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TheBuzz

BY ERIKA ENGLE

Some wallets fatten,
some doors close

The top-to-bottom, across-the-board pay cuts imposed at PacificBasin Communications LLC in February are history.

The size of the pay cut was not disclosed, but pay will be restored effective Aug. 1, according to President Floyd Takeuchi. He announced the news to his staff on Thursday.

"Needless to say, the announcement was greeted with considerable enthusiasm," he said.

The company publishes Honolulu Magazine, Hawaii Business, Hawaii Home + Remodeling and Pacific Magazine.

The cuts for the staff of about 40 were made "in anticipation of a fairly weak second quarter," Takeuchi said at the time.

"Since we imposed the cuts, our staff has worked incredibly hard to strengthen operations" and trim costs, he said.

So, no more big dinner parties on the company tab for Honolulu Magazine Editor John Heckathorn?

"He still has to do his (restaurant) reviews, he just has to pay for his own desserts," Takeuchi laughed.

In the past quarter the magazines posted some of their largest advertising sales ever, measured on both a year-to-year and historical basis, Takeuchi said.

Previously the company did not anticipate restoration of pay until mid-fall.

Lucarelli's out of luck

The Italian sit-down restaurant and its "Pronto" quick-service window at Restaurant Row closed the first week of June.

The restaurant had begun to see increased sales, "but not enough to make it worthwhile, said Alan Beall, principal of The Row Cafe LLC, which leases the space and owns The Row Bar.

After the operators' earlier non-success with Jameson's Seafood Grill, they are pursuing "plan C." It involves negotiating with the Michigan-based owners to bring in another operator of "an Italian restaurant who is very experienced and well-known in Hawaii," Beall said.

"A lunch crowd is good but it won't carry a restaurant," he said. "To get a dinner crowd requires overall promotion or to have a following," such as Ruth's Chris Steakhouse which Beall called, "a destination restaurant."

The way to combat any negative perception about the future of new eateries in that spot at Restaurant Row, Beall said, "is to accentuate the positive."

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Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, 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