Kahiki Supper Club: A Polynesian Paradise in Columbus - Paperback

by David Meyers (Author), Elise Meyers Walker (Author), Jeff Chenault (Author)

Inspired by Florida's famed Mai-Kai restaurant, Bill Sapp and Lee Henry opened the Kahiki Supper Club in 1961. Patrons lined up for hours to see the celebrities who dined there--everyone from Betty White to Raymond Burr.

Sapp and Henry set out simply to build a nice Polynesian restaurant and ended up establishing the most magnificent one of them all. Outside, two giant Easter Island heads with flames spouting from their topknots stood guard while customers dined in a faux tribal village with thatched huts, palm trees and a towering fireplace moai. One wall featured aquariums of exotic fish and another had windows overlooking a tropical rainforest with periodic thunderstorms. For nearly forty years, the Kahiki was the undisputed center of tiki culture.

Author Biography

A graduate of Miami and Ohio State Universities, David Meyers has written a number of local histories and various works for the stage. Among the former are Columbus, the Musical Crossroads and Ohio Jazz: A History of Jazz in the Buckeye State, while the latter include The Last Oz Story and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Condominium Association, Inc.Elise Meyers Walker is an author and frequent presenter on local history. Jeff Chenault is a prominent member of the Fraternal Order of Moai, Kahiki Chapter. Doug Motz is the president of the Columbus Historical Society and was a 2012 recipient of the Bicentennial Leadership Award from Columbus Foundation. Linda Sapp Long is the aughter of Bill Sapp, co-founder with Lee Henry, of the celebrated Kahiki Supper Club.