Comments on: Trader Vic’s new Mai Tai Bar restaurant concept

By: Swanky’s Blather » Trader Vic’s Mai Tai bar

Swanky’s Blather » Trader Vic’s Mai Tai bar — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 14:34:24 +0000

[...] I was keeping this on the DL as I heard about it through the FOM earlier, but since Tiki Talk and Humu Humu blogged it, I thought I would too. [...]

By: Swanky

Swanky — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 13:36:51 +0000

Expense of Trader Vic’s? Try the head chef, at $100,000+ a year salary to start! Those ovens are not a biggy. Even this tiny Mai Tai bar kitchen will cost $150,000 to outfit. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to a full blown Vic’s.

The Spain location is not open yet. The Hawaii location (pictured on the Spain website) is likely to open first. It looks awesome.

I think this could be huge. Maybe 50 of these opening in the US. I am working on bringing the next one here to Knoxville. Hans and Sven of Trader Vic’s (President and Vice PResident) were nice enough to call me right away on my inquiry. They both helped us make Hukilau 2002 happen (Hans personally paid the crazy $2,000 fee Trader Vic’s Atlanta charged us on the Wednesday before the event!), so these guys are very hip to what we tiki people do. He allowed that I could bring in my own carvers and my own decor rather than the usual of having to buy it from them. He knows my plans are right along the Trader Vic’s line, so, no worries. I must say, Hans is a very nice man and I hope I can bring this together. This is, after all, what many have done over the years, not unlike our own Martiki. Learn from Trader Vic’s and then break out and take that knowledge into a less up-scale copy of Trader Vic’s. It could be huge!

By: Humu Kon Tiki » Blog Archive » New Trader Vic’s Concept: Mai Tai Bars

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 01:59:47 +0000

[...] I learned on the Tiki Talk blog about Trader Vic’s intention of starting a new line of their restaurants, called Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Bars. They’re scaled-back versions of Trader Vic’s restaurants, featuring a large drink menu, but a very small food menu centered on appetizers, with a few sandwichy-type items. Most notably absent is the hallmark Chinese ovens; these suckers are large and not easy to install, work with, or design around, so while it feels sad to see a Chinese oven-less Trader Vic’s, it does make sense. [...]

By: Humuhumu

Humuhumu — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 20:01:46 +0000

They actually re-packaged the bar here at the Palo Alto Trader Vic’s as a new “Mai Tai Bar” a couple months ago. All they did was take a booth out, expand the bar size a smidge, paint the ceiling red, and add a couple blah items to the bar food menu. Woodfired pizza anyone? Welcome to 1996! Much of my love for Trader Vic’s comes from it being stuck in the past, but not that past! At any rate, it was overall a harmless (and almost totally unnoticeable) change.

When we were there a couple weeks ago, there was a live band playing, and they were surprisingly good.

It makes sense for Trader Vic’s to try launching some smaller restaurants — a full Trader Vic’s, with its not-cheap-to-install Chinese ovens, is a huge risk. I like the idea of a mini Trader Vic’s focusing on the drinks — that’s what sets Trader Vic’s apart, and hopefully with a smaller space, they can afford do something more impressive with the decor than the recent full-fledged Vic’s restaurants have been.