Uncovering Dug Picking’s tiki life and brothel decanters.
It seems somewhat ironic that Dug Picking, a larger-than-life figure in Carson City for many years, would end up being best known for his line of miniature liquor decanters. Picking was a restaurateur, huckster, and bon vivant, but his legacy lives on with a series of 46 small bottles, each with a seductive female representing one of Nevada’s legal brothels.
Picking’s path was colorful. Born in Estonia, he became a sailor at a young age. In 1954, he settled in Nevada, working in restaurants, bars, and casinos. In 1967, he opened his own place, Dug’s West Indies in Carson City, specializing in Polynesian-Chinese cuisine. The decanters became a popular sideline some years later.
Exotic Port of Call
Dug’s West Indies was located at the northern edge of Carson City. Picking drew on his former life as a merchant marine and adopted a nautical theme for his restaurant. Inside and out, it was jammed with sailing paraphernalia, fishing nets, ropes, anchors, nautical flags, and seashells. It even boasted a Shark-Infested Men’s Room. He capitalized on the Tiki Pop craze — based on western interpretations of the Maori and Polynesian cultures — that was popular in the U.S. during the midcentury period. Dug’s was a popular hangout, especially during the biannual legislative sessions in the capital.
The menu featured a sailing ship to complement the tiki bar motif. Hawaiian music dreamily filled the place. Colorful drinks obviously were a draw, and the menu offered an entire page titled Tropical drinks from the Islands. The names of the drinks almost were as vivid as the drinks themselves. Most famous was the blue mai tai; the menu boasted “our recipe makes it best.” Other drinks included blue Hawaii, Caribbean sea breeze, hula hula, Rangoon Ruby, and the shark’s tooth. The food was classic tiki, with a mishmash of Chinese cuisine, curries, steaks, and lobster. Authenticity was not a virtue at Dug’s, and the Polynesian toasted coconut ice cream proved it.
Cat House Miniatures
Picking was an entrepreneur, always looking for the next big thing, and in 1974 – 1975, it came in the form of miniature decanters. Following in the path of Jim Beam, who led the way with distinctive ceramic figure decanters in the 1960s, Picking launched his own first two with a nautical motif, in keeping with the look of the restaurant, and sold them in house. They were immensely popular.
As the often-repeated story goes, the owner of the Moonlight Ranch frequently dropped in at the bar and approached Picking to design a decanter to promote the brothel. So began in 1976 the Captain Dug’s Brothel series, which eventually grew to include 46 bottles.
The decanters were made of porcelain, and the early ones were made by Goto Originals in Japan. These first issues were filled with Grenadier cream sherry, an unappealingly sweet drink, but at least there wasn’t much of it — the tiny decanters only held two ounces each. Later containers were manufactured in Mexico and were filled with Picking’s famous blue mai tai mix.
The decanters were so popular that other legal brothels began asking to have their establishments immortalized by Captain Dug. Picking designed each one with a winsome, curvy female figure placed in a setting that represented the brothel’s location or concept. The beauties might be perched on a plane, a desert fence, a mine shaft, or an adobe. Despite the brothel backdrop, most decanters were PG-rated. The rear of the decanter sported a map to the brothel. As few as 700 decanters were made for some brothels, and others numbered as many as 1,500. In their day, they were sold at the brothels and in local liquor stores.
The Shady Lady is the rarest and has sold for hundreds of dollars. One of the most popular — and hardest to find — is from Sharon’s Brothel & Bar in Carlin. Although 1,500 were produced, the fully dressed beauty sits on a train, making the decanters popular with railroad enthusiasts and, thus, hastily snatched up.
Failed Venture
Picking set his entrepreneurial sights higher in the late 1970s, envisioning the Windjammer Casino, near the Spooner Summit turnoff in Carson City. Plans included a 345-foot-long replica of a sailing ship. The project failed, forcing him to sell the West Indies property and costing him a divorce. Picking left Northern Nevada, eventually moving to Mexico and then Southern Nevada.
The site of Dug’s West Indies in Carson City is now a Burger King, replacing those colorful Mai Tais with the unremarkable Whopper. Only 20 legal brothels remain in Nevada, but Captain Dug’s decanters have taken on new life with collectors who can find them in shops, on eBay, and in other online stores.
Sharon Honig-Bear was the longtime restaurant writer for the Reno Gazette-Journal. She is a tour leader with Historic Reno Preservation Society and a supporter of all things cultural and historic. She can be reached at Sharonbear@sbcglobal.net.
