Trader Vic's is a restaurant and Tiki bar chain headquartered in Emeryville, California, United States. Victor Jules Bergeron, Jr. 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. The other was his amicable competitor for many years, Donn Beach of the "Don the Beachcomber" restaurants.
Beginnings
Bergeron attended Heald College in San Francisco. 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 in the Golden Gate District of Oakland. 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 the first franchised Trader Vic's opened in Seattle, Washington, known as The Outrigger. In 1950, Bergeron opened a Trader Vic's location in Hawaii and in 1951 at 20 Cosmo Place in San Francisco.
Drinks
Beyond the Mai Tai, Bergeron's other more famous drinks included the Fog Cutter and the Scorpion Bowl. 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. The Scorpion Bowl in particular and its many variations proliferated onto the cocktail menus of virtually all subsequent Tiki bars. The menus from his restaurants could list dozens of different tropical drinks. 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 rye whiskey, and another drink using even more rarely used tequila.
Expansion
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 nearby Emeryville, now considered the chain's flagship restaurant. In the 1980s and 1990s, the chain began to shrink as a younger generation had little connection to the chain's tiki theme. Poor locations or less trendy addresses took a toll on the chain's popularity. While many of the original locations have closed, Trader Vic's once again has grown to 18 locations around the globe due to a revival in popularity of tiki culture. As of 2018 there are three Trader Vic's restaurants in the United States, two in Europe, eleven in the Middle East, two in East Asia, and one in Seychelles. The Trader Vic's Corporation also franchises restaurants and bars under the names the Mai Tai Lounge, Trader Vic's Island Bar & Grill, and Señor Pico, which take the total restaurant count up to 28.
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." The Trader Vic's in London opened in 1963. The restaurant is also referenced by Bill Murray's character, Frank Cross, to John Forsythe's character, Lew Hayward, in the 1988 movie Scrooged. In the film Frost/Nixon the character of David Frost orders takeout from Trader Vic's while staying in The Beverly Hilton, which formally had a Trader Vic's location inside the hotel. The character orders a cheeseburger.
