Trader Vic's
Tiki bar · Emeryville
9 Anchor Dr, Emeryville, CA 94608
Highlights
Inventive Polynesian fare & tropical cocktails with bay views
Inventive Polynesian fare & tropical cocktails with bay views
"There are only two Trader Vic’s locations left in the U.S. (the history is worth a Google search), and one is downtown in the lower level of the Hilton hotel. They’re still committing hard to the culturally appropriated Polynesian theme with carved tiki pillars on every surface and thatched bamboo roofs on the ceiling. Most meats from the Asian fusion menu are smoked in giant Chinese ovens on display behind a glass casing. The food is decent enough if you happen to be in the area, but we’d mostly recommend this place for after-convention drinks. The cocktail list is a mile long, and most are served in elaborate mugs. They make a mean mai tai and after a few strong fruity cocktails, we're not as distracted by the dolphin statue dressed in a coconut bra and hula skirt." - Juli Horsford
"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
Bourdain had: mai tais, ribs. Dinner date: Sean Wilsey, author of More Curious.
"Set beneath a visible thatched roof on the marina, this long-running tiki restaurant leans hard into classic Polynesian kitsch — bamboo swaths, wooden carvings and totems, Hawaiian music, pu-pu platters, and theatrical rum-forward cocktails such as the Samoan Fog Cutter (rum, brandy, gin, and sherry). Opened in 1973 to replace the 1934 original, a 2010 renovation deepened the tiki aesthetic with artifacts collected by the founder and corporate sourcing from South Pacific islands, while the menu now includes lighter options alongside its signature, sweet, showy drinks. The venue embodies nostalgic escape and excess celebration for longtime fans, but also draws criticism for outdated and appropriative imagery — from caricatured drink toppers and tiki mugs modeled on Maori and Tahitian motifs to menu art that some find offensive — leaving it caught between plans for brand expansion and contemporary concerns about cultural sensitivity." - Lesley Balla
"Trader Vic’s Emeryville is the last local port of call for a tiki empire that once spanned California, starting with an Oakland location that’s long since closed. Founder Vic Bergeron invented classic tiki drinks like the Mai Tai, and even dreamt up faux exotic dishes to match like the crab rangoon. You can still get all that and more in Emeryville, where the large location has been the chain’s flagship since 1972. It’s still seriously popular with families for its banquet hall dinners, and with drinkers for its big bar and lounge with waterfront views." - Caleb Pershan
