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Hawaii Dave Donnelly |
They could ban Daves
from the parade, tooI'M MORE than a little confused over the argument of whether it's the City or the Christian Coalition behind the "family values" parade that was planned for Saturday. The ACLU argued that the City was at least a co-sponsor of the parade and therefore nobody should be excluded. Then I heard TV newswoman Tasha Kobashigawa report if it's just the Christian Coalition and not the City sponsoring the parade, they could exclude anyone they like. Whoa, there. Does that mean they could exclude, say, blacks? Or Buddhists? Let's face it, you don't have to be gay to realize that they shouldn't be excluded from marching, particularly by a group calling itself "Christian." Gays have families, too ...
I DINED at two new Italian restaurants of late. One, Philippe Paolo's in Restaurant Row, had the hugest portions I've ever seen, beating out even the generous platter loads of food at Buca di Beppo. I was only able to eat about a third of the steak I'd ordered, but take out boxes are the norm rather than the exception ... I also had dinner this week at Bob Longhi's elegant Italian eatery one floor up from Morton's Steak House in Ala Moana Center. It was delicioso. Longhi even has his own elevator next to Morton's on the Makai side of the center, and some marvelous views of Ala Moana Park and the ocean. I was also pleasantly delighted to see that his hostess was Carolyn Bosanko, a beautiful model who's done spreads in various national publications ...
Downtown
LOTS of activity around Nuuanu these days. It looks like Fred Remington is taking over the ownership of O'Toole's. He already owns the Irish Rose and Kelley O'Neil's in Waikiki, so he knows something about Irish pubs. Oh, but not downtown ticket mania, apparently. His first time in the joint he got a special welcome from HPD -- a ticket on his Harley. Welcome to the neighborhood ...
Want to own a pub?
MURPHY'S is going to have a new name soon. Oh, it's not permanent -- owner Don Murphy would never go for that. But at his annual Pigskin Pigout fund-raising dinner and auction at Murphy's July 17, the downtown landmark will be auctioned off to the highest bidder for one day, complete with signage inside and out, T-shirts, hats and whatever. Even part of the profits that day will, like the auction proceeds, go to the UH Warrior football program. Murph hopes to exceed last year's generous take of $118,000 ...
More on the Avenue
Meanwhile, also on Nuuanu, Saigon Garden has closed, and the Indigo folks are continuing to have disagreements over rent with their neighbor and landlord, Hawaii Theatre. The Theatre board already turned down the plea of Havana Cabana to keep its lease rent where it was so they could stay in business, saying the rent would have to go up. The upshot was that Havana Cabana, located behind the theater on Nuuanu, closed its doors, and there's been zero rent paid there for a couple of years now. Brilliant ... I'm off on vacation, back July 28 ...
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968. The Week That Was runs Sundays and recalls items from Dave's 30 years of columns. Contact Dave by e-mail: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com