LuauRuins1
On a rainy Saturday afternoon, I watched as a crane from a demolition company with the happy slogan "Wrecking Dreams One at a Time" pulled down the last traces of a building on Poplar Avenue, right across from East High School, to make way for a new commercial development.
Empty and neglected, and painted bright orange, this building had served as a paint store in recent years, and before that had housed doctors' offices.
But most Memphians will remember it fondly as the home of this area's only Polynesian-themed restaurant, the Luau, owned and operated by the Dobbs House chain in the 1960s and 1970s. I've written about this unusual place before, known for its giant poured-concrete head outside the front door.
But before that, the establishment was home to another giant head, when owner George Morris decided a 14-foot version of his own head — illuminated by colored lights — would look just grand mounted on top of the building. Even without that distinctive feature, this restaurant was also known for its unusual (and to me, inexplicable) name: The Old Master Says Restaurant.
And before that, in the 1950s the place was home to a family-style restaurant called Friedel's.
I've never really found a great shot showing the full exterior of the Luau, but my pal Bonnie Kourvelas sent me this photo (below), taken in the late 1960s, with her family standing out front. You can barely see the top of the giant head behind the sign.
