For David Foster, researching Stockton tiki includes combing old phone books and newspapers for ads such as this one for The Bali Hai. Note the name of You-Know-Who in the ad.

And here’s the big boy of Stockton tiki himself, the 2000-pound moai head that stands out front of the Bali Hai. He’s eroded a bit since the old days, like a lot of people.

Tahiti Iti (”Little Tahiti” in Tahitian) appointed its dining room with bamboo and straw mats, fish nets and a “flourescent paint mural of Tahiti.” Barrel tops served as tables. Owner Otto Allgoewer was born in Tahiti. He and his wife (pictured below) were entertainers.They performed a South Seas musical act.

After a remarkable journey recounted in the column, the Tahiti Iti building ended up as a rental home on Stockton’s southside. Its residents had no inkling their home had once been a tiki restaurant, let alone a strip club. One reason is the Spanish-style veranda added to the building.

Foster’s urban archeology includes visiting places that were built in tiki style but remodeled when tiki faded from fashion. Here, the seedy Bradford Apartments on Rosemarie Lane still show the A-Frame outlines of tiki architecture. To say nothing of surviving palms.

You can see what the place might once have looked like form this contemporary photo of the Outrigger Apartments on Pershing.

Some places have been virtually de-tikied. While researching, Foster stumbled onto an old ad for the Kona Apartments on Pershing Avenue. The address — 4215 Pershing Avenue — led to the site of Las Palmas Apartments. Sleuthing around the complex, Foster found vestiges of the building’s tiki origins, such as the lava rocks in the landscaping.

Other places remain only in old ads and newspaper articles.

But they were popular in their day. The Reef, in the site of the current Stockton Joe’s, featured a piano bar, a roaring fire grotto, Lanai and Luau rooms, and an exotic drink menu offering drinks such as the Devil’s Tail, ”For that devil-may-care feeling,” the drink menu says.

In 1957 or ‘58, the stars of “The Big Country,” a motion picture production filiming in the area, visited The Reef. Below, Chuck Connors looks like he’s had one too many Typhoons. Also pictured is Jean Simmons, Reef co-owner Pete Massei, and Charlton Heston.

–photo courtesy Bank of Stockton archives.
Below, The Castaway.

The drink menu at The Islander.

If you enjoyed this survey, check out Foster’s postings on Tiki Central. Go to “Locating Tiki.” Under the name ”abstractiki” he has posted much more information about Stockton’s tiki past. Aloha for now!


Tiki heads report in
Julie Morehouse writes:
“Loved the article about tiki stuff in Sunday’s paper. I have also become a bit of a tiki freak — not sure how it happened, its just fun. … For my 50th birthday a few years back we made a tiki bar out of an old garage cabinet and some old bamboo blinds. (well used!)
I also display outside and around the house some beautifully carved tiki masks, and a solar tiki head that were given to me as gifts …
“Although a Stockton native I unfortunately never got to The Islander. I remember my parents having those old tiki glasses in the cupboard, like the one David is holding in the picture. Long gone now.”
Thanks, Julie — but what’s a solar tiki head?