Trader Vic's is back at L.A. Live

(Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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There was much sorrow among history buffs and tiki aficionados alike when the iconic Trader Vic’s shut its doors in April 2007. The truly old-school watering hole, which opened in 1955, had maintained a genuine sense of L.A. history, despite the perpetual renovations and changes happening all around its Beverly Hills location at Santa Monica and Wilshire boulevards.

After months of speculation, Trader Vic’s has returned, with an expanded and updated version in Downtown’s sprawling L.A. Live entertainment complex on Olympic Boulevard at Figueroa Street. With picture windows looking out onto Olympic, this supersized version of the classic Polynesian experience is essentially two places in one.

The front half is a party-ready bar with a wrought-iron-enclosed patio. Deeper inside is the plush, wood-paneled dining room, where booths line the custom cloth-covered walls, with everything focused around the giant, Chinese wood-fired oven behind glass. There is also a posh private event room adjacent to the dining area, made even more authentic with an impressive outrigger imported from the Dallas Trader Vic’s location hanging above the room’s huge communal table. And, of course, there are tikis, large and small, everywhere.

While this new Trader Vic’s has been painstakingly detailed to maintain a warm, “Tiki Nation”-approved atmosphere, owner John Valencia admits to making a few concessions in order to fit in with the outsized surroundings.

“Yes, there are TVs in the bar area and one in the private dining room,” Valencia said, while touring the freshly completed space recently. “We’re literally next door to the Staples Center, so we have to be ready to accommodate a sports crowd—and look forward to the Lakers having a long playoff run this year. But we did it as discreetly as possible, and I even had a tiki enclosure made that can hide the television in the private room.”

This being Trader Vic’s, arguably the home of the first mai tai, and notorious for huge, rum-soaked drinks, the emphasis is squarely on the cocktails. At a special event to toast (and bless) the venue before it opened to the public, cocktail waitresses in Polynesian dresses served up a selection of drinks, starting with the latest Trader Vic’s concoction, the Big Kahuna, served in a special-edition tiki mug, which is for sale (serious tiki collectors placed advance orders weeks before the venue opened). Topped with a smoldering wedge of lime, it’s a flavorful alternative to the mai tai. The coconut-flavored Chi Chi (which eschews rum for vodka and triple sec) is appropriately served in a coconut-shaped ceramic mug. The Trader Vic’s Grog is laden with enough pineapple and passion fruit juice to cleverly mask the dark rum lurking within. But it was the almond-tinged mai tai that packed the most potent punch of the bunch.

“This is the 75-year anniversary of Trader Vic’s, and the excitement I’ve felt from people about this place has been tremendous,” Valencia said. “Hospitality is a large part of the Polynesian culture, and we look forward to welcoming guests into this new era.”

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