Five Years In, Trader Vic's at LA Live Serves Tiki No More

Trader Vic's, the rather beloved tiki haunt that maintained an iconic space in Beverly Hills for many years, will no longer light the fires in Downtown's LA Live complex after a nearly five year run. A rep says that the restaurant's franchisee had filed for bankruptcy after losing money for quite some time. It's not like the place wasn't busy, with almost 500 Yelp reviews. A bummer because the whole nouveau tiki thing is really taking off in places like Chicago and San Francisco. In the meantime, LA's storied tiki past keeps taking hits, first with Bahooka last year and now this mall version of Trader Vic's. The company, which now franchises the brand, has numerous outlets in the Middle East, but has no plans to open another branch in the U.S. at the moment. The classic Beverly Hilton locale, which is only a lounge, is still in operation.
· All Trader Vic's Coverage [~ELA~]