Post #358743 by GatorRob on Sat, Feb 2, 2008 7:28 PM

On 2008-02-02 18:48, bigbrotiki wrote:
I can only imagine how the current weak economy is hurting their operation.

I wonder the same thing. Property taxes are high, insurance is WAY high, labor is high, building materials are high, etc. On New Year's Eve when we were last there, we expected the place to be wall-to-wall people. The front dining rooms around the stage were packed, but the back dining rooms (where we were) were practically empty. That really surprised us all. If those back rooms sit empty most of the time, that's a lot of lighted, A/C'ed, and taxed space that is not pulling its weight...

... which is why about 10 or so years ago, the Mai-Kai changed the name of the Tahiti room to the Gauguin Room because of his connection to Tahiti and the Gauguin paintings they had there. They made up a trendy menu for the room and pushed it with a big marketing campaign. Look at the photo of the Mai-Kai entrance Beachbum Berry has in Sippin' Safari and you will see the (now removed) "Gauguin Room" neon sign above the entrance. I was intrigued by that sign so Kern related this story to me. Apparently it only lasted a year or two. People came to the Mai-Kai to see the show, not to eat in a dining room with some funny name they couldn't pronounce that they probably didn't recognize anyway.