KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hiroyuki Sakai, of "Iron Chef" fame, is checking out Hawaii for possible restaurant sites. But he was also checking out the fairways yesterday, including the Mid-Pacific Country Club in Lanikai.
‘Iron chef’ favors
Hawaii in plans
to open cafe chainHiroyuki Sakai loves Hawaii
'very much' but his investors
favor a mainland outlet first
Iron chef Hiroyuki Sakai is planning a U.S. restaurant chain, with one of its first locations to be in Hawaii.
In an interview yesterday -- before taking off on a jet-skiing outing in Hawaii Kai -- the 62-year-old Sakai said he is ready to begin a new phase of his culinary/business career, which already includes four restaurants in Japan, a line of packaged baked goods and, of course, his five-year stint as the French-cuisine champion on the cult hit "Iron Chef."
Sakai arrived in Honolulu on Saturday for a week's stay combining business meetings and his two recreational passions -- golf and jet-skiing. He leaves today for Lanai, said Sohbi Reynolds, Sakai's representative in the United States. Reynolds' company, Excor Inc., is one of Sakai's Hawaii partners.
Plans have progressed quickly in the two months since Sakai first proposed a U.S. venture, attorney James Fleck said.
Chef Sakai Inc. has since been incorporated in Dallas and talks with U.S. investors are under way, Fleck said. Texas is the home base of Fleck, a University of Hawaii law school graduate and family friend of Reynolds. He expects the first restaurant could open in six months to a year.
The aim, Sakai said, is a chain of cafés that would be open from lunch until about 2 a.m., with a menu of light entrées, salads and desserts. The style of cuisine would combine French and Japanese flavors, with an emphasis on healthy eating, he said.
The cafés would be small -- about 20 seats, with a patio.
"I have authentic, full-service French restaurants in Japan," Sakai said, as Reynolds interpreted. "(In the United States) I would rather have a casual restaurant, where anybody can stop by."
He said he would like the chain to open on Oahu, in a location outside Waikiki, but that his investors favor launching the enterprise in a mainland city where costs -- and competition -- would be lower.
Fleck said Dallas is a good possibility, given the corporation's roots there, but also, "Dallas has nothing that would compete with an iron chef coming to town."
If that is the case, Sakai said, a Hawaii restaurant would soon follow.
"I love Hawaii very, very much," he said. "More than any city in the U.S."
