A Pineappleman Tiki Adventure: The Royal Hawaiian in Laguna Beach Farewell (A Photo Blog)

This wasn't supposed to be a Farewell blog about the Royal Hawaiian in Laguna Beach ---but it turns out it is. 

I noticed several weeks ago on The Best of Laguna Beach Facebook page an article titled Reviving the Royal Hawaiian?  

I didn't know it needed to be Revived.  In fact I thought that it had been revived quite nicely since it reopened back in 2015.  It had slowly introduced more Tiki over the past couple years.  When I came across the words that the new chef wants to "clean up the interior and make it a bit more modern"  my heart sank a little.   

A couple weeks after reading this I saw a post by Spike of The Hula Girls  on instagram see that post here.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtsOXl_AoBN/.  

His post pretty much confirmed my worries from the article I had read. Then I also read that Bamboo Ben had removed the place from his bio of places he worked on......another bad sign.   It sounds like the place is about to get less Tiki.   :(

The couple times we were able to visit over the past few years we loved it.  We enjoyed the food both times we went.   The avocado toast was amazing.   I also loved the amount of Tiki that had been added to the place.    If it had been closer to where we are located in the Long Beach/Seal Beach area we probably would have gone more often.   

I guess this is a little farewell photo blog to the Royal Hawaiian as it has been since it reopened in 2015.

Clean up the place???  The place looked great.

My one souvenir  from the place  the Royal Hawaiian Tiki Mug

Our little guy dressed all Tiki for lunch

The last time there I had the burger which was excellent.

The Display case with some Tiki treasures

Goodbye Royal Hawaiian!

Jan and Dean's Tiki Lounge in Huntington Beach

A Tiki Lounge with a  ocean view.  You really couldn’t ask for a better location for a Tiki Lounge.  On the second floor of the Ruby’s on the Huntington Beach pier now sits Jan and Dean’s Tiki Lounge.   

Now you can sit and watch the Sunset over the ocean while sipping a Tiki Cocktail. 

We didn’t eat there on this first trip since we had already enjoyed our anniversary dinner at Pacific City down the street.   We did enjoy a couple of the tiki cocktails so we could soak in the atmosphere.

Do like Pina Coladas?    I do

Dean's Dream 

The place looks amazing.   The amazing Bamboo Ben helped with the interiors so it feels absolutely Tiki.   

The art of the walls is mainly Jeff Granito (one you our new favorite Tiki artists.  His art is in full display on the big picture as you enter.   

 

and some Disneyland Tiki Shag art. 

 Also some Surf Music history covers the walls with Gold records from Jan and Dean.  









 I couldn’t have asked for a cooler look and location for a Tiki Bar.  The Tiki Lounge is kid friendly since it is actually still apart of Ruby’s.    That means you can take kids and even order off the Ruby’s menu.    There is also a little side menu of both Tiki food and Tiki drinks.  

Next time we go I'm getting the Blue Hawaiian Sliders

Our one suggestion involves the audio of the place.  Being a kid friendly Lounge the bar can be a little loud.  The environmental sound of jungle and birds was turned up louder than the music.   If they could just adjust the tiki and surf music volume up and the atmosphere audio down a little it would be even better.    Being a huge Disney fan I loved the random every 20 minutes or so Rainforest style Enchanted Tiki room music that briefly kicks in.