"For the better part of a century, people have flocked to the East Bay’s location of Trader Vic’s, the international restaurant chain known for being the potential birthplace of the mai tai. The 87-year-old tiki bar remains vigilantly open on a little spit of land facing San Francisco from the East Bay — but fans can barely seem to keep one important fact straight: is the restaurant open or closed? Berkeleyside has covered this closure rumor mill, starting in 2019, and recently confirms the bar is indeed still open. One reason for the confusion is related to who owns the property on which the bar sits. The original Trader Vic’s moved to its current location in 1972, when management signed a 50-year lease — meaning that lease is set to expire in 2023. Faith Nebergall, the bar and restaurant’s general manager, tells Berkeleyside the building has yet to be sold, but since the future is TBD, the bar stopped booking events, which made people speculate about the location’s closure; adjusted hours due to COVID in the last few years only fanned the flames. In any case, for a little while longer, at least, Trader Vic’s will keep dealing out its problematically themed food and drink." - Paolo Bicchieri