There is a flaming tiki palace in Fort Lauderdale that has been pouring rum drinks and staging South Seas floor shows since the Eisenhower years, and it is one of the last great survivors of a vanished Florida. They call it the Mai-Kai, and walking through its doors is like stepping straight into 1956.
When it opened, Americans were wild for all things Polynesian, and the Mai-Kai delivered the fantasy better than almost anywhere. Flaming torches lit a jungle garden of waterfalls and carved tikis, servers in sarongs carried smoking bowls of secret rum concoctions, and a live Islander revue filled the night with drums, fire and dancers. It was pure midcentury escapism, Florida style, and people drove for hours just to see it.
While countless roadside wonders of that era were bulldozed for strip malls, this one held on, lovingly preserved right down to its original recipes and decor. It is a time capsule of the days when a big night out in Florida meant tiki torches, mystery cocktails and a little harmless make believe. Places like this grow rarer every single year.
Source: The Real Florida on Facebook
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