There are tiki bars and then there are tiki bars. And then there is the Tonga Hut!

The Tonga Hut is located at 12808 Victory Boulevard in North Hollywood, CA. What makes this place so fantastic is the fact that it is the oldest surviving tiki bar in the LA area. Two brothers founded this joint in 1958 after they were inspired by a trip to Tonga.

When it opened, the Tonga Hut joined hundreds of other tiki bars and restaraunts making their appearance across the country. But this one is different in two respects. First, it opened in what would have been the vortex of the surfing and tiki culture in the late 1950's. And second, because it's just about the only one that survived so long.

There isn't a lot of "original" in Hollywood. Sure they celebrate the throwback, with films like L.A. Confidential and others (which actually show a director's version of what actually happened there years before) but real, authentic Hollywood? Nah. It really doesn't exist anymore.

Well, that's what we thought anyway when we rolled into town. Turns out though, that on Hollywood Boulevard there's more "real" about five blocks east of Highland than all of the stuff they try to force down your throat at the Kodak Theater.

I'm talking about the Frolic Room, a throwback to at least 1930 when the connected theater, the Panteges, was built. The bar, officially made a bar in 1934 (as far as we know) started life as a hospitality lounge for the Pantages, and has therefore seen its share of Hollywood stars, sleaze, crime and tragedy. Enough to make it a Hollywood Landmark like its next-door neighbor (but because it's a bar and not a location for casting-couch calls that hasn't happened yet).