On leaving Pepperdine, he spent 12 years as a guitarist, touring with his own and other people’s rock bands. Tiring of that, he took a job at Park Africa, "a safari park," near Montreal, Canada. Three months later, he went to work for an animal broker and was sent to Africa to capture a pair of breeding white rhinos for a Czechoslovakia zoo.

   For the next 15 years, Vidor spent much of his time in Africa and Asia, but as his children, now 21 and 18, moved into their teens, he set about to find an occupation that would permit him to stay at home. Having learned a great deal about Pan-Asian food and culture during his travels, he decided to open a restaurant. A flyer himself, he chose the site at the airport, which resembles a spacious control tower, because it has panoramic views of the city, ocean and mountains and close-up views of planes landing and taking off.

   Typhoon opened in August, 1991. In keeping with its locale, the high tech bar is backed by a 33-foot backlit mirror/mural weather map of the Pacific with meteorological data from the Kiriles in the north to Java in the South. Typhoon regulars who’re pilots are invited to display copies of their pilots’ licenses on the "Pilots’ Pillars of Fame" in the restaurant. Typhoon’s upper level is an open-air rooftop observation deck.

   Last July, Vidor opened a second restaurant, one flight up from Typhoon. The Hump, a sushi bar/Japanese restaurant, also called

   Cho-jo ("highest peak" in Japanese), is named for World War II pilots’ nickname for the Himalayas. With only seven tables and a 12-seat sushi bar, its focal point is a 4x20-foot illuminated glass impression of the Himalayas. It was designed by architect Stephen Francis Jones.