Hawaii
IT wasn't just moms who got a special treat on Mother's Day at Sansei Seafood Restaurant and Sushi Bar at Restaurant Row. Kids also got a treat in the form of a help-yourself buffet for keiki. While mom and dad enjoyed their Mother's Day repast, kids trooped to the Keiki Station where a 2-foot-tall table was filled with kid favorites like french fries, popcorn chicken, spaghetti, teriyaki beef, mini-sushi platters and cookies. It was the brainchild of exec chef Ivan Pahk, who says, "I wanted the kids to feel they could help themselves, just like the grown-ups. It was awesome to watch more than 100 little kids come up to their own buffet without their parents." Pahk says it worked out so well that he plans to set up a Keiki Station every time the restaurant does a special holiday buffet. By the way, D.K. Kodama's Restaurant Row location served almost 1,000 people on Mother's Day ... A Mother’s Day treat --
loading up kids with friesYOU'VE doubtless heard about the Forbes magazine story that excoriated Hawaii as a place to do business. It began, "Why doing business in Honolulu has become nearly equivalent to suicide." The magazine added, "This year Honolulu gets our booby prize for economic development." It goes on and on in that vein as written by Lynn J. Cook. This has prompted the phone to ring off the hook of local writer Lynn Cook, who hastens to add her middle initial is "M" and she never writes anything except nice things about Hawaii. And certainly not "Fidel Castro would feel right at home here." ... Don Murphy takes over the managerial reigns of the All Star Cafe on June 1. He'll continue to own and run Murphy's Bar & Grill downtown while operating the All Star Cafe where you can look for some ultimate changes ...
Promoting UH
THOSE new ads on the op-ed page of the Star-Bulletin promoting the University of Hawaii and its students and opportunities are part of a campaign created by ADWorks. One of the people helping make it happen is Phil Kinnicutt, the former Ogilvy & Mather exec who after four years at the UH's College of Business Administration has gone to work for Paul Costello, V.P. for external relations & university affairs. The campaign features the faces of UH students like Julia "Koewa" Martin, who used to walk from Makawao to Maui Community College because she didn't have a car, and Tom "Pohaku" Stone, a master of Hawaiian sledding and a master's candidate in Pacific Island Studies ...
3 faces on leave
FORMER Ritz-Carlton Maui public relations director Kimberly Mikami Svetin is now living in the state of Washington where she runs her own company, Ocean Blue Communications. She's just been named 2002 Ambassador of the Year by the East King County Convention and Visitors Bureau ... Paula Imamura has resigned as public relations manager for Hilton and will be marketing manager for the new Navy Exchange, opening this fall ... Melissa Chang, marketing director of Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties, is off to run in the European Prague Marathon Sunday. They're so technologically advanced in Prague that if you know the runner's number, you can track where he or she is at any time during the race by clicking on a marathon Internet site ...
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.
The Week That Was recalls items from Dave's 30 years of columns.Contact Dave by e-mail: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com