Word: bergerons
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...cranberry juice), the drinker may well feel such a Suffering Bastard (rums, lime and liqueurs) that he will want to see Dr. Funk of Tahiti ("redolent of French rums and absinthe"). Actually, the author of these "Polynesian" cocktails has never roamed the South Seas. Nevertheless, salty, peg-legged Victor Bergeron, 58, has parlayed a flair for serving good food amid a supply of grass skirts, Tiki gods and outrigger canoes into the most successful chain of seaweed restaurants west of Suez: Trader...
Since the first Trader Vic's opened in Oakland, Calif., in 1938, Bergeron has set up another restaurant in San Francisco and manages seven others-three for the Hilton hotel chain (in New York, Chicago and Beverly Hills), four for Western Hotels (in Portland, Ore., Seattle, Denver, and one that opened last week in Vancouver, B.C.). This summer the Trader will start two more restaurants for Hilton, in Washington, D.C., and San Juan, will open a third, owned by himself, in Phoenix. There will also be a Trader Vic's in the new London Hilton. Last year...
...with the Neck. Secret of Trader Vic Bergeron's success is his preference for South Sea atmosphere rather than culinary authenticity. "How are you going to make a pig in the ground in your restaurant?" asks Bergeron. "Furthermore, you can't eat real Polynesian food. It's the most horrible junk I've ever tasted...
...face. When the customer sees that naked head and the beak and the eyes, he wants no part of it. We chop the neck off it, barbecue it, and it's changed. And that's just what we've done with all the specialty food." Bergeron also serves French cooking, but refuses to promote it. "Why should I?" he asks. "I can make so much more money off the grass...
...snipped off by an unfriendly shark in the islands. But the story is as unreal as his menu. Born in California, he grew up in Oakland, where his parents ran a small grocery. At the age of six, a tuberculosis attack cost him his left leg; despite the handicap, Bergeron was so agile on his crutches that he played for his grammar school soccer team. He quit school at 16, two years later was able to buy his first wooden leg. For the next 13 years he bummed around from job to job, finally winding...