Trader Vic's Revives Glory Years
HP partners lead renovation, resurrect partnership
by Bruce Felps
Staff Photo: Jeremy Chesnutt
Rusty Fenton, Kip Sowden, and Jeff Berry sit in a rickshaw inside the soon-to-be reopened Trader Vic's at the Hotel Palomar. The original tiki head that sat outside for years will soon be watching over Mockingbird Lane again.
The din of construction work last week filled the interior of Trader Vic's restaurant and club leading up to this weekend's quiet opening.
Anticipation has been swirling around the revitalization since two Highland Park business partners closed their deal on the property more than two years ago. Jeff Berry, a partner with Kip Sowden in Realty America Group LP, said most of the anticipation has come from area residents who remember the original Trader Vic's Tiki Lounge, which was open from 1967 to 1987.
"I joke about it with Kip that if we had a nickel for every call and e-mail we've gotten from people who remember the original and say they can't wait for the new Trader Vic's to open, we wouldn't have had to get the loan," Berry said with a laugh. Berry and Sowden can trace their business partnership back to their school days in the Park Cities. Sowden's father was a member of the Salesmanship Club, which sponsored the Byron Nelson Golf Classic when the two were in the sixth grade. They were in the crowd at the tournament one rainy day, and came across an unattended golf cart used by tournament personnel. They decided to take the cart for a tour of the grounds and ran into a business opportunity, Berry said. "It was raining, and an older couple flagged us down to take them to their car," he said. "They gave us $5, and we each ended up making $100 that day." They went their separate ways after enrolling in college. Sowden said he went to "an accredited institute of higher learning, the University of Texas, and [Berry] went to a little unaccredited school, Texas A&M University," before becoming reacquainted at their Highland Park High School class' 20th reunion in 2001. They found their different approaches to business combined to make a "formidable company," Sowden said. Even the colors they selected for the Realty America logo reflect the blue and gold of the Highland Park Scots. "We were working for the same company and didn't know it," Sowden said. "We were at Peggy Sue's BBQ in Snider Plaza talking about the reunion, and we started talking about starting our own company. We're exact opposites, which makes us phenomenal partners. He takes care of the administrative part of the office, and I'm more on the deals side. He does rein me in sometimes. We'd be doing a large development deal in Costa Rica if he didn't make me take another look at it." They started with Realty America Group. The company's structure includes Realty America Development, which handled the redevelopment of the The Residences at Hotel Palomar and Realty America Hospitality Group, which revived Trader Vic's.
Berry said patrons who visited the original Trader Vic's will find many familiar touches. The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, under whom the Beatles studied transcendental meditation during the late '60s, bought the old hotel property after the operators lost a Hilton Hotels license. Berry said the Maharishi locked the doors to Trader Vic's and left the interior intact. "When we first went in, it was amazing," Berry said. "It was like a time warp. There was all this old stuff still in there - the outrigger hanging from the ceiling, the tiki poles, the torches. It's
amazing what we can do with it." University Park Mayor James "Blackie" Holmes counts himself among the Park Cities residents who possess fond memories of the first incarnation of Trader Vic's.
"Things do stand out in my mind," he said. "I remember the huge totem pole out front, the big frosted luau drinks, the exotic cocktails, and I remember a coconut shrimp that was delicious."
The bar area now consists of the original South Seas monkeypod wood, extended with a wraparound section to increase the initial eight-seat limit. The ceiling treatments include a woven, heavy rattan design from the original décor. Rusty Fenton, who runs Trader Vic's for Realty America Hospitality, said incorporating the old features proved difficult.
"Remodeling is a lot harder than building from scratch with all the rewiring, bringing all this wood up to fire code, and the [heating, ventilation, and air-condition] system," he said. Berry said Realty America spent nearly $3 million to refurbish the site. Holmes' reaction indicated the investment could be worthwhile. The mayor said the adherence to the original décor of Trader Vic's makes him look forward to going there even more.