Is it 1956 or 2024? Forward-thinking Mai-Kai menus sport retro flair

Is it 1956 or 2024? Forward-thinking Mai-Kai menus sport retro flair

Updated Feb. 25, 2025

This is part 1 in a series exploring the new cocktail and food menus at the historic Mai-Kai in South Florida, est. 1956. The restaurant reopened in November 2024 after four years and a $20 million restoration project that’s still ongoing. First, we’ll take a look at the menu design and esthetics. In future stories, we’ll examine the drinks and the food in depth.
February 2025 update: Bora Bora Bar menu just a taste things to come
January 2025 update: Tiki gardens and new dining options open as Mai-Kai menus get a refresh

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The cocktail menu: Welcome back to paradise, 1950s style
The food menus: A modern take with traditions intact
The cannibal trio: Mai-Kai’s signature iconography

The Mai-Kai's Tonga dining room offers not only a prime view of the showroom stage and the Polynesian Islander Revue, but also a display case containing traditional cannibal carvings that have been used to promote the restaurant since its 1956 opening. (Photos by Hurricane Hayward / Nov. 22, 2024)
The Mai-Kai’s Tonga dining room offers not only a prime view of the showroom stage and the Polynesian Islander Revue, but also a display case containing traditional cannibal carvings that have been used to promote the restaurant since its 1956 opening. (Photos by Hurricane Hayward / Nov. 22, 2024)

Since the Mai-Kai celebrated its grand reopening in mid-November, fans flocking back to 3599 N. Federal Highway in Oakland Park have been dazzled by the renovation and reimagination of the 67-year-old Tiki temple. This includes a painstaking rehabilitation of the Molokai Bar, the massive showroom under the vintage 40-foot A-frame, as well as all the surrounding dining rooms and other guest areas.

Much of the interior looks as good as it has since a 1970 expansion project that marked the last major design overhaul. For this, we can thank creative director “Typhoon Tommy” Allsmiller and his team of artists, including Scott “Flounder” Scheidly, Tom Fowner, and Conrad Teheiura Itchener.
Mai-Kai Restoration & Reopening: Full story and photo archive

But there are a few new additions to this throwback experience that may have escaped notice, right under the noses of many guests. The food and drink menus now boast a retro look and feel that dates all the way back to the early days of the Mai-Kai. Let’s take a closer look at menus, their links to the past, and some breaking news on what’s coming next.

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The cocktail menu: Welcome back to paradise, 1950s style

The Mai-Kai's updated menu features 54 cocktails, including 38 classic rum drinks and 12 new creations by head mixologist Cory Starr. Click for larger view. (Photo by Hurricane Hayward, November 2024)
The Mai-Kai’s updated menu features 54 cocktails, including 38 classic rum drinks and 12 new creations by head mixologist Cory Starr. Click for larger view. (Photo by Hurricane Hayward, November 2024)

It’s easy to be swept away to paradise when you open the Mai-Kai’s new cocktail menu and gaze upon more than 50 tropical drinks, many of them classics that have been frozen in time since 1956. But after you place your order for one of those delicious drinks crafted by beverage director Cory Starr and his expansive team of bartenders, take a gander at the menu’s design and artwork.

The cover art and tri-fold format is nearly identical the original 1956-57 menu, which included 43 cocktails ranging in price from 90 cents for Oh So Deadly to $2 for the signature Barrel O’ Rum. Both of those drinks are still on the menu, along with 28 others from that initial grand opening. The prices many have changed, but the recipes remain nearly identical, one of the unique features of the legendary bar.

The Mai-Kai replicated the menu design in great detail, from the distinctive logo to the familiar artwork of three cannibal tiki carvings. The wood grain and folding panels are meant to simulate the Mai-Kai’s original front doors. We don’t have a copy of the original menu, but images posted online during an eBay sale show virtually the same cover and inside layout from 1957:

The Mai-Kai's new 2024 cocktail menu was designed to look very much like this original menu from 1956-57, including the same cover and vintage-style images.
The Mai-Kai’s new 2024 cocktail menu was designed to look very much like this original menu from 1956-57, including the same cover and vintage-style images.

The old tri-fold menu style was gone by the end of the 1970s, replaced by a bi-fold menu that remained in place (in varying sizes) until the 2020 closing. [See the 2018-2019 menu] Another classic feature is back on the new menu with a return to having the individual cocktails depicted by representational artwork.

The original artwork was replaced by photos in a 2014 menu overhaul. This was a major change from the original style used during the first 57 years of menus. But the old look is back, thanks to California artist Eric October.

Mai-Kai managing partner Bill Fuller reached out to October after seeing his botanical cocktail prints for sale online. The longtime Mai-Kai fan was hired to create the custom images using watercolor in the same style used on the original mid-century menus. Some of the cocktails have also been turned into T-shirts featuring the same artwork.

Mai-Kai manager Kern Mattei meets Eric October at Tiki Oasis in San Diego, where the artist was selling his distinctive botanical cocktail prints. (Photos by Hurricane Hayward, August 2023)
Mai-Kai manager Kern Mattei (right) meets Eric October at Tiki Oasis in San Diego, where the artist was selling his distinctive botanical cocktail prints. (Photos by Hurricane Hayward, August 2023)

These images include more than just the signature mild, medium and strong rum drinks – plus the four non-alcoholic options. October also depicted the 12 new creations by Starr that fill out he 54-drink menu and offer alternatives for fans of other spirits (bourbon, tequila, et al.).

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Mai-Kai cocktail review: The story of the Floridita Daiquiri rivals any novel

Updated July 2014
See below: Our Floridita Daiquiri review | Official Mai-Kai recipe
Related: Lost Cocktails of The Mai-Kai: Short-lived daiquiri disappared when Cuba fell
The Derby Daiquiri: The Mai-Kai’s ‘$100,000 drink’ | Mai-Kai cocktail guide

The Floridita Daiquiri, the legendary cocktail born in Cuba and reportedly consumed by author Ernest Hemmingway in prodigious numbers, is one of history’s most debated rum drinks. One thing not open for debate, however: The Mai-Kai’s version has become a classic in its own right after more than 50 years on the Fort Lauderdale restaurant’s menu.

Ernest Hemingway at El Florida with bartender Constantino Ribalaigua.
Ernest Hemingway at El Florida with bartender Constantino Ribalaigua Vert.

Stories about La Floridita Daiquiri, as it was known at Havana’s El Florida bar (later known as El Floridita), are varied and many. One thing’s for certain: It was created by legendary mixologist Constantino Ribalaigua Vert, who spent nearly 50 years at the bar until his death in 1952. He started as a bartender and later owned the place. According to our favorite bum, cocktail historian and author Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, Vert was known as “El Rey de los Coteleros” (“The Cocktail King”) and reportedly squeezed 80 million limes and poured 10 million daiquiris in his lifetime.
* Rum Connection: Watch bartender Alejandro Bolivar make a daiquiri at El Floridita

Continue reading “Mai-Kai cocktail review: The story of the Floridita Daiquiri rivals any novel”