Experiencing Choy
of travelSINCE I wasn't invited to join the entourage of Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Abdulla Bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, on his private jet out of Maui, I flew United Airlines to San Francisco direct. (The prince, incidentally, loaded his jet with Mediterranean and Moroccan delicacies from Holly & Moumen El Hajii's Beau Soleil Restaurant, along with the finest caviar from Strawberry Connection and Neiman-Marcus. He even dined at Benihana of Tokyo while in town, sequestered on Oahu at the Ihilani Resort.) I, meanwhile, dined on food prepared under the watchful eye of Sam Choy on United. Chef Choy had just preceded me in San Francisco, participating in a Hawaii promotion at Pier 39 ...
JUST down the Embarcadero from Pier 39 is Seal's Cove (at Pier 33) where old pal Mike McCourt continues to pour out his booze and his heart in equal portions. Everyone asks him when his book is going to come out. "Tuesday," is his usual reply. Not an unusual query for a literate, well read and engaging barkeep who's had two brothers atop the New York Times best seller list simultaneously. Brother Frank wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Angela's Ashes," on the list for well over two years, and brother Malachy came out with "A Monk Swimming." Both were over 65 when their first books were published. Maybe Mike feels that at 62, he's too young to start his own book ...
Momo a go-go
ONCE dubbed "Everyone's Favorite City," San Francisco still labors to be just that, despite a political climate so bizarre as to make Hawaii's seem normal. But as the Irish say, "Folks are thinnin' out a bit." Between friends who've died and others who've moved, it's hard to keep up with who's left. One who is still going strong is Peter Osborne, owner of the Washington Square Bar & Grill, who's just opened Momo's across the street from the new Giants Stadium. Osborne likes to say of Momo's that it's so good, they had to build a 42,000 seat waiting room across the street. He wasn't in the night I dined there -- he was vacationing on Kauai. But the manager came over and told me I looked familiar. I introduced myself and he said, "I thought so." Turns out he was Larry Peterson, who worked for four years at Matteo's in Waikiki for Fred Livingston and Russell Druce and who calls barkeep Freddie Noa "My Hawaiian dad" ...THEN there was the waiter at La Felce in North Beach, who asked if I were Dave Donnelly. "I thought so," he said. "I recognized you from your picture in the paper." He'd worked in radio in Hawaii for four years with Harvey Weinstein before moving to S.F. ...
WHILE I never got over the hill to see ex-isle columnist Tom Horton at his Stinson Beach Bar & Grill, we did chat on the phone and he revealed that on a recent European cruise -- business must be good -- he tracked down former isle businessman, Jorgen Skov, who's operating a little B&B in Denmark ...
Bay views
WHILE in the City I bought a copy of Bruce Bellingham's new book, "Bellingham by the Bay," and got him to autograph it for me. The witty Bellingham, who writes a column for the Marina Times and was a frequent contributor of items to Herb Caen, graciously complied. It wasn't until I flew off to Seattle that I read the book and was surprised, to say the least, to see my name in the acknowledgments and to find myself quoted in it ... Tomorrow: Dame Edna and the Emerald City and thence back home ...
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.
His columns run Monday through Friday.Contact Dave by e-mail: donnelly@kestrok.com.