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KC Drive Inn set to
serve its last waffle
hot dogs today
Mention waffle hot dogs, and KC Drive Inn is the first thing that comes to mind. After today the specialty dish will be a memory like the restaurant, which served Honolulu for 70 years.
Fran Palama, a regular for 45 years, was at the restaurant yesterday taking pictures, and plans to have "the waffle hot dog with cheese and ono shake" after her husband flies up from Hilo today.
"For my own memory, for my own nostalgia, 'cause they're going to close down, and you're not going to be able to see all this mom-and-pop (business) anymore. Another part of history is down the toilet in Hawaii," she said.
There was no big announcement, no fanfare, just a notice on a yellow 8 1/2-by-11-inch sheet of paper taped to the glass door of the Kapahulu restaurant and another one above the takeout counter.
KC Drive Inn is closing its doors at 3 p.m. today.
The notice also thanks customers for their more than 70 years of patronage. It went up Tuesday.
"We didn't want to make a big deal. We just wanted to notify our customers," said Dayton Asato, general manager and son of one of the five siblings who own the restaurant.
Asato said the property will be sold and is in escrow, and his father, aunts and uncles wanted to close the restaurant by April and retire. He even stopped ordering some food and supplies, and worries he might run out early.
Business picked up after word got around of today's closing, so Asato has been busy working the cash register and waiting on and busing tables.
The restaurant has had a hard time keeping employees since the property was put up for sale, Asato said. He said there are 40 employees, including the owners' family members.
Asato noted that he has received inquiries about licensing the rights to the waffle dog.
Business was brisk yesterday afternoon at KC Drive Inn in Kapahulu. With today's shutdown approaching, managers described the restaurant as a "madhouse" in the last few days.
In 1981 the restaurant moved to 1029 Kapahulu Ave. after the lease on the Waikiki property expired. The family opened KC Drive Inns in other locations including Kailua, Manoa and at the old Holiday Mart in Kaheka, but they all closed.
Asato's five children also owned the Wisteria, a restaurant and bar at King and Piikoi streets known for its Japanese and American food. The Wisteria closed at the end of last year after 52 years of business.
Steve Shodai remembers going to KC Drive Inn when the restaurant was at its original location at Kalakaua Avenue and Ala Wai Boulevard in Waikiki.
Besides the waffle dogs, KC is known for its milkshakes with added peanut butter.
Shodai said he stopped eating the waffle dogs because of high cholesterol. He still eats another one of KC's unique menu items, the potato and macaroni salad with gravy.
As kids, sisters Lisa Matsunaga and Shelly Kawakami used to go to the Waikiki drive-in with their parents for KC's famous waffle hot dogs. They learned of the restaurant's closing yesterday when they took their own kids there for ... waffle dogs.
"It's kinda sad because they were around for a long time. I know that they used to own Wisteria, too, and that closed down," Matsunaga said.
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