We love beer. It's true, we do. The only thing we love more than beer is vintage beer advertising art. We spend a lot of time drinking beer and then thinking about it. When we came across these vintage pieces of advertising we decided it was high time that Club Tiki branch out a bit and do some beer related merchandise.

Aloha Jhoe's was the name of a Polynesian Restaurant and Bar in Palm Springs, CA.  Created by famed Oscar winning Art Director Lyle Wheeler, Aloha Jhoe's opened about four years after the movie South Pacific was release. Wheeler was joined by carver and set designer Jim Casey and together they opened what seemed like a small theme park without the rides. The Palm Springs area was sick with Polynesian high end dining at the time, but most of it all had the same sort of design and look. I would imagine that Wheeler took most of his inspiration for Aloha Jhoe's from his research into the design of the award winning South Pacific.

As with anything involving Hollywood, Wheeler's story took an odd turn and maybe had not a happy ending.

He put his five Academy Awards into storage but was soon unable to pay the rent for that storage, The Oscars, hidden within eleven boxes marked 'Wheeler' were eventually auctioned off, selling for $175. One person was decent enough to try and return his statue to Wheeler, but I am unclear as to whether this happened before or after his death.

I'm not certain where Aloha Jhoe's entered into the equation or whether it contributed to his financial downfall. Maybe his decision to put together a really cool tiki place was the kind of decision making process that fueled his entire life. I get that. Aloha Jhoe's had a design that was far different from places like Trader Vics or Don The Beachcomber's. It stood out in a sea of cliche's in my mind as having some sense of actual inspiration or thought. You can read more about the restaurant at the Tiki Central website HERE

I am also not sure who drew or created the matchbook cover we took this image from. Maybe it was Wheeler, to be certain Wheeler art directed it. Whatever the case it is a very cool and funky piece of work. We have digitally redrawn the image in order to better reproduce the art on a shirt, allowing for consistent color and sharp line, which to be honest does not mean a lot on a t-shirt, but I felt that we wanted to preserve the art in a way that made it look something more like the original image.

I have been to Hawaii several times in my life, but the only time I went to Oahu was on my honeymoon 25 years ago. I had wanted to stay at the Royal Hawaiian hotel but for reasons out of my control we ended up staying at the Sheraton next door.

The Royal Hawaiian (also known as The Pink Palace of the Pacific and, alternately, the Pink Lady) is an odd structure for Hawaii. Opened in 1927, the Spanish style architecture is not what you would expect for a beachfront Hawaiian hotel. One of the first hotels established in Waikiki it quickly became the place to be. The six-story building sports 400 rooms and cost over $4 Million dollars to construct. It was the first place to ever to be called"The Western Whitehouse" as FDR conducted a bit of presidential business inside it's walls. The architecture, a mix of Spanish and Moorish design, was said to have been influenced by the Arabian movies of Rudolph Valentino. Pink was kind of in at the time, so I imagine that the decision to paint the place pink was a no-brainer.

But the thing that I find most fascinating about the Royal Hawaiian Hotel is it's claim to be the birthplace of the Shirley Temple. Now everyone should be familiar with the Shirley Temple, basically just ginger ale mixed with some grenadine. Nothing really special, kids get it all the time. But the drink back then must have been radically different than what we serve now. Most bars and restaurants in our high-fructose/low quality generations do not serve actual ginger ale, instead what you get is a mix of cola and something like Sprite or 7-UP.  In some cases you might see a place that serves Canada Dry or some other canned soda, but that is not the same as the ginger ale of days gone by. And don't even get me started on what passes for grenadine these days.

Grenadine was originally prepared from pomegranate juice or something similar. The most popular brand of grenadine is a corn syrup nightmare called Rose's which I wouldn't feed to hungry ants.

So, to imagine the Shirley Temple as was prepared at the Pink Lady you would have to imagine something totally different. If you wanted to try and approximate it you would need to do some searching for the right kind of ingredients. First place to start would be the Ginger Ale.  My research indicates that the closest thing you will find to real ginger ale is Vernor's which is made and bottled by Dr Pepper/Seven Up Inc. and is produced close to the recipe originated by James Vernor that was a mix of 17 ingredients including ginger and vanilla. I have had it and it is good, however something that I have heard which might be better is Fever Tree Ginger Ale. I have not tried it, but it has been highly recommended to me.

For the grenadine, try making your own. It's pretty easy (I say this never having done it, but it SOUNDS easy). Grenadine can be created by simmering pomegranate juice for 15 minutes on the stove, then adding superfine sugar. 
--NEW NOTE--
I have discovered the most wonderful grenadine from a company called Employees Only. We have started using it in our very own music venue to produce what we call an authentic Shirley Temple and I can say that anyone that has tried it has been amazed at what this old standard of a soda ca taste like.
--END NOTE--

I guess the easy thing to say is "Why bother". I mean, this is a drink for kids right? Well, I firmly believe that kids need to be trained to expect higher quality at an early age. I mean maybe the decline of the Shirley Temple had something to do with the decline of the tropical drink. As things got sweeter and sweeter people just started taking all kinds of liberties with their drinks. If you accept some combination of cola and Sprite mixed with a sickening red syrup as a Shirley Temple, then is should come as no surprise to you when the Mai Tai you ordered ends up being Hawaiian Punch mixed with Bacardi (I've seen this, I know it happens).

I think it is worth, at least once, to mix up a proper Shirley Temple and whisk yourself back to the days of the Royal Hawaiian. I can feel the ocean breezes now.