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Kokua Line
June Watanabe
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Restaurants must disclose corkage fees
Question: Can a restaurant charge a corkage fee if it doesn't serve liquor? I brought in my own beer, I popped it open myself and I did not use a glass. Yet at the end of the evening, I was charged a corkage fee. There were no signs up that said I would be charged that.
Answer: It's not a matter if it can charge a corkage fee -- it can -- but whether you were informed of such a fee before you imbibed your own beer.
"It would be a matter of disclosure that should be made beforehand so there's no misunderstanding," said Stephen Levins, executive director of the state Office of Consumer Protection.
You can file a complaint with the office if you were given no notice of the fee either in the menu, by a sign or by your waiter. Call 587-3222.
Meanwhile, the Honolulu Liquor Commission does not require that corkage fees be reported, as part of gross liquor sales, for example.
That's considered an "individual business practice," said Anna Hirai, the commission's assistant administrator.
A restaurant that is not licensed to sell liquor may allow people to BYOB and charge a corkage fee, but they must abide by county liquor laws: not sell to minors and not allow patrons to consume the liquor beyond 2 a.m., she said.
Q: What happened to the trees that were planted in the center median along Hunakai Street near Kahala Mall? They were beautiful.
A: They had to be removed because of the gall wasps that have been destroying wiliwili trees all over the island.
Although you said the trees were "large shade trees" and not wiliwili, the city Department of Parks and Recreation confirmed they were the wiliwili we discussed in our Jan. 23, 2006 column.
The department's Division of Urban Forestry has been working on scheduling a replanting, said Dana Takahara-Dias, deputy parks director.
However, she said contractors are busy and it's been difficult to secure one for the job.
Eventually, ornamental narra trees will be used to replace the wiliwili trees.
The narra tree, which is the national tree of the Philippines, is often planted in large public parks and along roadway medians.
Mahalo
To the two young girls and gentleman who helped my father on Valentine's Day when he fell and skinned his elbow near Punchbowl and King streets and also stayed with him until my brother picked him up. Mahalo also to the kind gentleman who gave him some Band-Aids.
My father had caught the bus to go to Chinatown to buy me a pikake lei for Valentine's Day (bless his heart), but missed his stop and ended up near the state library and started to walk back. He is diabetic and not as strong as he was. He just turned 98 on Feb. 27, but still thinks he is 21. Mahalo to everyone for being so kind to him! -- Marsha Au-Maxwell
Got a question or complaint? Call 529-4773, fax 529-4750, or write to Kokua Line, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu 96813. As many as possible will be answered. E-mail to
kokualine@starbulletin.com.
See also: Useful phone numbers