09/05/2026
Dottie!
Dottie, The Friendly Ghost of the Tonga Hut.
Dorothy “Dottie” Raub didn’t die at North Hollywood’s Tonga Hut, and nothing tragic is known to have happened to her there. It was simply her favorite place on Earth—so the legend goes that after her death, she continued making the trip from the afterworld for happy hour, presumably taking some spectral form of public transportation.
Dottie and her husband first walked into the Tonga Hut in 1961, only three years after the tiki bar opened. They became neighborhood fixtures, visiting six days a week and taking off only Sundays and rainy days. In those early years, Dottie drank Brandy Alexanders while her husband preferred Scotch and soda. After he died in the early 1980s, she adopted his drink as her own: well Scotch and soda in a Collins glass, with a lemon twist—not a wedge, it’s said she’d firmly, but politely make that fact clear to any new bartender—and a glass of water on the side.
Her daily ritual was precise. Dottie dressed for the occasion, complete with makeup, freshly arranged hair and matching earrings, then rode two buses to arrive before the doors opened at four. If she was early, the Tonga Hut left a chair outside so she wouldn’t have to stand. Once inside, she occupied the same slightly scruffy stool, chosen because it prevented the tiny Dottie from sliding off. She had one drink at four and another exactly at five. At six on the dot, her son Mike would be waiting outside in his car to drive her home. Employees and nearby patrons helped Dottie into her sweater, unhooked her purse from beneath the bar and gathered up any shopping bags she had brought with her. They would even wrap a few pretzels in napkins, so she had a little snack for the ride home.
Dottie died on February 1, 2010, at the age of 87. The Tonga Hut saved her customary seat, placing a “Reserved” sign on it during happy hour. Then came the ghost story. According to an account later published by Los Angeles ghost historian James T. Bartlett, a woman cleaning the empty bar after hours claimed to have lengthy conversations with Dottie’s spirit. GHOULA—the Ghost Hunters of Urban Los Angeles—had heard rumors for years that the Tonga Hut was haunted, although an earlier attempt to ask about the ghosts reportedly earned its members a firm denial and an invitation to leave. Once Dottie’s story became known, however, the bar gradually embraced its gentle resident spirit.
If Dottie’s ghost truly does visit the Tonga Hut, she is probably just following the routine she maintained for nearly half a century: arriving at four, settling onto her saved stool and enjoying exactly two stiff Scotch and sodas before leaving at six. Then it’s back aboard the phantom bus to the afterworld—except on Sundays, of course. Routines must be adhered to, even in the afterlife. I’d like to think the bus driver from the great beyond provided a few pretzels for her trip back.
Address: 12808 Victory Blvd. North Hollywood, CA 91606
Much of Dottie’s personal history comes from a remembrance posted by Tonga Hut bartender Kelly “Hiphipahula” Reilly on TikiCentral shortly after Dottie’s death. The haunting was later reported by James T. Bartlett in “Gourmet Ghosts 2” and recounted by the Ghost Hunters of Urban Los Angeles.
