Sunday, June 1, 2008

Coco's and the Waikikian

That post about La Mariana got me thinking about the good old days. Not that I was around for them or had any real appreciation for them until maybe 10 years ago, but still.

One of the things I do remember is going to Coco's, and sprinting for that treasure chest filled with toys they had so kids could occupy themselves while parents got all liquored up. Not that my parents ever got all liquored up. God I wish they had, though. Anyway, so of course I'm off to the internet to find photos of said establishment, and I come up only with  this. So does anyone out there have pictures of this place? Say, possibly with his mom gogo dancing in a cage? Possibly while high? Cypress Hill, I'm looking in your direction...



Some noteworthy history: Apparently Coco's wasn't the first tikiesque establishment at the corner of Kapiolani and Kalakaua. Before that there was the Kau Kau Korner (vague, unfortunate hints at a second random Simpsons ref...), with this kickin' menu. Apparently it was around for nearly 30 years until Coco's took over in 1960. I wonder if people were as outraged when Coco's took over as some were when Hard Rock came in, although, I suspect not so much.




And here's another place I've never heard of before: the Waikikian. Nice. They sure knew their their sci-fi architecture back then.




1 comment:

Mr. Pony said...

I feel a little ashamed that I wouldn't use a time machine to kill Hitler, at least not until I had spent some time in Hawaii in the 50s. There must be remnants of this era, and holdovers and missing links hiding in amongst the ruins. We should explore. I mean, not that any of us is going to have any free time, any time soon.