Flamingo Kapiolani restaurant at 871 Kapiolani Blvd. will close its doors for good on Sunday.

It has been open since 1959, nearly 50 years, said co-owner and Vice President Jean Shimabukuro.

Local Eatery Closes Its Doors

 

Famous local eatery Flamingos on Kapiolani Boulevard will close its doors after over 45 years.

 

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“;We will definitely be closing on Sunday,”; as it has to clean up and vacate the property by the end of the month according to the notice it filed with the landowner last month.

Shimabukuro and other family members had found a buyer, but the deal was dependent upon the new buyer reaching a lease agreement with the landowner, which did not happen.

The restaurant had been on a month-to-month lease, she said.

“;I liked Flamingo,”; said landowner Carlton Kusunoki. His Kapiolani Dragon LLC owns two parcels totaling about 22,000 square feet on Kapiolani Boulevard.

The terms proposed by the prospective buyers did not make business sense for Kusunoki, he said. He offered a counterproposal, “;and they sent it back with the same terms”; as were in the original proposal.

“;I don't have any plans for (the space), I'm not developing it. ... I'm going to explore other options. I'm open to a sale or lease,”; he said.

The restaurant is about 3,900 square feet and had been a frequent stop for 30 years for retired construction worker Alan Kida of Aiea.

He used to live in town but, after moving to Aiea, continued to frequent the Kapiolani location when in Honolulu. “;I used to eat at all the Flamingos,”; he said, including the former Waipahu location.

“;It's really sad to hear they're going to close. It's one of my favorite places. All the people we meet, we always bring them to Flamingo to introduce them to the place,”; he said. He was a regular for breakfast, lunch or dinner three or four times a week, he said.

Given the recent economic downturn, he would sometimes find the place not as crowded as he expected. “;I always ask the waitresses how things are, because I used to work. ... I knew what it was like to have slow periods.”;

“;We started to see prices creep up, and we understood the reason. ... Everything went up — flour, sugar, everything ... but we still went,”; Kida said.

His friend Glen Okano, a Realtor with Hawaii Realty Associates, has Flamingo memories that go back 50 years, to his childhood.

“;I remember distinctly their Ala Moana location,”; Cafe Flamingo. “;What I distinctly remember as a child was their beef teriyaki plate and the pork chops were very excellent. ... I never forgot. That really sticks out in my mind.”;

He is sad about the closing. “;It is like a part of your family because you grew up with these local places, these eateries, yeah?”;

Flamingo Kapiolani is the last restaurant under the Nagamine family-owned Flamingo Enterprises Inc., established in 1950 by patriarch Steven Nagamine.

Its Windward City Shopping Center location closed July 22, 2007, after 20 years in business. Its lease had expired the previous month, and extending the lease to continue operating the restaurant did not make business sense, the family said at the time.

Flamingo Pearl City will remain open and has 12 years remaining on its lease.

“;Flamingo Pearl City is a partnership,”; Shimabukuro said, majority-owned by the family but co-owned by some employees.

“;It's bigger than Kapiolani. It has a party room,”; she said.

After Sunday the Pearl City site will be the only spot on Oahu to serve the restaurant's signature double-crusted banana pie, its oxtail soup or other favorites.

As happens with many family businesses, the third generation will not be taking the reins, Shimabukuro said last year.

The Kapiolani location has 37 employees, who have long known the company's plans, she said. She planned to notify the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations of the impending closing yesterday afternoon.

The Windward location employed 52 workers at its closing. It opened in 1987 with many of the same employees who had worked for the Nagamines at Cafe Flamingo. That restaurant lost its lease after 37 years of operation and was torn down to make way for Restaurant Row.

Somewhere in the family restaurant chain's history, there was a Flamingo Royal Lanai at 2254 Kalakaua Ave. A Star-Bulletin reader once requested a recipe for the Thousand Island salad dressing it served, reflecting the fondness with which diners remember such venues.

Flamingo Chuckwagon, formerly the Elliot Chuckwagon, was renamed when the Nagamine family bought it in 1967. It put the restaurant on the market in November 1997 hoping to pay down debt but closed in October 1998, unable to find a buyer.