Taking a bite of
the Big AppleLAST week I mentioned that isle actress Laura Bach, now living in New York and searching for life on the stage, was thrilled to be invited to the opening of Roy's New York, because she yearned for cuisine from Hawaii. Well, she had a lot of company. Some 600 people crowded into the new eatery of Roy Yamaguchi, including TV hostess Emme Tomimbang and Hawaii chefs Alan Wong, Philippe Padovani and D.K. Kodama. Also on hand to sample Roy's wares were New York chefs Nobu Matsuhisa of Nobu, Douglas Rodriguez of Patria and Don Pintabona of Tribeca. And sommelier Chuck Furuya of Fine Wine Imports was there to oversee the wine selections. The opening will be shown on a future "Emme's Island Moments." While in the Big Apple, Emme also dropped in to see "Footloose," the Dean Pitchford musical and now states emphatically, "We have to bring 'Footloose' to Hawaii." Though critics, who're anything but footloose, were put off by the youthful exuberance, both kids and parents who pack the house nightly seem to love it ...
PLAYING the heroine, "Aki," in Square USA's big "Final Fantasy: The Movie," is Alice Inoue. Inoue, best known for her closed channel news and features aimed at Japanese tourists in hotel rooms and via cable in Japan, is a beauty, but it'll be hard to tell once the film comes out. You may have read the Star-Bulletin feature about the film and its new technology, where the actors wear suits with motion detectors and act out their scenes, only to have their actions reach the film in animation form ...
No jukebox Saturday night
IT was once the case that if you wanted to see live music, you had to venture into Waikiki, not always the most inviting of places in recent years. But if you want proof that downtown Honolulu is becoming a live music haven, check out Saturday's fare: The Brothers Cazimero was performing at Don Ho's Island Grill in the Aloha Tower Marketplace; just up the street was the Byl Leonard Trio in Murphy's and Bluzilla was across the street at O'Toole's with Chris Planas sitting in; heading mauka on Nuuanu you found Hawaiian music live at Punani's, a delightful harmonizing duo at Hank's Cafe, and three different groups alternating at Havana Cabana. And around the corner, the Momix dance troupe was at the Hawaii Theatre. All that in the space of a five block stroll makai to mauka. Who needs Waikiki? ...IN town to address a joint luncheon meeting of the Hawaii Publishers Association and the Honolulu Advertising Federation tomorrow at the Hawaii Prince is L.A. Times editor and publisher Mark Willes. He's a likely choice to address such a joint gathering -- he's done his share of knocking down walls between the editorial and advertising departments at the Times. When he was at General Mills, Willes was known for his cost slashing, earning him such sobriquets as "Cap'n Crunch" and the "Cereal Killer." ...
Breaking 60
MATTEO'S manager Ben Dowling is a bit of a golf nut, so when he discovered that the person holding a reservation for "Miller" was none other than ex-U.S. Open winner Johnny Miller, he made sure everything was up to par. Miller was with a group from BYU here for the John Burns Intercollegiate Tournament ... And with all the attention focused on David Duval becoming only the third man in a PGA tour event to break 60 by shooting a 59, Matteo's G.M. Russell Druce was unimpressed. "I just broke 60 myself," quipped Druce, who last week was celebrating birthday No. 60 at the time ...
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.