Lanai Liquors’ old neon sign in place atop a San Mateo building. It has since been taken down.
Patrick KelleyA rare piece of Bay Area history is up for sale on Craigslist, and for $8,500, you can be its proud new owner.
A neon sign from Lanai Liquors — a liquor store that once sat next to Lanai, a fabled Tiki bar and restaurant in San Mateo from the atomic era — has been unearthed from storage. The double-sided, 10-foot-5-inch-by-10-foot-5-inch relic’s neon tubes are mostly intact, the post reads, and it offers a unique window into Bay Area history.
According to archived newspaper articles, Lanai, the liquor store’s Polynesian-themed sister restaurant, had an authentic luau pit with a suckling pig, a resplendent indoor waterfall and a three-dimensional mural. Adorned with fish skins and sea shells, it was an island fantasy that felt worlds away from the San Francisco peninsula, serving cuisine that was just as alluring as its unique decor. Old menus show that the restaurant offered Mandarin pressed duck and $2.75 frog legs, along with tropical drinks like the Sidewinder’s Fang, Blonde Witch and Navy Grog. Nearby, its liquor store, which reportedly had “wall-to-wall” carpeting, sold an array of wine and spirits from around the world.
The sign’s current owner, Patrick Kelley, who was born and raised in San Mateo, said he took his high school prom date to the restaurant back when it was in full swing. At the time, he’d also often stop by for a soda and visit his friend who worked there as a busboy. The eclectic bar stuck with him as he grew older, too: After watching college football games at Stanford, he and his buddies would hole up at the bar and grab a sidewinder — a dizzying brew made with rum, orange juice and passion fruit syrup. “We would go there after football games and drown our sorrows because Stanford would usually lose,” he said.
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The storied bar had shut down by 1988, but Kelley still drove past the defunct liquor store sign for 20 years. One day, just as wrecking crews were about to demolish it, they struck a deal with him: If he could take it down, they said, he could have it. It’s been in his possession ever since. Now, he hopes that someone else can restore the unique sign and help preserve the Lanai’s lost legacy.
“By today’s standards, it’s kind of kitschy and passe,” Kelley told SFGATE. “But thinking back in that golden haze of reminiscing, it was lots of fun, and a fun place and we all loved it.”