$12 million for
Masini manseWANT to live in the "Life-styles of the Rich and Famous," or at least like the guy who came up with idea for the TV show? Al Masini, who created the program, certainly fits the "rich" description, even if, as a behind the scenes guy, he's not as famous as the people Robin Leach features on the show. Masini and wife April, after building a mansion atop Hawaii Loa Ridge with a view befitting one of the "R&F," have decided to move back to L.A. Their year-old home is on the market for $12 million and Realtor Pat Choi already has had several showings and "lots of interest" in the property. And if you thought the real estate market was in a depressed state, don't tell that to Choi, especially in high-end properties. She's sold four homes of $5 million or more on Kahala Avenue recently, including the $11 million Keck mansion (to a Uniden exec) and the $13.2 million Weinberg estate, the highest priced unit in the past seven years. And last October she sold the $5.3 million Wade mansion -- the home with the blue roof off the Waialae golf course. Anyone with serious interest in the Masini manse can contact real estate woman Choi for a private visit and 16-page brochure ...
FORMER isle labor dispute arbiter Mike Sweetow, who for the past several years has lived in San Francisco, has moved to State College, Penn., but he still keeps up on isle happenings via Internet like thousands of others. A regular reader of the Star-Bulletin's online edition, he e-mails that after reading here about the jewelry chain offering a 100 percent rebate if the temperature reached 93 on Aug. 31 -- it just missed -- he found a similar offer in Pennsylvania. Since State College is the home of Penn State, ranked No. 1 in college football polls, a place called Mike's Video and TV is refunding full purchase price of any appliances, TV, stereo, etc., if Penn State goes 12-0 for the season. While he doubts they'll do it, reports Sweetow, he did buy a new stereo and speakers. "After all, I can't listen to my Hawaiian music on the old stuff from California" ... Cyberspacing out
MORE Internetworking: Sweetow also reports ordering a pastel from Carol Anderson, former wife of ex-GOP head Jared Jossem. She now lives in Washington and her artworks are for sale on the Internet. ...
AND yet another ex-isle resident who keeps up on Hawaii through cyberspace is disc jockey Kamasami Kong. He now works out of Osaka station 802FM, but maintains an apartment here and is opening a second coffee house in Taiwan, where he visits frequently. Called the Kona Connection, it will open on Oct. 9, the day before the big "Double Ten" holiday in Taiwan (10/10). He's thinking of offering "Brew-ha-ha" -- Hawaii coffee, brewed in Taiwan water and served in fine China. Ha ha, indeed ...
THE latest "hot new restaurant" in San Francisco -- and there's at least one a week -- is the E&O Trading Company Restaurant on Sutter Street near Union Square. It's a multimillion dollar re-creation of a colonial Asian brewery. The main partners of Specialty Brewing Restaurants Inc., the holding company, are two guys named Hemmeter and Loo. No, not developer Chris Hemmeter and stockbroker Paul Loo of Dean Witter Reynolds, but their sons, Chris Hemmeter Jr. and Rodney Loo, both Punahou classmates and frat brothers. Huge crowds came to the opening and the young entrepreneurs are hoping this will be the first of many such microbrewery/restaurants ... Hemmeter & Loo brew
Contact Dave by e-mail: donnelly@kestrok.com.