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TheBuzz
Erika Engle
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Rocker-turned-businessman expands Hawaii presence
Part-time Maui resident and full-time "Red Rocker" Sammy Hagar is behind the planned Sammy's Beach Bar & Grill restaurant, to open at Kahului Airport in the first quarter of next year.
Another will open next year at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, where perhaps more Hawaii residents will sample the fare.
Maryland-based HMSHost Corp. announced the new restaurant yesterday, along with the six-year extension of its food and beverage contract at Kahului Airport.
HMSHost says Sammy's was developed in partnership with the 60-year-old Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Famer and will feature classic American fare with an island twist in a casual, beach-inspired atmosphere.
The full bar is likely to offer Hagar's Cabo Wabo blanco, reposado and añejo tequilas and maybe even the new ultra-premium, more than $240-a-bottle Cabo Uno Añejo Reserva.
Please, spare your columnist the worm-in-the-bottle e-mails. Sammy makes top-shelf sippin' tequila, not mezcal.
Decor is to include Hagar-signed memorabilia. The ambiance might include a tune or ten from Sammy, his old band Montrose, his new band Sammy and the Wabos, Van Halen, or "Van Hagar," as the band was often called during his front-man tenure -- and other rockers.
Restaurant profits will be donated to the not-yet-established Red Rocker Foundation, a charity for children.
At Kahului Airport, HMSHost will also introduce California Pizza Kitchen's CPK/ASAP quick-service concept as well as Jamba Juice and a second Starbucks. The new operations will join the Plantation Snack Bar and Stinger Ray's Grill and Bar.
Hagar is touring and executives serving his business ventures could only be reached through an HMSHost publicist.
There are "no plans right now" to extend Sammy's Beach Bar & Grill or his now three-unit Cabo Wabo Cantina concepts further in Hawaii, relayed Stacy Schwartz.
The new restaurant name has yet to be registered with the state of Hawaii and it could not be found in searches of online business registration databases in other states including Delaware, Nevada, or California. The latter was last updated Friday, however.
Cabo Wabo Brew Co. was registered Oct. 30 in California, furthering what Cabo Wabo Enterprises Inc. President Stephen Kauffman told Business Week earlier this year about developing a beer label.
In May, CEO Hagar sold 80 percent of the tequila company to Italy-based Gruppo Campari for $80 million in order to take his 100-percent blue agave nectar global.
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