Trader Vic’s, a famed Polynesian restaurant chain that dates back at least 70 years, is returning to Southern California next year with a location on Route 66.
The famed Trader Vic’s at the Beverly Hilton closed in 2007, but a new one is slated to open in West Hollywood, reported Los Angeles Magazine.
Rhett Rosen, CEO of the Trader Vic’s Hospitality Group, said he wanted “to bring a new flagship back to L.A.” at the new location at 9091 Santa Monica Blvd. (aka Route 66).
The triangle-shaped building also is doors away from the legendary Troubadour nightclub and Dan Tana’s Italian restaurant.
“Everything we’re trying to do as a company is to bring back the rich history of Trader Vic’s,” Rosen says. “We still have some of the décor from Beverly Hills and a lot from London which closed a couple of years ago. People like authenticity and we’re going to lean into that. This is the place where the Mai Tai and Crab Rangoon were created.” In addition to a warehouse filled with trinkets salvaged from defunct locations, the company employs Trader Vic’s granddaughter Eve Bergeron as a marketer and in-house historian.
The restaurant’s new home is in a century-old brick building at 9091 Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. Since the 1920s it has housed a dry cleaner, a florist shop, and a fancy boutique called Maxfield Bleu. Bookmakers were arrested there in the 1930s but Rosen reports the space has been empty for decades following a huge fire. Neighbors suspect the rooftop billboards rented by Apple are as valuable as the space below.
Rosen said he’s committed to bringing back the full classic Trader’s menu, live music, tiki mugs when the restaurant reopens in late 2025.
Victor Jules Bergeron Jr. founded the chain of Polynesian-themed restaurants at a bar and restaurant he owned starting in 1934 in Emeryville, California.
The Trader Vic’s at the Beverly Hilton opened in 1955. The restaurants helped fuel the Tiki culture fad of the 1950s and ’60s.
There now are only three Trader Vic’s in the United States, though more than a dozen more operate globally.
(Image of a Trader Vic’s sign in 2009 by Joel Kabahit via Flickr)