Originally a Palm Springs restaurant called The Desert Grill, Chi Chi was opened in 1941 and reimagined as a tropical-themed nightclub catering to the Hollywood elite. the concept grew into a chain of ‘supper clubs’ – one-stop destinations that offered multiple rooms of entertainment, food, live music, and dancing.
Ultimately, there were seven locations throughout California, including Palm Springs, Catalina Island, Hollywood, Riverside, Belmont Shore in Long Beach, and San Diego. the clubs were usually advertised with renderings of a topless Polynesian beauty, aptly nicknamed the ‘Chi Chi Girl and which appeared on everything from napkins to menus to newspaper advertisements.
The image on this print is scanned from an old menu and featuring the black velvet Chi Chi girl painting that graced the venues,
Scanned, edited and redesigned with new text to make it more legible, this Chi Chi design is free of many of the artifacts and poor reproduction often scene with this sort of reproduction.
Printed in-house on our own presses with archival ink.
