The Mai-Kai welcomed two towering Tiki carvings to its reimagined entry area during The Hukilau main event on June 6. One was created locally by a familiar artist, the other came from Arizona thanks to a veteran carver who traveled to South Florida to be a part of the unveiling.
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Both were installed in the days before the event, but they were wrapped like mummies, adding an air of mystery to the occasion. The largest of the two was placed next the north side of the building near the valet stand. You can see it on the right as you walk toward the porte-cochère and Bora Bora Bar. The other greets you under the thatched roof, directly left of the front doors.
If you follow this blog, you probably had a good idea what the big one was. Back in March, we wrote about a 10-foot carving by Will Anders that was awaiting installation. The Fort Lauderdale carver is best known for the two large tikis in the back gardens, along with one of the three to the north of the Bora Bora Bar.
Previous coverage: New Tiki carvings await installation throughout the grounds
The source of the second was later revealed to be “Tiki Ray” Kieffer, whose pendants have been featured in the gift shop. One of those wearable tikis is a tribute to King Kai, the 10-foot Anders carving in the gardens. Having the two artists on hand when their new pieces were unveiled made the event even more special.
Kieffer made arrangements to travel from his Arizona home. After the June 6 unveiling, he spent time in the Mai-Kai Trading Company, where guests lined up to meet him and have their pendants signed. Arriving a few days early, he joined The Hukilau pre-party festivities on June 4.
The Wednesday happy hour was a great opportunity to hang out with Tiki artists. The Hukilau’s Build Your Own Tiki Bar Conference kicked off at the host Beachcomber Resort in Pompano Beach, featuring a who’s who of builders and fabricators, including two who helped restore the Mai-Kai: “Typhoon Tommy” Allsmiller and Scott “Flounder” Scheidly. When I met up with Anders and Kieffer in the Molokai Bar, I made sure to snap a photo with other Mai-Kai craftsmen out on the front deck.
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When discussing carvings, it’s also worth noting the contributions of South Florida’s Tom Fowner, another key member of the restoration team who has cranked out six new medium-sized tikis since the November reopening. Three comprise the iconic “cannibal trio” that greets vehicles on the right side of the immersive new driveway as they leave the property. [See past coverage] The other four, detailed in our March story, remain inside the restaurant but likely will find permanent homes around the outside of the property.
All told, these nine new tikis that can now be seen around the Mai-Kai mark the largest influx of original wood carvings since the 1960s or ’70s. There was no better way to mark the occasion than The Hukilau main event, making its return to the Mai-Kai for the first since 2019. The Mai-Kai’s 2020 closing and subsequent restoration efforts limited activities during the following years to several outdoor cocktail events, plus indoor tours for small groups of villagers, as the event’s attendees are known.
The Hukilau, the world’s second oldest Tiki weekender, moved to South Florida and the Mai-Kai for its second annual event in 2003. For the next 16 years, it became the hub of Mai-Kai appreciation as villagers flocked from around the world to visit the last remaining example of a grand mid-century Polynesian supper club. If anyone could appreciate the style and craft that went into the new tikis, it was this group of fans.
Excitement built as the Friday night event approached, but the two figures remained under wraps. Around 5 p.m., most of The Hukilau’s villagers had arrived for an extended happy hour and two seatings of the Polynesian Islander Revue, the oldest continually-running authentic South Seas stage show in the United States (including Hawaii). Outside in the Bora Bora Bar, Eva & Kully took a break from performing retro-classic tunes as guests were urged to gather by the main entrance.
Mai-Kai manager Kern Mattei took the mic, introducing Kieffer and his new tiki. [See video] As Kieffer explained, the carving almost didn’t happen. After starting work on one of two matching logs, he discovered the wood was rotted. Luckily, log No. 2 was fine, yielding the tiki that Kieffer named Hotu Matua, which means Marquesan king.
Beverage director Cory Starr did the honors of uncovering Hotu Matua amid applause from the assembled crowd. Its placement makes it the Mai-Kai’s “greeter tiki” as you enter. Kieffer explained that rubbing the belly could bring you good luck.
Kieffer carved the 6-foot, 5-inch Hotu Matua from Mexican fan palm wood. Later in June, Polynesiacs author Tiki Tom-Tom shared photos on social media of Kieffer and Hotu Matua, taken during his recent road trip interviewing and photographing art and music creators across the country.
They were taken in Arizona, just after Kieffer finished the carving. “I feel fortunate to have captured an image of his newest carving before it made the long trek to Florida,” Tiki Tom-Tom wrote on social media. “Such a beauty!”
Next up at the unveiling was Anders, who can now take credit for the three largest tikis on Mai-Kai property. His new, unnamed Marquesan-style carving joins King Kai and Hiroa Nui, also installed in the back gardens in 2016. But the new 10-footer, sourced from a giant Florida cypress tree, is front-and-center. It’s the first large tiki that most guests will encounter upon arrival, serving as another greeter.
Like Hotu Matua, it’s also perfectly positioned as a new photo opportunity. After Mattei’s introduction and Starr’s unveiling, Anders posed for photos in front of his newest Mai-Kai carving, his modest stature in contrast to the imposing figure. Seeing it installed was the culmination of months of work for Anders that began after Mai-Kai managing partner Bill Fuller secured the log and had it delivered to his nearby compound.
Anders began posting photos of the giant log on his long-running thread on Tiki Central on Oct. 29, noting: “I’ve started a new project & I don’t do that often until I finish the last one. Fresh cypress, nice, a pleasure to carve. It’s a good start.” By the end of November, he revealed that “this carve is for the Mai-Kai,” his first new work for the restaurant since before the closing.
Around the time of his presentation – The Mai-Kai from the Outside In – at The Hukilau in June 2024, he mused that his long career recreating the countless cement tikis and other pieces of Polynesian art across the Mai-Kai property was coming to and end after he cast and returned the final mold that had been discovered decades ago in storage. Most of the molds, commissioned in the 1970s by original owner Bob Thornton to preserve the original wood carvings, were at the end of their life. See our recap and preview of that event.
But Fuller’s offer and the 6,000-pound log that came with it were too hard to pass up. The three tikis under the porte-cochère (one carved by Anders) are also Florida cypress and have held up well outdoors since their May 2016 installation.
When we spoke to him after he completed the carving in January, Anders said the inspiration came from a photo that Fuller and Allsmiller, the creative director, shared with him that showed a much shorter carving from a log shaped like a bell. But the new log was very different, distinctly wider on top. The tiki in the photo also has “mad, crazy detail” that Anders said he had to simpify.
Anders explained how he takes the prepared log, lying horizontally, and goes from one end to the other with a rough design. “Then, after I rough it out, I come back the other way and I add the detail,” he said. With this carving, he said, he started at the top and worked his way to the bottom, then worked his way back up again. [See previous coverage]
It took another four months for the big guy to find a home, but everyone seems pleased with the results. In a “Secrets of the Mai-Kai” video shot for the restaurant’s social media pages during The Hukilau, Anders reminisced about how he first discovered the Mai-Kai as a 10-year-old in the 1960s, marveling at the large tiki carvings.
“I would walk around, I would look up at all these tikis, and it implanted a spirit in me,” Anders said. “Especially for big pieces.”
It doesn’t get much bigger than his own original carvings for the Mai-Kai.
More on social media
Past coverage of Tiki carvings at the Mai-Kai
Mai-Kai from the Outside In with Will Anders
The South Florida artist gave The Hukilau 2024 a fascinating, insightful presentation that took a look inside his career and his contributions to the historic restaurant over the past 20 years.
Preview & flashback: Inside (and outside) the Mai-Kai with Tiki carver Will Anders
AUDIO & PHOTOS: Walking tour with Will Anders, Kern Mattei, Hurricane Hayward in 2018
2016 story archive
• New giant carved Tiki added to the Mai-Kai’s outdoor garden for 60th anniversary
• ‘King Kai’ leads procession of new Tikis into the Mai-Kai
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