When guests return to The Mai-Kai in 2024, they will be treated to a detailed restoration of the interior of the historic South Florida restaurant, which celebrates its 67th anniversary today (Dec. 28). Walking into the elaborately themed dining areas and rear garden will be like stepping back in time to the early 1970s, when the last major renovation was completed at the Polynesian palace.
But before they even enter the building, they will be greeted with a new entryway and lushly landscaped parking lot that will completely immerse them in a South Seas fantasy world. The design will shield vehicles from the outside world, and vice versa.
While the details of these plans are new, the inspiration comes from original owners Bob and Jack Thornton, and their early vision for the property on the north side of the entrance driveway. Only now, with a new ownership team joining forces with the Thornton family and backed by a multimillion-dollar investment, can that vision be fully realized.
Recent Mai-Kai coverage
* Mai-Kai refurbishment 2023 year-end recap: Updates, photos, timeline
* Fall 2023: Artists shine amid construction as final renovation projects take flight
* Restoration Guide: Past news, refurbishment photos
There has been little visible change in the landscaping of the sprawling 2.7 acres surrounding the original 1956 building and its soaring A-frame since the removal of the Bora Bora building in April. Some projects were completed, most notably the restoration and reimagination of the porte-cochère, which will be turned into an outdoor seating area and bar after the driveway is rerouted.
The work on the parking lot began in earnest in mid-September after county and state permits were finally approved. This sweeping project is the final major piece in the restoration puzzle that kicked into high gear in early 2023 after its approval by the Oakland Park Historic Preservation Board.
Unlike the work on the interior, which is steeped in mystery, the transformation of the new entryway will be visible to passersby on Federal Highway, aka U.S. Highway 1. The rear of the property has begun to take on an air of secrecy, however, after construction crews recently completed the installation of a new 8-foot-high privacy wall.
Bordering the entire west side of the property along Northeast 20th Avenue, which runs parallel to U.S. 1, the new concrete wall is twice as high as the old one and serves as a visual and noise buffer between The Mai-Kai in the abutting neighborhood of single-family homes.
From the outside, the wall shields the parking lot entirely. You can see the A-frame and the top of the main building, but not much else. Once new trees and vegetation are added and grow in, the restaurant will be totally hidden.
The wall is currently covered with an undercoat of green primer. The final color will be similar, and creative director “Typhoon Tommy” Allsmiller is working on themed designs for the inside of the wall.
Inside, the lot is still a huge expanse of dirt with landscaping and hardscaping yet to begin. But that will change soon. Manager Kern Mattei reports that more crews and heavy equipment should be arriving early in 2024 to begin transforming the exterior spaces of The Mai-Kai into a truly immersive tropical paradise.
Our next story will include an update on the renovations and restoration, plus a full recap of the work completed in 2023. Below, we’ll turn back the clock and look at the legacy of what became known as the Bora Bora Room, plus more photos and details on its removal. Then we’ll catch up with all the parking lot work over the past several months.
Last but not least, we’ll take another look at the reimagination plans as detailed in presentations during the project’s approval process early this year. Click on the links below to go straight to each section of the story.
Jump to chapters below
Bora Bora history: Building best known as gift shop and event space
The demolition: Structure comes down after approval by historic board
Latest updates: Work ramps up on last major renovation project
The plans: Ambitious parking lot design includes new traffic flow, roundabout
Bora Bora history: Building was best known as gift shop and event space
Over the long history of The Mai-Kai, few guests have been inside of the building that once stood to the right of the porte-cochère and main entrance as you entered the property. Not a whole lot is known about this distinctive structure, but what we did discover is anything but “Bora boring.”
Here are the basic facts we’ve been able to piece together:
* Erected in the middle of 1960, less than four years after the restaurant opened, the building was originally used as storage space and part of an over-arching retheming of the grounds.
* It did not become a public space until 1972, when the gift shop was moved there from its original location inside the main building.
* The gift shop was short lived. In less than 10 years, it moved back inside and took over its current space in the former Bangkok dining room.
* The building was converted into a banquet space, hosting events for two decades until it was damaged by Hurricane Wilma in 2005.
* Off limits to guests due to the hurricane damage, it was used for storage over the past two decades while in a constant state of decay. Upkeep was curtailed due to safety reasons, leading to its removal in April 2023.
The first inkling of the new structure came in March 1960, when a columnist for the Fort Lauderdale News speculated that the area would become a new entertainment venue for hosting luaus. Not so, general manager Bob Van Dorpe reported, adding that the new structure would be a “warehouse to house oriental edibles and rum.”
News columnist Dick Hoektra subsequently noted in April that this warehouse “is, no doubt, the most luxurious storage building in Florida.” The exterior was to include a reflection lake and exotic shrubs. Van Dorpe promised “a display and story on every rum made in the world.”
While the extent of the rum collection is dubious, the exterior indeed went above and beyond what one would expect of a storage room. A photo published in the News in June shows a worker smoothing rock work that would later include waterfalls and streams. Part of that same rock work remains in the northeast corner of the property and is currently being restored.
The News published the first photo of the building while it was under construction in July 1960, noting that it “will serve as a rum display area and warehouse.” Research finds no evidence that it was used for more than that throughout the 1960s. If the rum collection had any admirers, it was limited to the Thornton brothers, close family and friends without cameras.
Several vintage photos of the exterior exist, however, starting with an apparent family snapshot from 1961 unearthed by Tim “Swanky” Glazner, author of Mai-Kai: History and Mystery of the Iconic Tiki Restaurant. The image shows part of the building and the rock work in the northeast corner of the property near where a neighboring furniture store still stands. This snapshot was taken before the famous Tiki carving by Barney West was installed.
Glazner also shared views of the property from Federal Highway that show the building in 1962, 1966 and 1968 (see above and below). You can see the carving, which still stands guard near the furniture store, in the 1966 and 1968 photos. The icon will be restored and likely remain in its traditional location, possibly shielded from the elements.
Even more important than the rum collection, the Thornton brothers used this area of the property to expand the restaurant’s jungle-like landscaping and immersive environment. In 1967, The Mai-Kai was the only restaurant in the United States to win one of the American Association of Nurserymen’s outstanding landscaping awards.
Pat Wells, the Fort Lauderdale landscape designer who planned The Mai-Kai project, told the Miami Herald that the Thorntons spent $350,000 over 10 years on more than 400 different species of trees, shrubs and plants. Some were flown in from Hawaii and other Pacific islands, he said in an article published Nov. 12, 1967.
The article cites The Mai-Kai as the only restaurant in the country with its own greenhouse on its grounds. Jack Thornton explained the end goal: “We don’t want our customers to be able to look out a window and see the traffic on U.S. 1. Our entire landscaping has been designed to create an outward atmosphere and an inside feeling that leaves noise, horns and lights in the distance.”
Now, 56 years later, that mission statement continues to drive the renovation project, particularly the reimagination of the parking lot and the area where the Bora Bora building once stood. That name, however, came much later.
We can trace the date of its conversion into a gift shop to December 1972, several years after the completion of the $1.5 million refurbishment by noted restaurant designer George Nakashima that added two new dining rooms on the south end of the main building, an expansion and retheming of The Molokai lounge, and an entirely new back-of-house area.
An ad that ran on Dec. 24, 1972, welcomes guests to the South Seas Trading Outpost for “a rare collection of authentic Polynesian products.” Signifying the new location, the ad says that “outside forty feet away is the Mai-Kai.”
Photos taken inside the South Seas Trading Outpost, shared by Glazner, show a large space with a vast collection of merchandise including many Polynesian artifacts. Filled with hanging lamps, the room is decorated much like the restaurant.
Based on the information in Glazner’s book, moving the gift shop from the main building may be viewed as a rare misstep by Bob Thornton, who bought out his brother in 1970 and remained sole owner until his death in 1989. Operated by the dynamic Pualani Mossman Avon, the tiny shop in the original building never grossed less than $1.5 million a year, the book states.
She refused to move to the new building, fearing that a location away from guests would hurt impulse sales, Glazner wrote. Guests were forced to cross incoming and outgoing driveway traffic to get to the new shop. Sales also likely suffered in the absence of Avon, a renowned dancer and performer from Hawaii whose father, George Mossman, was instrumental in bringing Hawaiian culture back to the island.
The gift shop stayed in its outpost location until the late 1970s, according to a former employee who spent more than 30 years at The Mai-Kai starting in 1971. That era’s lingering economic recession likely forced The Mai-Kai to turn the rarely filled Bangkok Room into the gift shop, where it remains to this day. A private area just behind the showroom and adjacent to the restrooms, the Mai-Kai Trading Post was once again in a prime location for guests hungry for souvenirs.
The satellite gift shop served as a banquet room for the next 20 years or so. Few traces can be found from this era, beyond the vivid memories of those lucky enough to enjoy the space, which by now received its lasting Bora Bora moniker.
An ad for Mai-Kai catering published in the Fort Lauderdale News on Sept. 25, 1988, touts the Bora Bora Gathering Hut as “perfect for business meetings, cocktail parties, and larger receptions.”
We’re sure anyone who was lucky enough to enjoy the privacy of this small slice of the Mai-Kai experience has lasting memories better than any photo could convey.
The demolition: Structure comes down after approval by historic board
The stage was set for the reimagination of The Mai-Kai’s entryway in April, when the Bora Bora building was demolished to make the plans a reality. This was necessary not only because the building was deemed uninhabitable after damage from Hurricane Wilma in 2005.
It also literally stood in the way of a rerouted driveway that will take vehicles to the right of the historic porte-cochère and directly over the footprint of what was, until Wilma struck, the Bora Bora Gathering Hut. An engineering study submitted to Oakland Park found the Bora Bora structure to be unsafe, so it was approved for removal as part of The Mai-Kai’s “certificate of appropriateness” to make changes to the property, which is registered as both a local and national historic landmark.
Following the guidelines of the city’s Historic Preservation Board, The Mai-Kai salvaged as much decor and raw materials from the building as possible before its removal. For example, Allsmiller used tapa from the outside of the building in a redesigned lamp that will hang in the Tahiti dining room (see photos). Wood from the building was repurposed as molding throughout the main dining area. And lava rock from the original structure that was buried beneath later renovations was removed and will be used in the exterior reimagination.
When it came time for the wrecking crew on April 25, the structure was a shell of its former self. The demolition took place over three days, documented in photos and video in a previous story. Above and below are a few more images that haven’t been posted.
One other positive result of the building’s removal is the freedom it now affords the historic banyan trees that sit side-by-side in the area just outside the porte-cochère. Instead of being squeezed by the building, they now have room to breathe.
Mattei said they want to keep the trees as full as possible so they can provide shade and a distinctive look. Seeking to preserve the canopy, they plan to have an arborist look at them. “The trees have so much potential,” Mattei said.
Previous coverage
* Bora Bora building comes down as restoration efforts pick up steam (May 28)
* Removal of Bora Bora building to pave the way for a new arrival experience (March 15)
Latest updates: Work ramps up on last major renovation project
Progress has been slow but steady in The Mai-Kai’s parking lot since our last full update in September. Heavy equipment had just arrived and began digging up the asphalt after the relocation of trees.
Old drainage pipes were removed and new pipes were installed, a massive task considering the age and expanse of the property. A trench for drainage pipes stretched from the back parking lot all the way through to where the Bora Bora building once stood.
Even more importantly, Florida Power & Light trucks arrived to turn full power back on to the main building. The generator was finally disconnected on Sept. 29, and The Mai-Kai’s new power grid featuring six breaker boxes was slowly booted up. FPL shut off power June 5 so electricians could rewire the restaurant and install the new breakers.
Outside near the entrance, vintage bamboo trees were moved from the area just to the right of the driveway to the north side of the lot. They were later joined by a large clump of new plants, arranged along the north side of the property bordering the furniture store. Mattei said this “wall of bamboo,” brought in from a Dade County nursery, was the first step in the new landscaping plan.
By mid-October, a majority of the parking lot was a construction zone as heavy equipment – including a crawler excavator and large wheel loader – dug trenches while moving dirt and debris around the property. Giant pipes, some 5 feet in diameter, were buried underground.
When the all the underground work is done, a different company will arrive to do paving work. Newly designed areas of the lot, from the entrance through the new roundabout, will be cement. The rest will be black asphalt, Mattei said.
By November, nearly the entire parking lot was engulfed in activity as multiple excavators removed old asphalt. The old wall along Northeast 20th Avenue was removed, and workers were digging a trench for the installation of the new 8-foot wall. “You can finally see stuff happening,” Mattei said.
The excavation extended to the porte-cochère after Allsmiller and fellow artists Scott “Flounder” Scheidly and Conrad Teheiura Itchener completed most of their reimagination. The only things left for them to do is reinstall the refurbished outrigger canoe, and hang more lights and nautical accessories.
Several thick layers of asphalt were removed from the driveway that guests previously used to enter the restaurant. Crews used a cement cutter to trim the edges precisely, then removed large 10-by-10-foot squares, Mattei said. A smaller loader then came in to break the remainder into smaller pieces.
Most asphalt is 2 inches thick, but The Mai-Kai entrance was 10 inches on top of 2 inches, Mattei said. “The old slab was massive,” Allsmiller added. The top 10 inches was likely added during the 1970 renovation to raise the driveway. Allsmiller, a veteran theme park designer, joked that they could float boats through the trench where the driveway once was and make it a Mai-Kai ride.
As a bonus, the excavation near the front entrance turned up some unusual rocks. Allsmiller surmised that they were part of the original landscaping, buried for 50 or 60 years. Perhaps they were even part of The Mai-Kai’s award-winning 1960s landscaping detailed above.
The plans: Ambitious parking lot design includes new traffic flow, roundabout
Plans for the reimagination of The Mai-Kai’s guest experience when you enter the grounds were first announced by owner Bill Fuller, a historic preservationist and co-founder of the Barlington Group, at an Oakland Park neighborhood meeting in April 2022. Renderings shown and discussed at the online meeting included the new traffic flow into lushly landscaped grounds with a new roundabout to keep vehicles from backing up onto busy Federal Highway.
“We’re going to invest heavily in additional landscaping,” Fuller told residents. He said the goal is to “reinterpret the entire site” so you feel like you’re at The Mai-Kai “whether it’s from the rear, the front, or the side.”
In January 2023, the city’s Historic Preservation Board unanimously approved the entire site plan after a two-hour public hearing. This hurdle was key since it included the removal of the Bora Bora building.
More detailed renderings were shown, including many from a new landscape architecture and thematic design firm hired to bring the outdoor areas to the next level. Past clients of Perry-Becker Design include Disney World, Universal Orlando, and Dollywood.
Among the plans shared with the pubic were the refurbishment of The Mai-Kai’s wooden entry bridge, the new entryway roundabout, and Polynesian-themed features including a faux volcano rock feature in the center of the traffic circle.
“We want this new revitalized space to not look like it was built yesterday, and that it’s existed as long as The Mai-Kai restaurant has been here. And that it’s all been here since the beginning,” Jesse Muller of Perry-Becker Design said at the Jan. 11 meeting.
Final approval came Jan. 26 at a meeting of the city’s Development Review Committee, where engineers and zoning officials signed off on the architectural, parking, and landscaping plans. Included in the many public documents submitted to the city were Perry-Becker’s hardscape plan and multiple landscape plans.
The first thing guests experience when entering the property will be the familiar wooden “bridge,” which is actually just a special effect. In reality, it’s a concrete slab covered with wood. There are water features on either side, but no water flows beneath the planks designed to rumble and evoke sounds of thunder.
“People who come to the Mai-Kai remember those rolling timbers as they drive over it, the sound of thunder evokes escapism into an exotic new environment,” said Muller at the Jan. 11 meeting. The goal, he said, is maintain the integrity of the bridge before diverting the entry drive away from the porte-cochère and around the 100-foot-tall banyan trees.
In addition to removing traffic from U.S. 1, the new traffic flow and roundabout plan is designed to speed up valet parking so guests can focus on “what they’re seeing and what they’re experiencing,” Muller said. In addition to the practical considerations, Muller said, the designers are trying to add “as much Polynesian culture as possible and make sure everyone who comes to this new and revitalized Mai-Kai understands that there’s a lot more cultural connection now.”
Instead of the porte-cochère, the roundabout will be the new focal point of the arrival experience. Muller said guests will pull up and get out onto “concrete themed to look like sand, so it’s as if the guests are getting out of their car onto the beach of The Mai-Kai restaurant and they’re entering a tropical experience that talks about Polynesian culture.”
“Once they get out of their car, they walk across a sandy pathway, which changes into more of a volcanic rock fashion, then there are tropical plants all over, coconut trees above, and you’re walking past tiki torches,” Muller said. “The intent of this new entry route is kind of a preshow. We want to get people ready and excited for what they’re about to see” inside the restaurant.
At the Jan. 26 meeting, The Mai-Kai presented a new parking strategy that reduces the number of spaces in the lot, relying more heavily on a continued surge in ride-sharing services. A new valet service, operated by a fomer Mai-Kai valet, will keep guest wait time to a minimum, Fuller promised the committee. “Because of the historic nature of the operation, we’re going to make every accommodation for all the spaces to be parked with a very, very well thought-out plan,” he said. “It’s not something we take lightly.”
According to the plan, “we can drop of three vehicles simultaneously, pick up three vehicles simultaneously, leaving three spaces allocated for ride share,” Fuller said. The dropoff area will be separate from the pickup area to avoid congestion.
The commitment to the guest experience, the planned immersive environment, and the attention given to the landscaping and atmosphere all echo the ethos of Bob and Jack Thornton, who spared no expense in creating the perfect South Pacific escape more than 60 years ago.
The brothers would likely be very pleased with The Mai-Kai’s commitment to these ideals as the restaurant is revitalized for its reopening in 2024.
Previous coverage
* Updates, new images of the site plan (Feb. 5)
* Historic preservation board approves The Mai-Kai’s renovation plans (Jan. 13)
NEXT: Mai-Kai refurbishment 2023 year-end recap: Updates, photos, timeline
MORE COVERAGE: News, photos of The Mai-Kai refurbishment
MORE ON THE MAI-KAI
New videos from Tim “Swanky Glazner
Check out Swanky’s Tiki Classics on YouTube for classic Mai-Kai clips. Also follow @maikaihistory on Instagram and @MaiKaiHistory on Facebook.
The Mai-Kai official sites and social media
MaiKai.com | Facebook | Instagram
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