Four years ago, water damage resulted in the closure of the famed Mai-Kai restaurant and Polynesian show. But today the tiki gods are smiling and the beloved Polynesian palace in Fort Lauderdale is opening Nov. 1 for a private preview event. There’s no official date yet on the public opening day.
The Mai-Kai also has been newly dubbed a “Polynesian Dinner Theater Restaurant and Lounge,” according to its website.
That’s thanks to new owners who bought the family-run establishment and invested $15 million into bringing the restaurant and island revue back to life.
Since then, artists and craftsmen have worked magic to restore its historic interior after which theme-park designers took over the outdoors to create an all-new Polynesian-inspired extravaganza.
With the interior work well under way, this outdoor reimagining was the last to be completed as weather and inspections strung out the process.
Mai-Kai theme park
Perhaps the flashiest theme-park addition to the landscape is a glowing 20-foot-high caldera in the middle of a newly added front circle. The caldera, fashioned from cement, has lights to replicate the lava glow and water jets the lava flow.
There’s more to this caldera than being a great selfie backdrop. The redesigned traffic pattern will ease congestion at the front door.
You get your first hint of what’s on the itinerary of your island getaway when you turn into the Mai-Kai off the busy main road. You’ll cross a re-creation of the Mai-Kai’s original wood-plank bridge. Its rumbling resembles the sound of a tropical thunderstorm.
Trekking the back roads
And the newly designed driveway looks to be made from the same red lava rock as the backroads of Hawaii. Now, look up to so you don’t miss changes to the main building.
In 1956, when brand new, the end of the A-frame was partially covered by screen so that a garden would grow inside. Later the area was walled off and roofed with thatch. The new wall was stenciled with a Polynesian inspired design.
Over time, the stenciling faded and the thatch was torn away by the elements. And for decades the roof was, well, naked.
Today the A-frame roof is once again attired but this time its grass skirt is long-lasting synthetic thatch. The wall has been stenciled with the same Polynesian design that first appeared in 1970 when the restaurant underwent its first major redo.
In fact, one of the men who did the original stenciling returned to work on its restoration after making a pattern that re-created the original artwork.
Sun and sunset
As you approach the newly designed drop-off area, you’ll discover island landscape features including plenty of palm trees and a waterfall. You may also notice that the newly thatched roof of what was a port cochere now shades an outdoor bar and waiting area.
As the sun sets and the night descends, 50 gas-powered torches add a touch of the wild.
And new themed fencing, which stands 8- to 10-feet tall, surrounds much of the 2.7-acre property including the gardens and the parking area. It keeps the world out and helps maintain the illusion that you are on an isolated island.
If you think the Mai-Kai’s reopening marks the end of its restoration and reimagination, you’d be wrong. Future work is slated to include a new larger kitchen and an event facility.
In the beginning: The Mai-Kai opens in 1956
Imagine it’s Dec. 28, 1956 and it’s opening night for the Mai-Kai Restaurant and Polynesian Show. People flocked to this home of tiki culture set on a quiet road far from what was then downtown Fort Lauderdale.
A friend of mine who remembers these early years recalls going to the Mai-Kai with his family and passing it in a school bus every day. The restaurant’s closest neighbors were the pine trees, palm trees and grass that spread pretty much as far as the eye could see, he says.
When it was built, the Mai-Kai was in a rural area. Photo courtesy the Mai-Kai.
That is until you came upon a real estate office way in the distance. The area was on the eve of expansion.
By the end of the restaurant’s first year, it had taken in $1 million (equivalent to over $5 million in today’s money). And so began its long reign of success.
The Mai-Kai in all its Polynesian glory sprang from the imaginations of brothers Bob and Jack Thornton. Having grown up in Chicago, they attended Stanford University and then served in the armed forces.
While on leave from the Army, they visited South Florida and were ready to settle down here after being discharged.
It was the perfect place for them to fulfill their dream based in part on memories of visiting Don the Beachcomber Polynesian bar and restaurant in Chicago as children and Trader Vic’s as university students in California.
Don the Beachcomber in Chicago where Bob and Jack Thornton were first introduced to tiki culture. (Photo courtesy mytiki.life)
Preparing to run a restaurant, they traveled to Hawaii and visited all the Island-inspired restaurants on Oahu.
Then, using their own money plus money from their parents and what has been called a “reluctantly granted” bank loan, they spent $300,000 to create the Mai-Kai.
It was the most expensive restaurant built that year. Adding to its cost, the brothers bought authentic artifacts. One tiki statue was even thought to have a spirit residing in it.
During the early years, the restaurant seated 225 guests in five dining rooms and had a small bar made from surfboards where they featured, you got it, rum drinks.
Mireille Thornton dressed to dance in the Mai-Kai Polynesian revue in 1977. Photo courtesy SwankPad.org
By 1961, a Polynesian dance troupe was being organized to provide a dinner show.
A friend of Bob’s recruited a Tahitian woman to join the revue. Her name was Mireille, and she ended up joining the Mai-Kai family by dancing and later marrying Bob.
She soon became the creative force behind the nightly shows that would prove to be the longest running Polynesian dance revue anywhere in the world, including Hawaii. And she’s still involved with the restaurant’s reopening.
Change at the Mai-Kai
By 1970, the restaurant was bound to change when Jack suffered an aneurysm and sold his interest to his brother Bob. It’s said that Bob, a dashing lady’s man, had been the driving force behind their endeavors all along.
Bob Thornton in front of one of the velvet paintings hung in the restaurant. Photo courtesy the Mai-Kai
Bob soon undertook a major expansion, creating eight dining rooms, one with a stage for the islander revue; the Molokai Bar, which transports you to an island saloon; a gift shop filled with Hawaiian shirts and tiki mugs; restrooms with attendants; and gardens with waterfalls, tikis and orchids.
The redone restaurant could accommodate 600 guests and looked much as it does today.
Soon, insuring the original antiques used to create the ambiance became prohibitively expensive. At that time, many were donated to places such as the brothers’ alma mater Stanford and to the Fort Lauderdale art museum.
They were replaced with carvings and woodwork by contemporary artists as well as set pieces from the 1962 filming of Mutiny on the Bounty starring Marlon Brando. The figurehead in the Molokai Bar was just one of those artifacts acquired from MGM.
FUN FACTS: In 2014, the Mai-Kai was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2015, it was named the “best tiki bar in the world” by Critiki, an organization of fans of Polynesian pop culture, according to Wikipedia. It even was nominated in a contest for America’s Best Rest Room, where the golden beauty of the ladies’ room placed it on the top 10 list.
A fortuitous partnership
When the kitchen roof collapsed in 2022, the Thornton family still owned the restaurant, but the repairs and necessary updates would be so expensive, they decided to sell it.
Concerned and still involved with the restaurant’s future, the family ended up in a fortuitous partnership that included the Barlington Group, a South Florida-based real estate investment and development company known for its historic preservation work.
As a result, the Mai-Kai underwent a complete renovation that respected, retained and even improved upon every memorable bit of the restaurant’s iconic past.
Welcome to the ‘new’ Mai-Kai
The renovation respects the historic elements of the restaurant while livening it up for a new era. Those who have been to the Mai-Kai should still recognize it, and those going for the first time will, most assuredly, love it.
The Molokai bar just after it opened in the 1970s. Help yourself to the oversized pupu platter. Photo courtesy the Mai-Kai and swankpad
The Molokai Bar: Back but better
After being totally refurbished, much of the Molokai Bar is back as it was — only better. You can still imagine yourself in a South Seas saloon in the 1800s.
The iconic figurehead was removed from the bar during construction but has been returned to its place near a window.
A calling card for the bar always has been water cascading down the outer windows. When you sit inside, you can imagine a terrible storm raging outside. That iconic water feature continues to flow. A new privacy wall outside the window helps maintain the illusion.
Inside the bar, another water feature runs under a bridge that takes you from the main area to a raised space in the back of the room made to look like a dock.
This “poop” deck, as it is known, had been there since the 1970s but had fallen into serious disrepair. The original illusion is back.
The Molokai also was known for its authentic nautical rigging and belaying pins. These have been redone or replaced, indistinguishable from the original.
Even coins that were sealed onto the bar top with acrylic were saved and repositioned when the counter was redone. Detail work doesn’t get more detailed than this.
Service bar: No longer hidden
For the first time, the service bar, the bar that serves the entire restaurant, is themed and visible to guests.
Originally, the bar, which could serve 400 guests on a busy night, was kept out of sight. That was in part to prevent anyone from trying to steal or duplicate the secret recipes used in many of the over 40 cocktails on the Mai-Kai menu.
Many of the recipes were even coded so only the trusted bartenders could follow them.
But now seeing those bartenders will be part of the Mai-Kai experience even if they are still keeping some secrets. The new 25-foot-long bar with five mixing stations is visible through a window in the gift shop. You can take a peek as you browse the outpost’s tiki-inspired merchandise.
Thatch roof and bamboo?
The port cochere was installed outside the Mai-Kai’s front door soon after its mid-century opening. A work of art, the port cochere’s recent renovation was a major undertaking. No detail was overlooked.
Its bamboo supports are actually metal covered with epoxy, which was hand-shaped to resemble bamboo.
On the roof, the thatch is not palm fronds but a synthetic product that is fire retardant and designed to last three times longer in Florida’s climate.
The outrigger that hung under the roof has undergone renovation. But enough holes and damage were left to the exterior of the boat so that it still looks like it washed up on the shore.
Lighted art panels restored
Lighted fiberglass panels over the front door were damaged in 2005 when Hurricane Wilma struck. Over the years, other panels had been lost or suffered manmade damage. The remaining panels were barely recognizable, yellowed with age.
Many were replaced by new panels, created by artists who reproduced the original designs.
Existing panes were renewed and patched, and updated lighting installed behind the artwork brightened the restaurant’s entryway, which is still located under the roof of what was the port cochere.
Brighter light, careful restoration
The Mai-Kai depended on a variety of vintage lighting custom-made in the 1950s and 60s for illumination, but they were dusty, darkened and damaged with age and offered only a dingy glow.
Instead of just ordering new lamps, craftsmen and artists were found who could restore existing fixtures. To do this, they had to dismantle the lights and reconstruct them from their frames, locating and creating materials, coverings and techniques as needed.
This being a historic building, anything available from the original Mai-Kai was used in the renovation. For example, tapas cloth salvaged from dining room walls was used to re-cover some of the lamps.
And the rest rooms?
The award-winning women’s restroom is retaining its rich interior. However, it needed some renovation. For this, artisans located matching mirrored tiles from the1970s to replace original tiles that were missing. There also are new decorative panels, renewed stalls and new wallpaper.
Nearby, a new handicap restroom has a nautical theme that resembles the one in the Molokai Bar. It’s similar to what you’ll find in the men’s room but more ornate.
Island-themed gardens
Visitors to the reimagined Mai-Kai gardens will find them easy to navigate on new ADA approved walkways. Although made of cement, they look like they were worn into the red dirt of the islands. Ferns as well as real and artificial flowers among the rocks add splendor and color so that these gardens will continue to be a favored place for evening strolls and, yes, even weddings.
If you go:
The Mai-Kai Restaurant is located at 3599 N. Federal Hwy., Fort Lauderdale.
Website. It is not clear now how or when you can make reservations.
Atomic Grog: Everything Mai-Kai — For everything tiki and more information about the Mai-Kai renovations, visit Jim “Hurricane” Hayward’s Atomic Grog blog. His information is up-to-date and comprehensive. He offers details and access that aren’t available elsewhere. We can’t thank him enough for allowing us to use his blog as a source of information and photographs of the Mai-Kai restoration.
Deborah Hartz-Seeley is a Master Gardener whose yard is certified as Florida Friendly. With a master’s degree in agricultural journalism, she’s written for the Sun-Sentinel, Miami Herald, The Coastal Star, Cook’s Magazine, Florida Food & Farm and Florida Design. If she’s not out back growing things, you’ll find her wandering a garden path or exploring nature on foot, on a bike or in a kayak.