{"id":143,"date":"2006-08-02T10:33:39","date_gmt":"2006-08-02T14:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/2006\/08\/02\/trader-vics-mai-tai-bar\/"},"modified":"2014-05-07T19:04:07","modified_gmt":"2014-05-08T02:04:07","slug":"trader-vics-mai-tai-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/2006\/08\/02\/trader-vics-mai-tai-bar\/","title":{"rendered":"Trader Vic’s Mai Tai bar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TV\"I was keeping this on the DL as I heard about it through the FOM<\/a> earlier, but since Tiki Talk<\/a> and Humu Humu<\/a> blogged it, I thought I would too.<\/p>\n

Trader Vic’s has come out with a new concept called the Mai Tai bar. This is a very low cost start up compared to a Trader Vic’s restaurant, and it concentrates on the high margin stuff and keeping staffing small, along with the floor plan.<\/p>\n

Hans Richter (President of Trader Vic’s International) personally helped make Hukilau 2002 <\/a>happen. We had been in touch with Sven Koch (V.P. of Trader Vic’s) all along thanks in part to Sven Kirsten, and so, when Trader Vic’s Atlanta decided at the last minute to charge us $2,000 to hold Hukilau there, Hans, who was on vaction at the time, called the manager and said he would cover it and to make it happen. Trader Vic’s has been a sponsor of Hukilau ever since.<\/p>\n

I don’t know if that had anything to do with it, but, when I emailed Hans yesterday, Sven called me right away to talk about the franchise. Hans was unavailable until the 19th. It sounded very promising. I was further surprised when Hans called me about an hour later.<\/p>\n

I started on the plans to open a tiki bar here in Knoxville<\/a> in 2005. I spent time talking to James about his experience with the Kahiki Moon<\/a>. I talked to Brad about Hale Tiki<\/a>. I talked to tikiskip about the restaurant he owned and ran in Columbus. I learned all I could about the restaurant business and researched the Polynesian restaurant business.<\/p>\n

We had started out thinking we wanted to do something very small like the Tiki Ti<\/a>. That turned out to be impossible by the laws of Tennessee. What we ended up with was a very streamlined place, geared towards the drink menu. The menu would be such that a small kitchen staff could manage it and a small kitchen could prepare and cook it. The food would be there to compliment the drinks. The main thrust is the drink menu. Live music, fun events, special happy hours and regular all out luaus were in the plan. The general idea is to concentrate on the high margin stuff and lower operating costs while maintaining great quality and ambience.<\/p>\n

So when I saw the Trader Vic’s Mai Tai bar concept<\/a>, I saw what I had been working on for a year made better. Since the Mai Kai does not do franchises, the other option is Trader Vic’s. And this is perfect. The Trader Vic’s brand, their quality menu, thier great staff, their barware, etc. scaled into a lean, high margin bar with emphasis on fun and entertainment. It was all I had in mind to do, plus Trader Vic’s name.<\/p>\n

I learned from Hans that the cost of the franchise and opening the bar was more than I was planning, but not out of line. I beleive there are costs to be cut here and there. Most people opening a place like this are not that worried about saving $20,000 on kitchen equipment, but I am. There are ways to do this cheaper. I can envision these opening up in smaller cities all over the US. It’s a great concept.<\/p>\n

The first one to open will likely be the Hawaii location. The Spain<\/a> location is set to open this summer. The image on the Spain site is actually the Hawaii location and it looks beautiful.<\/p>\n

I don’t know that I can open a Mai Tai bar here, but I am looking into it. I really think this concept will work all over and I am excited to see it. There are even no restrictions on opening the Mai Tai bar in markets where the restaurant already exists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. Read More …<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[536,11],"tags":[480,702,335,407],"class_list":["post-143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cocktail-capers","category-polynesian-pop","tag-bar","tag-og-tiki-central","tag-restaurant","tag-trader-vics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p731sH-2j","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":246,"url":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/2007\/05\/03\/trader-vics-beverly-hills-closing\/","url_meta":{"origin":143,"position":0},"title":"Trader Vic’s Beverly Hills closing and the end of the classic tiki bar","author":"Swanky","date":"May 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Humu Humu has posted her feelings about the closing of Trader Vic's Beverly Hills. I commented on that and wanted to bring it here and share my thoughts. There is a thread on Tiki Central to send messages to try to save Trader Vic's. You'll notice I never posted. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Tiki\" Collecting"","block_context":{"text":"\"Tiki\" Collecting","link":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/category\/polynesian-pop\/tiki-collecting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":364,"url":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/2008\/05\/16\/repressed-tiki-memory\/","url_meta":{"origin":143,"position":1},"title":"Repressed Tiki Memory","author":"Swanky","date":"May 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I was talking to an old friend today about Hukilau and the Mai Kai and suggested that if he had the chance, he should visit Trader Vic's Atlanta. His response surprised me. He told me he had been there, with me! We took a road trip to Atlanta in 1996\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Existential Fodder"","block_context":{"text":"Existential Fodder","link":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/category\/existential-fodder\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":127,"url":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/2006\/07\/12\/market-for-trader-vics-cuban-menus-soars\/","url_meta":{"origin":143,"position":2},"title":"Market for Trader Vic’s Cuban menus soars","author":"Swanky","date":"July 12, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I blame it on tiki newbies. About a week ago, one of the Trader Vic's menus from the Havana location came up on Ebay. These were printed with a note inside, supposedly \"hand written\" by Vic himself, saying something about that stinker Fidel. I am guessing the buyer thought it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Tiki\" Collecting"","block_context":{"text":"\"Tiki\" Collecting","link":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/category\/polynesian-pop\/tiki-collecting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":205,"url":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/2006\/12\/10\/united-airlines-hawaii-postcard\/","url_meta":{"origin":143,"position":3},"title":"United Airlines Hawaii Postcard","author":"Swanky","date":"December 10, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"United Airlines has a great history with their flights to Hawaii. Not too long ago the flight staff wore aloha shirts and muu muus. Today, they serve Trader Vic's Mai Tais on the flights. They still get it. This card I found today extolls the Hawaii that is not just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Tiki\" Collecting"","block_context":{"text":"\"Tiki\" Collecting","link":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/category\/polynesian-pop\/tiki-collecting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":101,"url":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/2006\/06\/20\/vintage-trader-vics-flaming-rum\/","url_meta":{"origin":143,"position":4},"title":"Vintage Trader Vic’s Flaming Rum","author":"Swanky","date":"June 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"A few years ago, Ms. Floratina traded me a bunch of music for this incredible bottle of Trader Vic's Flaming Rum. She found it as old stock on a shelf in a California\u00c2\u00a0liquor store. Brand new ... er old. Has the old style tax label across the top. Don't tell\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Tiki\" Collecting"","block_context":{"text":"\"Tiki\" Collecting","link":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/category\/polynesian-pop\/tiki-collecting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/154-5403_IMG-2.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":199,"url":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/2006\/11\/27\/the-basement-kahuna-collection\/","url_meta":{"origin":143,"position":5},"title":"The Basement Kahuna Collection","author":"Swanky","date":"November 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Basement Kahuna is a top big game hunter in the tiki world. The collection of artifacts he uncovered in just a few months was astounding. He has sold off his mugs and many other things and these days is only keeping postcards. While he was visiting last weekend, I asked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Tiki\" Collecting"","block_context":{"text":"\"Tiki\" Collecting","link":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/category\/polynesian-pop\/tiki-collecting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/11\/akua-motor-lodge-anaheim-2.jpg?fit=490%2C313&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1048,"href":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions\/1048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}