The gauntlet of an unfounded rumor has Nobu Restaurants managing partner Richie Notar waxing a bit De Niro-esque, as in, “;you talkin' to me?”;

Actor Robert De Niro is a partner as is namesake chef Nobu Matsuhisa.

When rumors the restaurant would close came to a head last month, Notar was busy opening Nobu Dubai, No. 18, for the chain.

In the coming months, the company will show Honolulu just how intent it is to thrive at the Waikiki Parc Hotel.

Maybe it will throw a “;we're not closing party,”; he joked. “;And here's what we got and here's why we're not closing.”;

The East Coast point-making was not loud, but was very clear.

“;I certainly think there's a positive to every negative,”; he said.

Rumor-mongering about Nobu is akin to speaking ill of Notar's child.

“;I'm a Scorpio. I get offended - don't talk about my daughter that way,”; he said.

He doesn't know how it got started. “;I was really taken aback by this. I'm a little bit spoiled, because we have had so much success,”; Notar said.

“;It doesn't (always) happen overnight,”; as in Las Vegas, where Nobu is off the strip. It took a couple years but it is now one of the chain's most successful, he said.

“;I really have a big belief in the appreciation for food in Hawaii,”; where people are “;savvy and well-traveled and used to nice things,”; he said.

While in Waikiki, the company knows it cannot survive on visitors alone and needs to attract and keep kamaaina.

“;I wanted to always capture the local people there,”; he said.

“;Tourists are transient. They come, they go, the tourist flux is very dramatic ... I never wanted to be handcuffed to that too much.”;

Customers appreciate intimacy and, looking back, Notar might have made the restaurant smaller than its 200-plus seating capacity. The back room can be closed to make the space more intimate.

At the same time, “;nobody wants to come into a restaurant that's not full-on,”; he said. Nobu restaurants are known for exclusivity and being a tough reservation to get.

On a recent Saturday night, former Star-Bulletin Business Editor Ken Andrade found few guests in the restaurant, but his reservation was at 5:30 p.m. and “;it filled up rapidly.”; When he and his wife departed, around 7 or 7:30, “;people were waiting outside.”;

Now a business researcher and Web application developer, Andrade is “;leery of places that are hot in foodie circles, but this lived up to the rep(utation),”; he said.

“;I judge Japanese restaurants by quite a few dining experiences in Tokyo, and this didn't disappoint.”;

Notar says he “;sells experiences,”; and that he is in the “;behavior business.”;

“;Of course, we all know what we're going through ... maybe you're not buying a Gulfstream, but ... people still have to be celebratory.”;