Fort Lauderdale
In 1956, before Disney, before “Where The Boys Are,” before much of modern Florida tourism, brothers Bob and Jack Thornton dropped a then-record-setting $350,000 to create the most expensive restaurant project in the nation that year: A Polynesian-themed restaurant on U.S. 1 just north of Fort Lauderdale. They added a dinner show a few years later. The Mai-Kai became a Fort Lauderdale landmark. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places. It closed in 2020 after a plumbing failure caused extensive damage.
It reopened the week before Thanksgiving after a $20-million restoration under current managing partner Bill Fuller, who partnered with the Thornton family and investors.
Original article posted on Florida Trend
