Fort Lauderdale has a new tiki bar, and it comes with a roof deck. Hula Kai Tiki Bar is now open at 1075 SE 17th Street, a few blocks from the Broward County Convention Center and the Omni, with a Hawaiian-leaning kitchen downstairs and a cocktail lounge called Ohana up top. It opens just as the busiest stretch of the year arrives on that part of town.

What Hula Kai is

The bar bills itself as a contemporary tiki bar, which in practice means the old island look without the dust. The drinks are the point: handmade tropical cocktails in the tradition of the rum bars that made South Florida a tiki capital in the first place, served with plates meant for sharing. The owners spent most of the last year telling Fort Lauderdale it was coming. Their own site first announced the project in December 2025 with a 2026 opening, and the home page now reads simply that the doors are open.

The address matters. That block of SE 17th Street sits between the Port Everglades traffic and the marinas off the Intracoastal, which puts it on the walking route for convention crowds, cruise passengers spending a night in town and, later this month, everyone heading to the boat show. It is also a short drive for anyone in Harbor Beach, Rio Vista or Victoria Park looking for somewhere new on a weeknight.

The Ohana rooftop

The feature that will fill the place is the Ohana Rooftop Lounge, set on top of the bar. It runs on the same cocktail list as downstairs, adds lighter tiki-style bites, and looks out over the city. The bar is pitching it for happy hour, date nights and private parties, and with sunset now arriving before 7 p.m., the early evening window up there is the one to aim for.

The menu, and what it costs

The kitchen leans Hawaiian with detours through Thailand and the Philippines. Shareables run $10 to $18 and include Spam musubi at $10, crispy pork lumpia at $10, Thai chicken wings and lemongrass chicken satay at $16 each, blue corn fried calamari with tamarind chili sauce at $18, and poke tacos in tuna or salmon at $18. The house pu pu platter, the classic tiki-bar sampler, bundles crab rangoon, satay, lumpia, sticky ribs and the bar's Spam-studded tiki tots for $29.

Bigger plates sit in the $18 to $32 range. A loco moko (a beef patty over rice with mushroom gravy and a fried egg) is $18, the huli huli roasted half chicken is $24, and the signature is the specialty fried rice with shrimp, mussels, calamari, pineapple and cashews, served in a hollowed pineapple for $32. There are sandwiches too, including a pan-seared grouper sandwich at $20 and a double smash burger with miso candied bacon at $18, plus a short kids menu at $11.

Sides are $6 across the board, and the one worth ordering is the Honolulu fries, dressed with bonito flakes, eel sauce, chili garlic aioli and furikake.

Hours

Hula Kai is a night spot for now. Per its posted hours, it opens at 4 p.m. every day except Tuesday, when it is closed. It runs until midnight Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and until 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. The kitchen closes an hour before the bar does, so a late food order on a weekend needs to be in by midnight.

Why it matters on 17th Street

Fort Lauderdale's relationship with tiki runs deep. Polynesian supper clubs have been part of the city's nightlife since the 1950s, and the culture never fully left: themed nights, mug collectors and tiki weekends still draw people from across the country. What locals rarely get is a brand-new room built for it. Hula Kai is that, and it lands on a corridor that mostly serves hotel guests and boaters, giving residents a reason to stop there too.

If you go this month, go early. The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show runs Oct. 28 through Nov. 1 at the convention center and marinas a few minutes away, and a new rooftop bar with tropical drinks is exactly where many of them will end up. A weeknight visit in the next two weeks is the easiest way to get a seat on the roof before the crowds find it.