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Hawaii
DON'T look now, but Restaurant Row, the place everyone said was destined to die, is alive and flourishing. The latest operator preparing to go into the restaurant, theater and shop complex is Ed The Row is resurrected
Greene. He and Row Bar owner Alan Bealle are in the final stages of inking a deal to put a Jameson's into the spot formerly occupied by Pizza Bob's. And with Ruth's Chris Steak House handsomely expanded, Sansei opening in the old Black Orchid spot and Baci at the Row offering both Italian cuisine and live jazz at the former Cafe Donaldo's, things are definitely looking up. Abe Weinstein is playing at Baci and owner Bill Duval is welcoming tapes and CDs of those who'd like to audition for a slot ... Speaking of Restaurant Row, that was "Center Stage" star Amanda Schull getting her hair done by Susan at CHOP, a new hair salon at the Row ...
A GROUP of Honolulu Club members gathered at the club last week to watch one of their own, Omer Poirier, win $125,000 on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." And Regis Philbin announced Sunday night that one of the 10 people eligible to be on the hot seat this week is Ervin Morinaga (which Regis pronounced "More-ee-NAY-ga") from Pearl City ...
One for Mom
A FEW years ago, ice skating champ Kristi Yamaguchi performed to Nohelani Cypriano's song, "Imagine." The performance delighted Nohe's mom, who was a huge skating fan and a follower of Kristi's in particular. Last year Kristi asked Nohe if she'd sing at her wedding this year. Her mom died in January of this year, but Nohe sang at Kristi's wedding to hockey star Bret Hedican Saturday at the Orchid, Mauna Lani. Nohe dedicated her performance to her late mom ...AFTER reading about all the weather problems in Japan, attorney Evan Shirley was relieved to hear from step-son Greg Ferren that his marathon bicycling trek from Hiroshima to Tokyo was nowhere near the problem areas. Shirley was surprised to hear Greg had passed through a town called Hawaii, and asked what it was like. "What do you expect?" asked Ferren. "There's roadwork everywhere." ... Former Star-Bulletin intern Alissa Lavelle (who's now returned to her maiden name, Estrella) completed her year of editing Ka Leo and is now working for the Washington Times ... The TV critic whose evisceration of the CBS show "Big Brother" appeared in yesterday's paper added, "If that's the best they can do for prime time, how dull must the Internet streams be?" But I visited bigbrother2000.com and was actually shocked by the sacrilegious comments I heard one female "house guest" make about Jesus ...
Syncing feeling
LIPSYNCING to 'N Sync, the group made famous by doing just that, seems a gigantic redundancy. But don't tell that to Reinton Kawamae and Chelsea Gamiao, who won the " 'N Sync Lipsyncing" contest at the 50th State Fair, each winning an all-expense paid trip to see 'N Sync in concert on July 28 at Madison Square Garden. A wee problem here, in every sense of the word. Reinton and Chelsea are classmates at Good Samaritan Pre-School, and hardly old enough to visit New York unattended. KQMQ to the rescue -- the radio station arranged for expenses to be picked up for the moms of the newest 'N Sync'ers on the New York trip. Reinton, incidentally, is the grandson of Xerox victim Ron Kawamae and Chelsea the daughter of Krush vocalist Jessie Gamiao ...
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: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com