Welcome back and introducing... Big Barney II.
Credit: Hurricane Hayward, Tim “Swanky” Glazner archive
Federal Highway is getting one very tall old friend back.
For five decades, Big Barney stood watch outside Mai-Kai, a towering moai carved by artist Barney West that became an icon along the Fort Lauderdale restaurant’s stretch of Federal Highway. Hurricane Irma brought the landmark down in 2017. This Saturday, his successor gets a proper hello.
Mai-Kai will officially unveil Big Barney II on Saturday, October 3, at 1 p.m. The celebration is open to the public, so longtime fans and anyone curious about the 25-foot newcomer can witness his welcome home.
The re-creation follows West’s original design, carved from hard foam and finished and painted by Mai-Kai artists “Typhoon Tommy” Allsmiller and Scott “Flounder” Scheidly. It rejoins the smaller Barney West carving at the opposite end of the property, reuniting the pair for the first time since the storm.
Allsmiller shared how the team brought the familiar face back.
“Bringing Big Barney back was really a collaborative effort,” he tells Browardist. “We worked with local business Unique Rabbit Studios, with Tom Fowner overseeing the initial sculpt and making sure we captured the character and proportions of Barney West’s original piece. From there, Scott ‘Flounder’ Scheidly and I worked on texturizing the entire sculpture and adding the finishing details and paint that gave him that aged, weathered character and made him feel like Big Barney again.”
Allsmiller adds that the goal was never to reinvent him. “Big Barney had been part of the Mai-Kai’s identity for more than 50 years, and we wanted the people who remembered the original to look up at him and immediately recognize an old friend. It means a lot to all of us to have had a hand in bringing back something that is such an important part of the Mai-Kai’s history. We weren’t trying to create a new Big Barney. We were bringing an old friend home.”
Mai-Kai manager Kern Mattei echoed that warm welcome.
“I am thrilled to see the return of this Barney West Tiki,” he tells Browardist. “The original stood guard over the Mai-Kai for 53 years, and bringing a new one home feels like welcoming back an old friend. It’s a beautiful connection between the Mai-Kai of yesterday, the Mai-Kai of today, and the Mai-Kai we hope will be here for generations to come.”
Saturday’s reunion sure does come with a towering guest of honor, y’all.
