Before being forcibly removed from their home in Los Angeles, Jack Kaya operated a small cafe while his wife Alice worked as a costume designer. That all changed in 1942 when the United States government placed 120,000 Japanese-Americans in one of ten internment camps during World War II. As a result, the Kaya’s were relocated to Jerome, Arkansas for the next two years.
After they were released in 1944, they relocated to Omaha where Alice’s sister was living. Jack, a self taught cook who spent much of his boyhood in Japan with relatives, found work at the Blackstone Hotel. Soon afterwards the Kaya’s opened the Grass Shack Cafe near Creighton University. The cafe served breakfast, lunch and dinner and proved to be quite popular with Japanese-American students who came from Hawaii and California. The cafe was located in the Gifford Park neighborhood at 3229 California Street.
In 1965 they opted to relocate to Countrside Village in West Omaha. When they first opened in the space that was the Old English Inn, they served primarily American fare with a few Japanese and Cantonese dishes mixed in. They eventually changed the name to Mt. Fuji Inn and put more of an emphases on the Asian cuisine. After a fire destroyed the restaurant in 1969, they moved the restaurant to 72nd and Blondo Streets.
The new location had been home to the short-lived Porpoise Place which had an indoor pool that housed a dolphin named Flopper. After taking over the one year old building at 7215 Blondo, the Kaya’s drained most of the water from the pool and covered portions of it with flooring. They left enough to create a koi pond while the section that was drained and uncovered were utilized in the design of its tea rooms allowing customers to dangle their legs beneath short-legged tables.
The semi-private tea rooms were decorated in a traditional Japanese motif. Meanwhile the main dining area, large enough to seat 110, had a rock garden at the center of the room and featured a backlit mural depicting Mount Fujiyama. Jack developed the menu and did the cooking while Alice did everything else. Not only were they the first Japanese restaurant in Omaha, they were first to introduce sushi in 1983. When it opened, Mt. Fuji Inn was referred to as one of the most stunning restaurants in Omaha.
At the same time they opened a cocktail lounge in the basement named Mai Tai Lounge. The drink, invented by a San Francisco bartender in 1944, and had become quite popular across the country by the 1960s. The lounge which was accessed through a nondescript exterior door had a distinct 1970s tiki lounge vibe. It had reddish brown carpet, wood paneling, vinyl chairs, bamboo light fixtures which offered dim lighting. The walls were lined with a metallic wallpaper that had a palm tree motif while the area behind the bar had two fish tanks built into the wall. Next to the fish tanks were two semi-nude velvet pictures. The bar had a piano, jukebox and later a small television in the corner.
Photos looking inside Mt. Fuji Inn are from the Remax listing when it went up for sale.
The bar was popular for its moderately priced yet strong drinks made from “authentic island recipes” developed by Alice. Among its most popular were its XXX-rated drinks which were occasionally limited to two per person as they contained 4-5 shots each. In addition to the its namesake Mai Tai, the menu featured drinks such as Navy Grog, Fog Cutter and Zombie.
Jack retired in 1980 due to health concerns and turned the restaurant over to Alice. Alice had plenty of help running the family business as her children Wayne, Jackie and Marilyn worked there as well as her brother Don Matsunami. Jack passed away two years later in 1982.
Photos looking inside Mai Tai Lounge are courtesy of mytikilife.com.
Six years after his death, the United States formally apologized to Japanese-Americans for their internment during World War II and provided them with a $20,000 payment. Alice, always a charitable person, donated the money to programs that served the homeless. She continued to work at the restaurant until three months before her death in 2009 at the age of 88.
Jackie continued to operate both establishments but business slowed. Eventually the restaurant closed except for large parties and catering before closing for good a year later. Mai Tai kept going for another five years before closing its doors in 2017. The following year, everything inside the restaurant and bar was put up for auction.
The building had become the home to Kandi’s Gentlemen’s Club. Located in the center of town, the club was the source of a lot of controversy. It closed in 2020 as a result of the pandemic and the city denying its liquor license. Since then the building has found new life as a new restaurant and bar concept called African Cocktail Lounge which opened earlier this year.
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