The grand reopening year at the Mai-Kai reached a fitting, frightfully fun climax on Halloween night with the Polynesian palace’s signature Hulaween party. Hundreds of revelers, many in creative costumes, enjoyed the event’s 13th edition, the first held inside the restaurant since 2019.
South Florida rockabilly favorites Slip and the Spinouts made their 10th Hulaween appearance, jamming all night in the Molokai Bar. Meanwhile, DJ Banzai Bill played an eclectic mix of tunes outside in the Bora Bora Bar, where the highlight was a costume contest with dozens competing for the $1,000 grand prize.
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Hulaween photo galleries: Design & decor | Oct. 31 Hulaween party
Bonus recipe: Tribute to the Mai-Kai’s Pineapple of Perdition
Oct. 31 was the highlight of a month filled with Hulaween-themed events, including Wicked Bingo, the Blue Hawaii Elvis Show with Dan Cunningham, a ’70s disco night, and a party for kids. This monthlong celebration was a first for the Mai-Kai, featuring elaborate decor throughout the grounds continually updated in the lead-up to Halloween night.
The two artists responsible for the highly themed artwork – Tom Fowner and LuRu – got into the spirit of the event, both earning a spot in the costume contest finals with their significant others.
The six finalists lined up under the porte-cochère in the new Bora Bora Bar, competing not only with their inventive creations but also joining an impromptu dance-off when Michael Jackson’s classic Thriller blasted out of the speakers before the winners were announced. If was definitely a scene to behold, one of the few times of the year when the Mai-Kai sets aside decorum and lets loose with abandon.
No doubt, the shenanigans were well-deserved and long-anticipated. It was the first Hulaween bash in five years, when a drive-in movie party was held in the parking lot on Oct. 30, 2020, amid the COVID pandemic and just days after the restaurant’s closing. Caused by a catastrophic roof collapse over the kitchen, this disaster was as scary as any horror movie. But, luckily, it has a happy ending.
Previous Hulaween coverage
• Hulaween resurrected as monthlong event featuring unique decor, cocktails
• Mai-Kai scares up nine new Hulaween drinks
• Hulaween history: Relive 12 years of madness at the Mai-Kai
A sale to new ownership in 2021 led to a $20 million restoration and reimagination that consumed 2022, 2023 and much of 2024. But, like a classic creature that can’t be stopped, the Mai-Kai emerged bigger and better than ever last November. Hulaween 2025 fittingly served as a celebration of the Mai-Kai’s first year back from the brink of disaster.
The immersive decor and elaborate story only added to the anticipation of the Halloween night finale. In an alternate tale of the Mutiny on the Bounty, the Mai-Kai became ground zero of a battle between skeleton pirates and a giant sea monster. The scenes played out all along the entry driveway, the bubbling caldera, the walkway and Bora Bora Bar, the Molokai Bar and its new front deck, plus the sprawling rear tiki gardens.
Fowner estimated that the artistic team installed 60 pirate and 10 mermaid skeletons, plus 40 kraken tentacles containing 2,100 suckers. As he explains in a video walk-though we filmed three days before Halloween, you never see the actual monster, just the tentacles. Which is even scarier because it means its so enormous, you can’t see it all. “He’s everywhere,” Fowner warned.
Hulaween design & decor photo gallery
All photos by Hurricane Hayward
It took an entire month to complete. Fowner and LuRu started work at the end of September and completed the final pieces on Oct. 27. “We didn’t just take skeletons out of the box,” Fowner explained. “We painted them, we dressed them, we had to figure out a way to get them to stand and interact. It was a whole process of getting everything done.” [More photos, past coverage]
The original plans for the front of the property were drawn up by general manager Cory Starr, but the artists took the concept and ran with it. Meanwhile, Starr and bar manager Michael DeMahy took the Mai-Kai’s cocktail program in a flamboyant new direction with nine themed cocktails that were served with smoke, fire and other special effects. [See ratings, past coverage]
In addition to the drinks that were available all month, lucky attendees of the Hulaween Disco Party on Oct. 25 were treated to several classic recipes that were retired decades ago. Demerara Disco (aka the Demerara Cocktail) was a sweet small sipper from the 1956 opening day menu that showed off the Mai-Kai’s distinctive passion fruit syrup and a whisper of Demerara rum.
Last Rites was a bold, tart and complex version of the 1956 original by founding mixologist Mariano Licudine. DeMahy revealed that they used Chairman’s Reserve rum from St. Lucia along with a Holmes Cay agricole rhum to give the drink a slight but distinctive pungency.
Our favorite of all the Hulaween cocktails was another throwback, reimagined by Starr and DeMahy as the Queen’s Park Special. A modern riff on the Queen’s Park Swizzle featuring a stunning presentation, it was essentially a sophisticated and accessible Zombie riff with hints of rum and spices.
But the kicker was the cotton candy that topped the drink and also came as a sidecar to taste. The sweet and tasty concoction was created using the Mai-Kai’s secret syrup #7, which dates back to Licudine’s days and is likely based on a syrup of the same name created by Don the Beachcomber.
To make it even more fun, servers poured flaming 151 rum on top of the cocktail, melting the cotton candy and changing the color of the drink to either black or green. If it turned green, guests got the drink for half price.
Bonus recipe below: Tribute to the Mai-Kai’s Pineapple of Perdition
By the time Halloween night rolled around, spirits were high and the joint started rocking early as vocalist/guitarist Slip Mahoney and his band returned to their old stomping ground. With the exception of 2010 and 2013, Slip and the Spinouts headlined every Hulaween party in the Molokai Bar from 2009 through 2019.
It also wouldn’t be Hulaween without manager Kern Mattei and public relations director Pia Dahlquist. The Mai-Kai’s longest tenured employees have been involved in every event, and they continued in their role as costume contest hosts and organizers. Mattei also snapped most of the photos featured on the official Facebook page.
They had their hands full with this year’s cavalcade of costumes, which included many past winners and participants. When the smoke cleared, six finalists lined up for the final judging. (Full disclosure: I was one of the judges.)
Narrowing the field down to the top 3, we unfortunately had to eliminate Fowner and girlfriend Rita (Octopus Attack!!) plus LuRu and husband Don Rudawsky (Skeleton Pirates). A couple as Beetlejuice and Lydia also didn’t make the final cut. It was a tough decision, but after much deliberation the judges selected the top three:
• First: The Creatures from the Mai-Kai Lagoon.
• Zom Beach and Miss Behaved Mai Tai.
• The Creature and Damsel in Distress.
Congrats to Cacalito and Monserrat Mendoza the of the Tiki Hunting channel on YouTube for taking home the $1,000 top prize. The runners-up also received special prizes.
Mahalo to everyone who participated and joined in the fun. It’s never too early to start on your costume for next October, when Hulaween will once again take over the Mai-Kai for an even bigger and more ambitious month-long celebration of the creatively creepy and crazy side of Tiki.
Oct. 31 Hulaween party photo gallery
Photos 1-7 by The Atomic Grog, 8-35 by the Mai-Kai, 36-39 by Tiki Hunting.
• More Mai-Kai photos
Tiki Hunting: Instagram | YouTube
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Bonus cocktail recipe
One of the most distinctive, and probably the strongest, of the Mai-Kai’s special Hulaween 2025 cocktails was the spectacular Pineapple of Perdition. Served in the Molokai Bar, this potent potion arrived inside a pineapple that had been turned into a jack-o’-lantern, complete with eerie lighting. The flaming garnish was then ignited with a dusting of cinnamon, sparks flying as you debated whether to tackle this monster all by yourself. It could easily serve two.
As the menu description warns, this is a close cousin of the deadly Zombie: “From the hollowed lantern of the damned rises a Zombie reborn, fiery rum and forbidden fruit blazing through the night.” DeMahy, the bar manager, took inspiration from many different Zombie variations to come up with this potent version, which is surprisingly balanced.
With a rating of 4.1, this was our third favorite of all the Hulaween cocktails, trailing only the Queen’s Park Special (4.6) and The Bloody Siren (4.2). [See all the ratings] But, luckily for us home mixologists, it’s not as difficult to make and lends itself perfectly to a tribute recipe.
TRIBUTE TO THE MAI-KAI’S PINEAPPLE OF PERDITION
By The Atomic Grog (October 2025)
• 3/4 ounce lime juice
• 3/4 ounce grapefruit juice
• 1 ounce pineapple juice
• 1/4 ounce grenadine
• 1/4 ounce cinnamon syrup
• 1/2 ounce falernum
• 1 ounce lightly aged (gold or dark) Spanish-style rum
• 1 ounce dark Jamaican rum (Mai-Kai blend)***
• 1/2 ounce Smith & Cross Jamaican rum
• 1/2 ounce 151 Demerara rum (for flaming garnish)
• 3-4 drops Pernod
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
Flash blend with 1 cup of crushed ice for 5-8 seconds and pour into a cored pineapple, Tiki mug or double old fashioned glass, adding more ice if necessary. Garnish with a pineapple leaf, dehydrated pineapple wheel and half a spent lime containing the 151 Demerara rum. Light rum on fire and dust with cinnamon to ignite sparks. Extinguish and add remaining 151 rum to the cocktail.
At the Mai-Kai, the drink was served in a double old fashioned glass inside the pineapple. A 12- to 14-ounce mug would also work fine. The pineapple wheel serves a useful purpose, shielding the drink from being overwhelmed by cinnamon.
*** NOTE: This was served before Mai-Kai Rum No. 1 was available, but you could certainly employ this potent new 100-proof blend to give this cocktail even more kick. Otherwise, one of our previously suggested Mai-Kai rum blends will work fine. The most recent favorite is 4 parts Coruba, 1 part Appleton Signature, and 1 part Wray & Nephew overproof.
Fresh-squeezed juices and homemade syrups are preferred, but if you must sub a few store-bought ingredients just ensure they’re high quality. Add a splash of bottled key lime juice to your squeezed Persian lime juice and it will taste more tart like the Mai-Kai’s juice blend.
More Halloween cocktail recipes
• Blood Island Green Potion #2
• Return of the Zombie Dolphin
• Shrunken Pumpkin Head
MORE ON HULAWEEN
Hulaween guided tour of the Mai-Kai with artist Tom Fowner
Mai-Kai October update: Hulaween returns bigger than ever
Halloween cocktails invade the Mai-Kai for October
Hulaween history: Relive 12 years of madness at the Mai-Kai
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