Mimi Payne keeps adding great items from her collection to Arkiva Tropika — she adds cool things too frequently for me to post about it every time, and I can’t not post about the wonderful things she’s sharing, so there’s only one thing for it: a weekly roundup. This is just a small fraction of the items she’s posted this week; if you like these, make sure to check out Arkiva Tropika yourself, and you’ll be over the moon.

This is a 1954 drink menu from the Waikiki Room at the Hotel Nicollet in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There was another Waikiki Room across town, in the Hotel Leamington. I love the woodgrain backdrop of the menu, and the tiki is simple, but beautifully illustrated. Inside, the menu has full-color photos of the drinks, rather than the more commonly seen drawings. Very cool!

This is a lovely postcard view of the Portland Trader Vic’s, which was in the Hotel Benson. I have no idea what that carved thing in the foreground with the white thingy on top could be.

Without a doubt, hands down, no contest, this is my favorite bit of Polynesian Pop imagery anywhere. That woman is just gorgeous. I want her tattoed on me. I want to be her. She even makes the menacing dark cloudy figure seem like something you can’t be bothered to be concerned about. Who could possibly be distracted by a 50-foot angry genie when you’ve got that woman mezmerizing you? Oh yeah, there’s a neat building in the back, too. Seriously, aside from the beautiful woman, it’s a nice, simple composition that conveys a mood without having to try too hard. Beautiful. This image from Zombie Village in Oakland can also be seen at the beginning of the Book of Tiki.

This fan is an unusual item, although Mimi has a few fans in her collection. It comes from the Aku Aku at the Stardust in Las Vegas. The Aku Aku closed long ago, but the Stardust closed just this past Wednesday. I like the rendering of the Aku Aku moai as an Asian brush painting, and I like the muted colors.

And straight from muted colors, we have color overload, with food, no less. Look at this — this is every classic ’60s food cliche in one spread, from the Hawaiian Room in New York City. I’ll just let it speak for itself, since I wouldn’t be heard over its screaming, anyhow.

This menu is interesting to me not so much because of the design, but because this is from a place I’ve been to, that’s still operating today. The Hawaiian Inn in Daytona Beach still has a Polynesian floor show and restaurant, but this menu comes from the small coffee shop just off the hotel’s lobby. Today, the coffee shop is run by the same family that performs the floor show at night; it’s kind of fun to be served your hangover-healing coffee by the same woman who was hulaing for you the night before. Gives it a sort of end-of-Wizard-of-Oz feeling. Another interesting thing about this menu is that while it’s from the coffee shop, and has “Good Morning” printed in the decorative border, the paper insert is a dinner menu, which seems a little odd.

Check out Arkiva Tropika for more — much, much more — stuff just like this!

• cocktail menu from Waikiki Room, Hotel Nicollet- Minneapolis, MN [Arkiva Tropika]
• Waikiki Room, Minneapolis [Critiki]
• postcard from Trader Vic’s, Hotel Benson – Portland, OR [Arkiva Tropika]
• Trader Vic’s, Portland [Critiki]
• dinner menu from Zombie Village – Oakland, CA [Arkiva Tropika]
• Zombie Village, Oakland [Critiki]
• souvenir fan from Aku Aku, Stardust Hotel – Las Vegas, NV [Arkiva Tropika]
• Aku Aku, Las Vegas [Critiki]
• dinner menu from Hawaiian Room, Hotel Lexington- New York City [Arkiva Tropika]
• Hawaiian Room, New York [Critiki]
• Wiki Wiki Coffee Shop menu from Hawaiian Inn – Daytona Beach, Florida [Arkiva Tropika]
• Hawaiian Inn, Daytona Beach [Critiki]