Trader Vic's Memories Campaign
Thanks for all the memories. Here are a few of our favorites....

 

I was attending Mills College in Oakland CA in the 1950's & was dating a handsome young Naval Aviator based at the Naval Air Station at Alameda CA. We went to the Trader Vic's in Oakland quite a bit during that time - it was a very romantic restaurant and we did get married & live happily ever after. One of my friends at Mills was Helen Ann Harwood, Victor Bergeron's step daughter.

-Beatrice Tesch

During college in the 1970's, I worked evenings at the Seattle Trader Vic's as Maitre d'. It was THE restaurant in town and visited by all visiting celebrities. One night, I received a call that Ella Fitzgerald wanted to come in after her concert. As a huge fan of hers, I reserved the best table in the house. When she arrived, she handed me a $20 tip. I protested that it was my honor to give her a great table and that I did not need a tip. She said, "Son, you need it a lot more than I do!" She was right and I was even a bigger fan after that....

-Neil Hampson, MD

My family were all born and raised in Southern California. Trader Vic's in the Beverly Hilton Hotel was a favorite spot for us all. Every year, the day after Thanksgiving was a special shopping day for us. We would start the day at Inglewood Memorial Park to visit my Grandfather and my favorite uncle, and place flowers on their headstones. Then we would go to Beverly Hills and shop on Rodeo Drive and the Century City Mall. We would always top off our day with a dinner at Trader Vic's to celebrate the holidays. It was something we brought up here to Seattle where Trader Vic's used to be in the Westin Hotel. We cried when it was closed. So we will carry on the tradition when the Bellevue restaurant opens.

-Marsha and Gregg Morrison

It was Valentine's day 1965 at Trader Vic's in Seattle. The trader's had always been our favorite, and this night we decided that we should be married. Where else could we have possibly made a commitment as important as this. It was over a Scorpion and Navy Grog...always our favorites. And to this day still is. It would be 4 more years till we actually said I Do. This year will be our 36th anniversary. Whenever possible we have spent Birthdays and those special Anniversary's at Trader Vics. We are so happy you are returning to the Seattle area. We were at the closing night of the Seattle TV's and were so sad. We cannot wait till March.

-Jacque Tupper

While going with my wife to be we stopped at Trader Vic’s in Seattle while Christmas Shopping. The next winter after we were married we were dining in Renton with a couple from work on a very cold snowy evening. My wife suggested we go to Trader Vic’s in Seattle. The Rum Keg caught our eyes; since there were four of us we went for it. We must have inhaled it as we ordered a second one; taking our time to enjoy it. This fall nearly 40 years later I was in London with my two daughters. I had just picked up a map in the lobby, and saw the Trader Vic’s ad, we decided to try it. I retold the rum keg story again; they mentioned all the coconut cups we found when we moved. It was a happy repeat; the three of us enjoying the kegs. When I got back I checked the web to find out where the nearest Trader Vic’s was and was pleasantly surprised to see we will get one in Bellevue.

-Robert Secrest

My wife Reita and I will be married 29 years this coming April. Over 30 years ago, I first saw her at a group business gathering. I later found out that she was single as was I. I called to introduce myself since she didn't remember me from the brief prior encounter. I asked her to join me for a first date at Trader Vic's in the Westin Hotel for lunch and I recall we had the Chinese sampler entree that we both enjoyed. During our ensuing courtship over the next year, we visited Trader Vic's many times for Fog Cutters, pupus, and favorite dinners. I proposed to Reita at Trader Vic's and was overjoyed when she said, "Yes". We still have our menu from that memorable evening. We are very excited about your 2006 opening so we can relive many wonderful memories and create many new ones surrounded by the enchanting South Seas atmosphere of the new Trader Vic's.

-John T and Reita M Marshall

I have some very fond memories of the old Trader Vic's at the Westin in downtown Seattle. I met my closest girlfriend and her husband for the first time at Trader Vic's. My husband was a coworker and best friends with her spouse at the time and I will never forget the meal that made our meeting stand out in my memory for more than one reason : I can still taste the delicate currys ,the crab dish she always ordered; I can still smell the aroma of the flaming drink and the white Gardenia. We made it a twice monthly event as our husbands worked at the old El Gaucho as waiters and were nightowls looking for the best pour in town. I have many happy memories there and when they come to town in march from Guam, I don't need to tell you where we will be heading to give our memories a jump shot!

-Marla Nelson

Having spent many dinners and cocktails at the Trader Vics in the Palmer House in Chicago, we are saddened by the closing of this fine establishment. Over 12 years of going to Trader Vics during the annual Christmas Tree lighting, this final year was capped with the great memory of our Seattle family here visiting for the holidays. Thanks for the memories...

-Chuck Fricke

My first memory of Trader Vic's is when I was 16 or 17 and I was attending modeling school downtown Seattle, my aunt picked me up after class one afternoon for lunch and we decided on Trader Vic's. Of course I was unable to drink an alcoholic beverage at that time but I sure enjoyed the food and observing the other patrons enjoying the special drinks with the beautiful flowers in them! As I grew older and met that Special someone we would drive downtown from Des Moines for Pupu's and Rum Kegs quite often. This became our secret hideaway.
After we were engaged we decided to stay at the Westin Hotel and visit Trader Vic's on our wedding night. My husband's sister and husband own a car lot in Des Moines and at the time they owned a 1934 Rolls Royce so they were hired/asked to give us a ride downtown after the wedding. (I have a picture of the two of us in the backseat) After we checked into the hotel we went right to the lounge of our secret hideaway and toasted our marriage with champagne with family. After the restaurant closed in Seattle we had to fly to Honolulu to escape to our secret hideaway. On June 24,2006 we will be celebrating our 28th anniversary at our new secret hideaway and will start some new memories, we have two sons now and want to share our secret hideaway with them so that they can begin building their own memories.

Thank you so much for bringing this part of our lives back to us, it is the best anniversary present I could ask for

-Jann Strasbaugh

Trader Vics first restaurant in Seattle was in an old hotel called the Benjamin Franklin. We were regulars. One night my friend Evelyn and I decided to take our husbands to Trader Vics for dinner. We dined on Fog Cutters, crab rangoon, and then ordered steaks, green goddess salads, rice, and aloha ice cream and coffee for dessert. What an evening, the only problem was that Evelyn and I each brought 50$ to cover the dinner. Thank heaven our husbands had cash in their wallets. The evening was extra special because we gals got to sit in the 'high back 'queen' chairs.

-Rosalie Kosher

It was the early 1960's and we took our parents to Trader Vic's Outrigger Seattle for their anniversary. Wonderful food wonderful drinks wonderful time. There was one drink that came in a skull. My father in law was one who liked to be silly with pranks. HE stuck his finger up the nose of the skull and got the finger stuck!! He was so embarrassed. There must have been 10 wait staff that had to help get his finger unstuck!!

-Ethel Dahl