CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Food critics' negative reviews actually seem to have helped the new restaurant at Ward Centre, E&O Trading Co., says its general manager, Sean "Keoni" Craig, shown Friday at the entrance to the Southeast Asian restaurant.

Sean Craig finds
he is well suited
to restaurant life

Sean "Keoni" Craig » Has been appointed general manager of E&O Trading Co., a new restaurant at Ward Centre that opened March 5. » Previously was a food and beverage consultant. » Has held management positions at Koolau Catering Partners, Dave & Busters, Jaron's on Hamakua, Legends in Concert and the Hawaii Prince Hotel Waikiki. » Age: 38

Question: How did you get the job?

Answer: I was originally hired as assistant general manager back in December. They had opened in Larkspur, Calif., north of San Francisco. They asked me if I wouldn't mind opening that store. During my tenure there, the owners of the company decided that what I was doing over there, acting general manager, was something I should do here. I came back Feb. 1. It was a good way for me to test the company and see what they were all about and have to offer.

Q: When did you get into the industry?

A: I first got into the industry back in 1989. I was working as a bartender -- a bartender, food server, cocktail thing at Horseman's Restaurant at Ward Warehouse. When I was managing at the Hawaii Prince Hotel Waikiki, as assistant housekeeping manager, this was back in 1992, when they were doing cutbacks at the time, they had offered me an F&B position. And so as soon as they did the cutbacks, rather than losing my job, the general manager said, "Why don't you take this opportunity to get into food and beverage?" Soon I was running three of their restaurants. So it was a very fast transition.

Q: What's kept you in food and beverage?

A: Honestly, it's the fact that every day's a different day. You never deal with the same thing day to day. You have to be very passionate about this job; it's an extremely demanding field to be in. I'm not really a day person per se, so working the long hours into the evenings, its right up my alley.

Q: What other food and beverage places have you opened?

A: One of them was a local bar. They had some transition and were kind of establishing their guidelines. They didn't have an employee handbook or training, and the last place I worked with was a place called Sushi Kai in Kailua. A couple friends asked me to help them out. Being it was a sushi bar, they wanted Japanese-style service, and I had experience from the Prince hotel.

Q: What kind of customer feedback are you getting?

A: To be really honest with you, the ironic part about the whole experience here is it has been extremely positive. Unfortunately we have been hit by a lot of critics, but the guests who have been coming in here have said, "We read the review and we don't believe it." We've had nothing but really great results when it comes to our guests. Building our business has been word of mouth. The bad press that we have been getting has been working for us.

Our whole thing is we can bring in all these flavors in Southeast Asia under one roof without having to infuse anything. If you like Thai, Japanese or Korean food, we have a lot of different flavors that can hit your palate.

Q: Any plans for immediate changes?

A: Of course, just to make it the best restaurant we can be in Honolulu. We're doing sales and marketing, making sure people know what E&O has to offer. Now that we've gone through the honeymoon phase, we want to make sure the staff is keeping up with what they've learned. We're doing a menu change shortly. We're adding a few items on the menu, changing a few things that haven't worked in the past. We also started live music Thursday, live jazz. We're also looking at Maui for our next restaurant. We're looking at opening probably in late October in the cannery in Lahaina.