1978 album Excitable Boy, contains the line "I saw a werewolf drinking a piña colada at Trader Vic's."[63] The Trader Vic's in London opened in 1963.[64]

The restaurant is also referenced by Bill Murray's character, Frank Cross, to John Forsythe's character, Lew Hayward, in the 1988 movie Scrooged.

In the film Frost/Nixon the character of David Frost orders takeout from Trader Vic's while staying in The Beverly Hilton, which formerly had a Trader Vic's location inside the hotel. The character orders a cheeseburger.

In the film Thunder Force Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy dine at a Trader Vic's (scene filmed on location at Atlanta Trader Vic's).

In the New York Times bestseller and 2012 100 Notable Books, Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter, Trader Vic's in Seattle, Washington is the setting of a scene between two characters in September 1967. In Chapter 16, "After the Fall" a couple meet at Trader Vic's and one walks "into a burst of warm air and bamboo, tiki and totem, dugout canoe hung from the ceiling."

The restaurant is referenced by the character Norma in the 1968 screenplay "Plaza Suite", by Neil Simon.

See also

• Trader Joe's, which was inspired in part by the success of Trader Vic's

Further reading

• Trader Vic's menu, cocktails offered mid-century
• Frankly Speaking: Trader Vic's own story, Trader Vic's memoir

External links

• Trader Vic's company website