WATERVILLE — The Front & Main restaurant in the Lockwood Hotel is taking a bite out of winter for patrons this week with a tropical-themed, island-inspired escape dinner experience.

Launched at dinnertime on Tuesday — April Fools Day — and continuing through Saturday, the “Flamingos & Mint” tiki-themed culinary experience is meant to catch guests off guard by transforming their spring evening into a tropical escape, according to a news release from the restaurant.

For those five nights at the 9 Main St. restaurant, the core menu is being reimagined with Polynesian, Pacific Rim and tropical flavors while retaining a few fan favorites. Featured will be a Loco Moco version of Front & Main’s burger; a playful twist on Hawaiian pizza as a grilled flatbread with pineapple sauce and smoked Spam; and a Kona coffee-rubbed pork chop and a kimchi carbonara, which infuses bold flavors into familiar formats.

Chef Matthew Zita prepares vanilla semifreddo as Britney Dore, a line cook who prepares pastries, observes Tuesday at Front & Main in downtown Waterville. The dessert, which contains coconut cake, pineapple curd along with strawberry and pineapple salsa, is featured at the restaurant’s “Flamingos & Mint” dinner service through Saturday. It’s a surprise tiki-themed culinary experience designed to bring a burst of tropical energy to central Maine at the restaurant at the Lockwood Hotel at 9 Main St. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

The bar is featuring creative takes on classic tiki cocktails such as the mai tai, zombie and Saturn, all of which are being served in vibrant ceramic vessels including coconuts and flamingo mugs. Front & Main’s signature Main Street Mule is leaning tropical for the week. The restaurant space itself has undergone a tropical-themed transformation.

John Phillips-Sandy, director of food and beverage at the restaurant, said Tuesday that such themed popup events are becoming more and more common in the restaurant industry. It is a fun way for the team to energize the creative side of what the restaurant does and develop an experience that is a total departure from what it normally does — and invite regular guests, as well as new ones, to enjoy it.

“April 1 — what better kind of day to launch something than on the day when people are expecting pranks and silliness?” Phillips-Sandy said.

The tropical theme also seemed perfect for the end of a Maine winter, where two weeks ago, temperatures were in the high 50s and people were out in T-shirts and shorts and talking about getting out to the lakes and coast, Phillips-Sandy said. Then the weather changed, as it typically does this time of year, and by late March, people were back in a snowy landscape and feeling the deep chill again.

Anders Johanson of Front & Main grills flatbread Tuesday for Hawaiian Pizza, an item featured during the “Flamingos & Mint” dinner service planned through Saturday. The surprise tiki-themed culinary experience is designed to bring a burst of tropical energy to central Maine at the restaurant at the Lockwood Hotel at 9 Main St. in Waterville. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Presenting “Flamingos & Mints” and adding some color, light and brilliance to that landscape seemed the perfect antidote.

Hawaiian pizza is sliced by Michael Ervin of “Front & Main” while he works in the kitchen Tuesday at the restaurant at the Lockwood Hotel at 9 Main St. in Waterville. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

“I think we all can use something to remind us of warmer months,” Phillips-Sandy said. “Let’s do something goofy and unexpected for April Fools.”

Some dinner guests who arrived at the restaurant around 4 p.m. Tuesday were expecting some sort of surprise from hints they had seen posted on social media a couple of hours before the opening, but others were completely surprised, Phillips-Sandy said.

“Frankly, that’s the goal — let’s be a surprise. I think a key component of what makes a business great is to be able to invite surprise. The staff is having a lot of fun. It’s a way to energize anew, to delve into a different style of everything for a few days. This is just a quick, five-day surprise.”