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TheBuzz
Erika Engle
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Livingston finds more stress than usual in opening eatery
NICKI LIVINGSTON has picked out the restaurant for her birthday party this year. Now she just needs her husband to open it for business.
Longtime restaurateur Fred Livingston will open Tower Grill at Aloha Tower Marketplace on Tuesday -- three days before his wife's big day.
Before he starts serving his American Bistro-inspired menu, there's a whole lot of good-news-bad-news to resolve.
"I was there today," he said yesterday. "The painters were there, the carpet wasn't down yet ... the furniture was still in a container."
"We got our liquor license ... and we bought kind of an elaborate-looking wine cellar that has not been put together yet," he said with a calm that belied his next sentence.
"It's kind of exciting opening up a new restaurant."
Livingston normally buys restaurants that are already operating and keeps them open during renovations. Tower Grill, formerly the Big Island Steak House, had long been closed and he decided to create a new concept there, "so this is a little bit different. A little more stressing," he said.
Employees begin training today and their uniforms are to arrive over the weekend. All the talk of worker shortages doesn't seem to have affected Livingston.
"I've been very fortunate. The word went out on the coconut wireless and I've been getting calls from employees who used to work for me at all my other restaurants that would like to come work for me again," he said.
Livingston owns Don Ho's Island Grill, also at Aloha Tower Marketplace, and previously owned Sunset Grlll, the Crouching Lion Inn, Trattoria Italian Restaurant, Matteo's Italian Restaurant and Tahitian Lanai.
On Saturdays and Sundays, Tower Grill will serve some Tahitian Lanai brunch favorites including eggs benedict, Belgian waffles, Monte Cristo sandwiches, banana muffins and fresh popovers.
"I don't even know if there are enough people who even remember the Tahitian Lanai," Livingston said.
Your columnist is neither psychic nor a gambler, but it would probably be a safe bet to predict that brunch and other reservations will fill up quickly at 537-4446.
One thing that won't be ready for opening day is the restaurant's signature cocktail, to be called the "Tower of Power."
Livingston's bartenders are concocting competing recipes for the drink, which will be served in a take-home, ceramic replica of Aloha Tower with a working clock. The contest will be judged, Livingston said, "by a panel of impartial owners, which is me." He doesn't drink hard liquor, so the judging could be most entertaining.
The restaurant will be open seven days a week, serving lunch from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and dinner until 10 p.m. At dinner, appetizers start at $9, while entrees top out at $31.
DTRIC wigs out
It's another political sign-waving season, which means it is time again for the technique to be used for another business-related promotion.
Hawaii's DTRIC Insurance will be giving away free car insurance for a year to a Hawaii adult with a good driving record.
That's why all the Deetric dudes and dudettes were sign waving and hyping the company and its contest along Kapiolani Boulevard yesterday at spots from Ward Avenue to the Hawaii Convention Center.
In this case, there were no double-red-carnation or woven ilima leis to mark the candidate in question.
There were, however bright green wigs atop the heads of DTRIC employees, from Chief Executive Officer Ron Toyofuku on down.
The sign-waving part of the promotion is "creative and grassroots-specific to Hawaii," said Linh DePledge, vice president of sales and marketing for DTRIC.
In addition to sign-waving, the company is airing radio commercials and has direct mail pieces heading for mailboxes next week.
There will be a second wave of radio, mail and sign-waving next month and the winner will be chosen in November.
Hopeful contestants can enter by phone, mail or online at www.dtric.com.
To increase awareness of the company's Deetric mascot, entrants are being encouraged to e-mail photos of themselves next to the dude, who is pictured on elevators at the Ward Entertainment Complex and on the company van.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4747, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at:
eengle@starbulletin.com