Stanley Stubenberg (1925-2001) was a graphic designer born in Honolulu, Hawaii. He designed scores of restaurant, bar and room service menus and table cards. Venues such as the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel’s Ale Ale Kai Restaurant, the Luau Hut and the Pupu Bar; the Tahitian Lanai and the Papeete Bar at the Waikikian Hotel and Beneath the Reef and the Torch Room at the Reef Hotel.
As well as menu design, he produced the odd woodblock print artwork (see above) and a mural at the the Lounge at the Buccaneer.
Menus, by their very nature, are ephemeral items; therefore, not a huge number have survived the past 50-plus years. The few that have can command prices up to £150. There are currently a couple for sale on eBay. There are however, modern prints available from Love Menu Art and Monterey Bay Photo Lab.
He illustrated Young Folk’s Hawaiian Time: A Collection of True Hawaiian Children’s Stories, and Hawaiian Time both written by Genie Pitchford. Some of his designs are included in Sven Kirsten’s book, Tiki Modern, (including pride of place on the cover!) and Menu Design In America which we reviewed here.
Stubenberg died at the age of 74 in St Croix, Virgin Islands where he’d spent his latter years.
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