The Islander on La Cienega served a cocktail called the Husband Killer.
Which, honestly, feels refreshingly direct compared to modern menu writing.
During the great Los Angeles tiki boom of the late 1950s and early ’60s, places like the Islander competed to invent drinks strong enough to become rumors. Flaming bowls. Multi-person concoctions. Ceramic mugs shaped like angry gods. The Husband Killer belonged to that glorious category of cocktails that sounded less like beverages and more like insurance complications.
And then there’s this image.
A perfectly respectable midcentury grandmother figure smiling sweetly while holding a tiny tiki mug beside a giant carved idol like she’s about to explain why nobody should drive home tonight. The halftone illustration gives it the texture of an old scandalous newspaper photo or cocktail menu graphic somebody clipped out and pinned behind a basement bar in 1962.
“She looked harmless right up until the third rum blend.”
Darkly funny. Slightly unhinged. Pure vintage tiki energy.
Printed with distressed black linework and old-school dot shading that feels pulled straight from the back page of a forgotten Polynesian supper club menu somewhere off La Cienega after midnight.
• 100% ring-spun cotton • Fabric weight: 6.1 oz/yd² (206.8 g/m²) • Garment-dyed • Relaxed fit • 7/8″ double-needle topstitched collar • Twill-taped neck and shoulders for extra durability • Double-needle armhole, sleeve, and bottom hems • Blank product sourced from Honduras
