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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
Compadres celebrates
20 years by honoring employeesCompadres Bar & Grill marks its 20th anniversary in January with founding partner Rick Enos and Hawaii General Manager John Langan serving as hosts. The actual anniversary date is Jan. 15, but Enos said, "We're looking for all ex-employees and current employees to join us at 4 o'clock on the 14th and we'll toast with a margarita, or shot of tequila to the 20 years."
The restaurant will be open for service as usual, but no special identification will be required of former employees.
"I think that will police itself because people remember everybody," Enos said.
Besides, he laughed, "We have a secret handshake."
For employees who are working during the 4 to 6 p.m. party, there will be "something special afterward," Langan said.
The restaurant's former employees include radio personality Bobby Curran, of KKEA-AM 1420, who started at the restaurant as a bus boy.
"He moved up in the ranks and I'm not sure what his final position was, but he's quite a local legend here in the hospitality industry," said Langan.
One reason for the consistency with which Compadres has shown up in newsprint and on television and radio is publicist Elissa Josephsohn, who has been with the restaurant from the beginning.
Interior designer Jan Edwards, Bally General Manager Valerie Sylvester, restaurant industry types such as Greg Johnson of Indigo and Burd Patterson of Buca di Beppo and South Seas Harley-Davidson salesman Alfredo Villegas also did tours of duty at Compadres.
"Before I left I was a food server in section A," said Villegas, one of Compadres' original employees, serving under opening General Manager Kern Rogerson.
When he later opened his own restaurant called Jaron's, Rogerson told the crew he wanted to recreate Compadres' "unique combination of employees and family," Villegas said.
It is unusual for groups of employees to hold reunions, "especially in the restaurant industry that is famous for turnover ... we didn't have that. Everybody really supported everybody else and a lot of that had to do with the hiring that Rick Enos and the management focused on -- and I miss it," he said.
The Compadres crew traditionally gets together the first week of May, around Cinco de Mayo.
Villegas credits Compadres with helping to launch the Cinco de Mayo craze in Hawaii.
"I was one of the few Mexicans on the floor teaching little old Japanese ladies about Cinco de Mayo and how to do a shot of tequila," he chuckled.
Rick's Tequila Fountain of Pain will be fired up for service. "My employees and management named it that. We usually only do that for Cinco de Mayo. We get the gaudiest champagne fountain we can find and set the shot glasses out," Enos said.
Former employees will be treated to pupus and "goofy stuff" that Langan is planning.
"Tell the ex-employees I may have an apron and towel for them to jump back in. We may re-recruit them," he laughed.
Enos doesn't come to Hawaii as often as he used to and usually doesn't stay as long as he will this time. He also hopes to reconnect with other compadres he made through Compadres.
There are five Compadres locations, including Honolulu; Lahaina; Palo Alto, Calif.; Yountville (Napa Valley), Calif; and in the Piedmont area of Oakland, Calif. Compadres operates stands throughout San Francisco's PacBell Park, soon to be renamed SBC Park. Through a partnership with baseball Hall-of-Famer Orlando Cepeda, the company also operates Orlando's Caribbean BBQ at the ball park.
"We also do a little taqueria at Aloha Stadium during football season," Enos said.
"We're really very proud of our involvement in Hawaii. We started in Hawaii and we have a tremendous commitment to Hawaii. Compadres and "Aloha" -- all the meanings of the words are similar to a certain extent and we've tried to intertwine a lot of aloha in what we do," Enos said.
The original lease was for 20 years "and I always expected to be here 20 years," he said. General Growth Properties has different leasing policies so Compadres will re-up in chunks of five years.
"Here's to the next 20 years, five years at a time," Enos said.
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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