Post #761161 by Hurricane Hayward on Sun, Mar 20, 2016 12:00 PM

Some very cool updates are in the works at The Mai-Kai that will enhance the guest experience:

In addition to the giant Tiki that Will Anders is carving for the garden, there will be other new Tikis (by three different artists) installed elsewhere on the property. I'm sworn to secrecy, but there should be an announcement on this shortly.

A less obvious but no less important enhancement is already in the works: A complete refresh of the lighting throughout the entire building is underway. May of the old lighting fixtures were not working, and the bulbs required constant maintenance. Recently, a contractor has been brought in to replace all of the decorative lighting with state-of-the-art LED bulbs.

The switch to LED has obvious benefits: The bulbs will last a lot longer, and they're much more energy-efficient. And I can assure everyone that great care is being taken to make sure they have the same vintage look. In fact, the updated lighting fixtures have never looked better. And new features are being added, such as lights over seating areas being tweaked to focus a small amount of white light onto customers, allowing them to actually read menus without pulling out their smartphone flashlights.

Owner Dave Levy gave the contractor photos of how the lights looked back in the day, instructing him to make it look exactly like that. I haven't had time to explore all the rooms yet, but The Molokai bar looks awesome. I got a chance to talk to the contractor there on Thursday. He told me that the bar was completed, along with most of the old A-frame area of the dining room (the Garden and Tonga). I think he said that Tahiti and Moorea are also done, with the other dining rooms coming next.

All the lighting should be done in time for The Hukilau in June. If anyone has old photos of the lights, it might be a good chance to shoot new photos to compare.