Two highly anticipated restaurant openings, that is -- in a town that has seen far too little restaurant activity of late. My friend John Heckathorn (who somehow juggles multiple gigs including Editor of Hawaii Magazine, food critic for Honolulu Magazine, a radio show, and a weekly three-dot column for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin) gave a glimpse of what's cooking at the new Stage Restaurant, a soon to open high-end eatery in the newly opened and quite impressive Honolulu Design Center.
The crew looks like a reunion of the personnel who've left Alan Wong's over the years. In addition to chef Jon Matsubara, who briefly worked for Wong, there's general manager Charlie Yoshida, who opened King Street for Wong, operations manager Scott Armstrong, and perhaps the prize catch, celebrated pastry chef Mark Okumura.(Note to Stage Restaurant PR reps -- Hawaiiama was NOT on the guest list for that media preview. Sniff sniff)
At any rate, Heckathorn went on to say that the kitchen was already turning out excellent edibles despite the fact that it only became functional the day of the media preview. Pretty impressive. Along with the upcoming opening of Cassis, Chef Mavro's artful move down market in the increasingly hopping downtown district, Honolulu's restaurant scene is looking a lot more lively. (Note: Cassis is already up and running on OpenTable.com) And need we say Nobu? ;) Stay tuned on that note.
Related Posts: Alan Wong's NextGen Dinner
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