Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
David Paul Johnson
By Betty Shimabukuro
sells Lahaina Grill
Star-BulletinChef David Paul Johnson and his partner, Crazy Shirts owner Rick Ralston, have sold the chef's Lahaina Grill to Maui businessman Jurg Munch's company, Mutual Unlimited.
Johnson said he will retain the position of culinary director at the 10-year-old restaurant, and that Munch has a 17-year licensing agreement to use the name David Paul.
The sale leaves him without controlling interest in a restaurant for the first time since Lahaina Grill opened in February 1990.
His management contract to run the Waikiki restaurant David Paul's Diamond Head Grill lapsed late last year. That restaurant -- now called simply Diamond Head Grill -- is under the management of Starwood Hotel & Resorts Worldwide, with a new chef, David Reardon.
Ralston has moved his Crazy Shirts company to California and needed to sell his interest in the 150-seat Lahaina restaurant, Johnson said. He said he wanted to buy Ralston out, but his involvement at the time in the Diamond Head Grill prohibited that.
What next?
He's installed a spa at his Kula home, for starters, and is converting part of the home into a studio to film a cooking show that he hopes to syndicate.
And he has incorporated as David Paul's Restaurants Unlimited and trademarked his name.
Within three to five years, he hopes to open at least one new Hawaii restaurant and launch a chain of mainland eateries. In negotiation is a site in Wailea, Johnson said.
He has developed five restaurant "concepts," or themes, for his new ventures -- signature restaurants like the Lahaina Grill, an Asian-style microbrewery, and steak, seafood and cafe-style restaurants that will be named for three of his five children.
Scaling back -- voluntary or otherwise -- has given him time he never had with his family, Johnson says. "The restaurant is an hour from my house in Kula. I'm glad to have someone else take over that responsibility."
Click for online
calendars and events.
