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Photograph of Mai-Kai Restaurant
Photograph by Infrogmation of New Orleans, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Mai-Kai Restaurant

Built in 1956. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. 8 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1949.

From the record

“The Mai-Kai is a Polynesian-themed restaurant and tiki bar in Oakland Park, Florida. It opened to the public on December 28, 1956, and is one of the few "Grand Polynesian Palaces of Tiki" still in operation today.”

Wikipedia article Mai-Kai Restaurant, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 39 National Register listings published here for Broward County · listed in 2014 · category: Building · built in 1956, by Charles Foster McKirahan.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 2 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
  • Listed as. Mai--Kai Restaurant - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
  • Address. 3599 N. Federal Hwy., Oakland Park, 33308
  • When was it listed? November 2014
  • Category. building
  • Census division. Fort Lauderdale
  • When was it built? 1956
  • Architect. Charles Foster McKirahan
  • National Register reference number. 14000951 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Then and now

1949 to 1956

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 7 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Mai-Kai Restaurant, surveyed 1956
Topographic sheet covering Mai-Kai Restaurant, surveyed 1949

Mines and quarries near this property

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Mai-Kai Restaurant: 3 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Decker QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Gateway QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Prospect Limestone QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Broward County

Storms near this property

16 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Oakland Park, the town this property stands in, in 16 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 4 funnel cloud, 4 flood, 2 hail, 2 tornado. The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2014LightningOakland Park1 hurtA United States Postal Service worker sustained serious burns as lightning struck nearby his truck. The electricity traveled through the truck as he was touching it. The location was 1781 E. Commercial Blvd. near Oakland Park.
June 2007Heavy RainOakland Park$50,000Torrential rains from strong thunderstorms collapsed the roof of a gym at La Roca Church located at 3000 Prospect Road in Oakland Park. The roof collapsed at about 5 PM EDT. Fire Rescue personnel estimated that between 1500 to 2000 square feet of the roof fell.||The building was not occupied at the time.
February 2024Tornado (EFU)Oakland Park$40,000The broadcast media and public described, via social media posts and pictures, a tornado occurred within a residential neighborhood in the city of Oakland Park. There were pictures of flipped cars and damaged trees. Time, path length, and path width are estimated based on radar and satellite imagery. Due to an inability to survey the area, maximum wind speeds and EF rating are unknown. Damage amount is estimated.
July 1999Tornado (F0)Oakland Park$25,000no account filed
August 2004Thunderstorm WindOakland Park$10,000no account filed
October 2025FloodOakland Park-Wilton Manors police department reported on social media that multiple roads are experiencing flooding from heavy rainfall.
May 2022FloodOakland Park-WPLG-TV shared a video of a disabled vehicle near NE 6th Avenue in Oakland Park on a closed roadway covered with several inches of water. Measured rainfall amounts from the area were in the 2 to 3 inch range in under an hour.
June 2021FloodOakland Park-Local broadcast media reported street flooding in the Oakland Park area from todays repeated rounds of rainfall. Vehicles were having trouble clearing through the water. Nearby rain gauges and precipitation analyses indicate at least 3 inches of rain fell in the area.
October 2020FloodOakland Park-Photos via social media reported flooding of parking lot in Oakland Park with water several inches deep.
June 2015Funnel CloudOakland Park-A funnel cloud was reported by the weather observer at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport located about one mile to the southeast. The funnel began at 1036 AM EDT and dissipated at 1049 AM EDT.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindOakland Park-A mesonet recorded a wind gust of 64 MPH. Power lines were downed in the area around Middle River Drive and NE 21 Street.
December 2005Funnel CloudOakland Park-Funnel clouds were reported in eastern Broward County. These funnel clouds were associated with a line of showers extending from Oakland Park to Davie. The showers were moving slowly east. No reports of funnel clouds touching down were received.
September 2002Funnel CloudOakland Park-A SKYWARN spotter sighted a funnel cloud.
March 2001HailOakland Park-Nickel-size hail was observed.
September 1998Funnel CloudOakland Park-Funnel cloud sighted near I-95 and Oakland Park Blvd.
July 1999HailOakland Park-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Broward County

Maps showing this location

8 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Oakland Park Elementary School1.0 miles1988
Bonnet House2.7 miles1984
SS COPENHAGEN (shipwreck)3.2 miles2001
Alfred and Olive Thorpe Lustron House3.3 miles2007
St. Anthony School3.4 miles1997
Fort Lauderdale Woman's Club3.8 miles2019

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 14000951 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Broward CountyAll 39 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.