Photo courtesy TikiRoom.com

We’ve posted before about the Kapu-Kai bowling alley, coffee shop and cocktail lounge in Cucamonga, built in 1962, according to Charles Phoenix’s “Cruising the Pomona Valley,” and occupying the northwest corner of Foothill Boulevard and Vineyard Avenue until 1969, when a devastating flood buried the business under water and mud. The building sat vacant for years, later became Holiday roller rink and was demolished in 1994. An Albertsons was erected on the site.

Colin Sato, a son of owner Warren Sato, has produced a 27-minute film on the Kapu-Kai and tiki culture, and it’s quite well done. This blog provided quiet assistance, as I put Sato in touch with Joe Filippi and Linda Frost, who’d both commented here on the Kapu-Kai; Sato flew here from Honolulu to interview them, conduct research at the Ontario library and talk to SoCal tiki fetishists.

Watch “Kapu-Kai: The Polynesian Paradise” here. And way to go, Colin.