Trader Vic's is a restaurant and tiki bar chain headquartered in Emeryville, California, United States. Victor Jules Bergeron, Jr. (December 10, 1902 in San Francisco – October 11, 1984 in Hillsborough, California) 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 parents' grocery store at San Pablo Avenue and 65th Street[3] in the Golden Gate District of Oakland.[4] He named it Hinky Dink's. As its popularity spread, the menu and decor developed an increasingly tropical flair, and Hinky Dink's soon became Trader Vic's.
In 1949, Western Hotels executive Edward Carlson convinced Bergeron to open his first franchised location in the Benjamin Franklin Hotel in Seattle.[5] Originally a small bar named The Outrigger, it was expanded into a full restaurant in 1954 and renamed Trader Vic's in 1960.[6] 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[7] and in 1951 at 20 Cosmo Place in San Francisco.[4]
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.[8] 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.[8]
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 37°50′17″N122°18′28″W / 37.8380°N 122.3078°W / 37.8380; -122.3078 (Trader Vic's Flagship Restaurant) nearby Emeryville, now considered the chain's flagship restaurant. 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.[9]
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.[10][11] 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.[12] 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.[13] The Scorpion Bowl in particular and its many variations proliferated onto the cocktail menus of virtually all subsequent Tiki bars.[14] The menus from his restaurants could list dozens of different tropical drinks.[15] 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).
Originally opened under the name "The Outrigger", located in the Benjamin Franklin Hotel. Name changed to Trader Vic's in 1960. Moved to the adjoining Washington Plaza Hotel when it opened in 1969
Originally opened under the name "The Outrigger", located in Hotel Cosmopolitan at 18th and Broadway. Name changed to Trader Vic's in 1962. Closed in 1978 when Trader Vic's opened a different location at the Denver Hilton.
Located in The Beverly Hilton; closed in April 2007 when that wing of the hotel was demolished to construct the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills. A Trader Vic's Lounge poolside bar was then opened at the Beverly Hilton, offering some of the signature drinks and limited food options, but this too closed, in 2017.[24][25]
Located in the Habana Hilton. Opened just before Castro took power in Cuba in 1959. After the hotel was nationalized in 1960 and renamed the Habana Libre, the restaurant was renamed Polinesio, and still operates today with the original tiki theme and much of the original Trader Vic's decor.[29][30]
Located in the basement of the Plaza Hotel and opened in 1965 following the closure of the previous location at the Savoy-Plaza Hotel. It contained an outrigger canoe used in the film Mutiny on the Bounty. It closed in 1989 after Donald Trump purchased the Plaza Hotel, since Trump considered Trader Vic's to be tacky and inconsistent with his vision for the hotel.[37][38] It opened virtually unchanged six months later as "Gaugin's" and was most recently the location of the Todd English Food Hall.
Located in the Hotel Breidenbacher Hof. Closed in 1999, along with the hotel, was eventually torn down and rebuilt. The hotel reopened in 2008, without Trader Vic's.
Located in Dinah's Garden Hotel. When it opened in 2001, it was the first new Trader Vic's location in the United States in 28 years. Closed in August 2012[43][44]
Located in the Hotel Valley Ho; opened in summer 2006; closed in July 2011 to make way for a more casual restaurant that would be open for more than just dinner[47]
Located in the Hotel Palomar (formerly the Hilton Inn, where there was a location from 1967 to 1989); the original location was intact, refreshed, and reopened in March 2007; closed in January 2010 for temporary renovations due to a burst pipe; closure was announced to be permanent in April 2010[49]
Opened in December 2008 on the ground floor of the Newberry Plaza building, using much of the original decor from the former Palmer House Hilton location; closed in July 2011[52]
Located in the Pearl District from 2011 to March 2016,[55] Rent for the location was said to be $20,000 a month and the restaurant never made a profit.
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."[59] The Trader Vic's in London opened in 1963.[60]
The restaurant is also referenced by Bill Murray's character, Frank Cross, to John Forsythe's character, Lew Hayward, in the 1988 movie Scrooged.[citation needed]
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. [citation needed]
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."
See also
Trader Joe's, which was inspired in part by the success of Trader Vic's
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^"Corporate Contacts". Archived from the original on August 21, 2006. Retrieved 2010-02-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Trader Vic's. August 21, 2006. Retrieved on February 25, 2010.
^"Contacts". Archived from the original on March 19, 2008. Retrieved 2010-02-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Trader Vic's. March 19, 2008. Retrieved on February 25, 2010.
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