Fundraiser aims to save Surf City Tiki Hut in southeast Gilbert

The East Valley lost one of its most transporting rooms this month. Surf City Tiki Hut, the Polynesian-style bar and restaurant on Power Road just south of Ray Road in southeast Gilbert, closed Oct. 6, eight months after the sandwich shop reinvented itself as a tiki bar.

Now the tiki faithful are rallying. A GoFundMe campaign organized for owner Paul “Fig” Figliomeni aims to raise $50,000 to save the lease, bring the team back, and reopen. As of Sunday, it had raised $7,100 from 42 donors. The campaign doesn’t say what led to the closure.

From sandwich shop to South Seas hideaway

Fig, a lifelong surfer and chef, opened Surf City Sandwich here in June 2020, bringing his award-winning Santa Cruz, Calif., shop to Power Road next to what was then Alamo Drafthouse (now Majestic Gilbert 8).

On Feb. 1, 2026, he reimagined it as a tiki bar and island kitchen, with glowing lamps, carved Polynesian trim, hand-carved tikis, a ship’s wheel, and a case of house mugs, per mytiki.life.

Sandwich-shop favorites like the Tiki Tuna and Chicken Cowabunga stayed on alongside loco moco and coconut shrimp, and people drove in from out of state to see the place.

Tiki Diablo’s last room

What makes this closure sting is who built the room. Danny ‘‘Tiki Diablo’’ Gallardo began carving in the early 2000s and became one of modern tiki’s most respected artists, with work from Palm Springs to Berlin and mugs for landmarks like the Tiki-Ti in Los Angeles and the Mai-Kai in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Gallardo worked with Fig remotely to design Surf City. He died Feb. 5, 2026, at 54, just days after it opened. The fundraiser calls it his last major bar design and build.

Why the lease matters

A closed restaurant can reopen; a dismantled tiki room usually can’t. If the lease is lost, the landlord can reclaim the space, and the custom interior could be stripped out or sold off. Gallardo’s final room would survive only in photos.

Donations would cover the lease, equipment, permits, reorganization, and reopening costs, and bringing the staff back.