I think it’s safe to say that Hala Kahiki located in River Grove, Illinois may have the largest collection of Witco anywhere!
Hala Kahiki is one of the oldest remaining tiki bars in Illinois and when you walk into this bar, you are stepping back in time. The décor is classic Polynesian pop with bamboo and thatch covering the walls.
But also covering the walls is Witco art, tons of it! And all of it in perfect shape. The owners of Hala Kahiki are big fans of Witco and have made a point to preserve their collection. They have Witco pieces that span decades starting it the late 50’s and ending the 70’s.
I’ve already done a tiki bar review on Hala Kahiki a couple of years back and you can read that write up here. For this post, I want to focus on Hala Kahiki’s enormous Witco collection. The owners were nice enough to let me go through the entire bar and take pictures. So, I literally combed the entire bar (Hala Kahiki is much bigger than it appears) and photographed every piece of Witco I could find.
Then I teamed up with Heather (Mr. Westenhaver’s granddaughter) and Ken Pleasant, of Witco Décor by Pleasant Tiki, to identify and label all of these Witco pieces. We paged through many old Witco catalogues to see what was what, but we did it!
Without further ado, here is Hala Kahiki’s Witco collection …
I’d like the thank the owners of Hala Kahiki for opening up the bar to let me take pictures …
And Heather and Ken Pleasant for helping with the identification of the Witco pieces.
Here is Hala Kahiki’s website
And Facebook Page
Here is my official tiki bar review on Hala Kahiki