Loyal readers of this space have from time to time enjoyed occasional stories about visits to Trader Vic’s restaurants. Specifically the (now) Emeryville flagship location, the revived Dallas location and others.

It is something of a family tradition as well. My parents enjoyed an anniversary dinner with the members of their wedding party in the Captains Cabin of the now departed San Francisco location on Cosmo Alley, complete with a roast suckling pig delivered to the table by four waiters. And my youngest brother and his new bride enjoyed a dinner with family and friends after their wedding, also at the Cosmo Alley location, having ridden from the North Bay across the Golden Gate bridge to San Francisco in a Daimler limousine (with proper right-hand drive).

That limousine shared another link to Trader Vics in that it had at one time carried Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip while they were on tour in Australia. When the Queen and the Prince came to San Francisco, their first American restaurant dining experience? You guessed it. Trader Vic’s at Cosmo Alley.

Now, the Cosmo Alley location closed a number of years ago, much to the consternation of many guests. San while a new San Francisco location opened near the Opera House just off Van Ness Avenue, it was never quite the same. So, when it closed recently, the were not the lamentations as before. Much of the decor and supplies from the restaurant were returned to storage with an uncertain future.

As I was looking at the Vic’s web site to make a reservation for a group dinner before our recent train trip to Reno, this banner caught my attention:

Unfortunately, Saturday the 23rd, we were bound for Reno early in the morning before the sale opened. But one of my most trusted spies, er associates, er friends did stop by to check things out and had this to report:

Went to the Trader Vic's warehouse today--huge collection of everything from plates and barware to tiki poles so big you'd need a crane to pick them up. Stuff is from the closed SF location, remodels elsewhere, and they bought out the stock of a supplier going out of business. Lots of the tiki stuff is big bucks (as you would expect for carved wood), one guy was filling up a U-Haul to the tune of someting like $7000. Thank goodness the wife was there to keep me on the straight and narrow! I did buy a nice 18x36 bark tapestry that caught my eye, only $20. If you have a chance, it would be very worthwhile to go for a browse, lots of fascinating stuff. Thanks for telling me about it.

And so a mission was launched. On Thursday afternoon, my mother and I found ourselves in Richmond’s garden district at the warehouse location. There was still a fine selection of goodies to be had and I could only imagine what it must have been like on Saturday.

Between the two of us, we left with four bags of all kinds of Trader Vic’s goodies. Sadly, we had to pass on the floor to ceiling painting of the Lord Admiral Nelson. There was just no where it fit into the decor of our homes. There were still plenty of tiki’s of all shapes and sizes. Even a complete wooden outrigger canoe was still there waiting for the right buyer to take it home.

For my own collection, I added a few more beverage glasses, a hat from Trader Vic’s San Francisco and a fine Reyn Spooner shirt with all kinds of great Trader Vic’s cocktails. But the most interesting item I picked up was actually a freebie! A reproduction of a cocktail menu from the predecessor to Trader Vic’s - a place called Hinky Dinks, that once was located at Sixty Fifth Street and San Pablo Avenue in Oakland - not far from today’s Pixar campus.

From the Trader Vic’s website, a tale is told of thoso early days in Oakland:

Victor J. "Trader Vic" Bergeron packed more excitement, enjoyment and exotica into his 82 years than any other man.

It all started when Victor Jules Bergeron was a waiter at San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel and owned a grocery store on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland. His son - Victor, (Jr.) - grew up loving the food business, living with the family in an apartment above the store and helping out downstairs. A childhood accident cost him a leg, but left him with a penchant for telling colorful stories.

In 1932, with a nest egg of $700 and carpentry help from his

wife's brothers - plus his mother's pot-bellied stove and oven - the ebullient Victor built a cozy pub across the street from the store and called it Hinky Dink's. His pungent vocabulary and ribald air made him a popular host, as did his potent tropical cocktail concoctions and delicious Americanized adaptations of Polynesian food.

Soon one of the most popular watering holes in Northern California's Bay Area, the place attracted sophisticated urbanites like writers Herb Caen and Lucius Beebe. By 1936, when Caen wittily wrote that the "best restaurant in San Francisco is in Oakland," Vic had become "The Trader" and Hinky Dink's had become "Trader Vic's," complete with a showpiece Chinese oven. Its South Pacific theme "intrigues everyone. You think of beaches and moonlight and pretty girls. It is complete escape," Vic said at the time. Among Trader Vic's more tantalizing legacies is the original Mai Tai, the bracingly refreshing rum cocktail he created at the restaurant in 1944 and introduced to the Hawaiian islands in the 1950s. Tahitian for "the very best," Mai Tai became the slogan for his entire operation.

In creating his new cocktail, Trader Vic employed what was becoming the ever-present hallmark of all his food and beverage recipes: a light touch, meant to enhance but never disguise nor overpower the fine original taste of his main ingredients. All of his recipes reflect the man's own personality: distinctive, lighthearted and memorable.

By 1946, the world had beaten a path to Vic's door, prompting Lucius Beebe to write in an introduction to "Trader Vic's Book of Food and Drink" published by Doubleday that year: "Trader Vic's is ... more than an Oakland institution. Its influence is as wide as the Pacific and as deep as a Myrtle Bank punch. Vic's trading post is long on atmosphere, and it is possible for the ambitious patron with a talent for chaos to get into more trouble with obsolete anchors, coiled hausers of boa-constrictor dimensions, fish nets, stuffed sharks... Hawaiian ceremonial costumes, tribal drums, boathooks and small bore cannon than the waiters can drag him out of in a week."

As I never had the chance to visit Hinky Dinks (having been born well after it’s demise), seeing the classic bar menu is a real treat. One that I thought folks would enjoy seeing as well. So click on this link to visit a gallery of images of the menu. Something to imagine what it must have been like the next time you’re enjoying that favorite Mai Tai...