Kam Bowl comes back to life as a restaurant — in the former Kenny’s space.

If you read this aloud to old-timers and the kids and grandkids they took bowling at Kam Bowl, and who enjoyed Kapiolani Coffee Shop’s famous oxtail soup while there, you might hear a spontaneous “woo-TAH!” or similar exclamation when you get to this part: The new Kam Bowl restaurant will open in the former Kenny’s restaurant space.

“We always wanted to go back to Kalihi,” said Liko Mijo, president of Kam Bowl parent company LLM Pacific LLC, which has leased the former Kenny’s space where remodeling now is underway.

The bowling alley and restaurant were on property adjacent to Kamehameha Shopping Center, longtime home to Kenny’s, but had to vacate the parcel in 2007 to make way for Walgreens. Soon a banner trumpeting the coming of Kam Bowl will go up on the Likelike Highway side of Kenny’s, which closed in June.

Second-generation Kenny’s owner John Fujieki was dealing with health concerns, which led him to close the restaurant. He wanted a local operator, not a mainland chain, to go into the space, Mijo said, so “he’s happy, and we’re happy too, because we can still carry on his signature dishes, such as Kenny’s Eggs Benedict,” while Kam Bowl also will serve the legendary oxtail soup and more dishes familiar to customers of Kapiolani Coffee Shop and its more youthful sister restaurant, Asahi Grill.

“John’s a really nice person,” she said, and among the 30 employees hired for the new Kam Bowl restaurant, “we hired a lot of Kenny’s old-timers,” including four waitresses and three cooks.

During the old Kam Bowl days, Kapiolani Coffee Shop and Kenny’s were competitors.

“Maybe a long time ago … but as local people we try to survive with the same kinds of interests, and now we became friends,” Mijo said. “Why not?”

Mijo’s husband, Gary Mijo, often referred to as the founder of Kapiolani Coffee Shop, also is a partner in LLM along with other investors. Separately, Mijo owns Kapiolani Coffee Shop in Waimalu Shopping Center and the Asahi Grill location on Keeaumoku Street. He founded Asahi Grill on Ward Avenue and later sold that location.

Fujieki “felt like Kam Bowl was the perfect establishment for the place,” Mijo said, adding, “He’s been very helpful to us.”

The former Kenny’s space is 6,000 square feet, much larger than was the bowling alley restaurant.

Mijo likened his excitement about going into the Kalihi space to the anticipation of going to a 50th high school reunion. “You get excited, especially if there’s a girl you used to like,” he laughed. Mijo looks forward to “going back there, to continue the tradition.”

Fujieki insisted on a local operator “because it matches the customers in that area,” he said, “and so we felt that they’re an ideal mix, that they can take care of the local customers, plus others that come in,” he said. “They will take care of the needs of the community.”

Mijo bought the business in 1986, when it was operating next to the old Aloha Motors site on Kapiolani Boulevard, where the Hawai‘i Convention Center now stands. The owner Mijo bought the restaurant from had purchased it from a previous owner, who named it Kapiolani Coffee Shop based on its location.

“It’s been 75 years since the oxtail soup” first was prepared, he said. He kept the soup recipe, he kept the name, “I kept the bookkeeper, the insurance man, I kept the old dishes, everything,” he said with a laugh.

When they had to vacate that same year to make way for the convention center, “we moved to the bowling alley. (Customers) liked the feeling of the 1950s and 1960s,” he said, lamenting that he didn’t hang on to an old-fashioned Coca-Cola sign on a window from the old place.

The new Kam Bowl, named as an homage to the spot where Kapiolani Coffee Shop flourished, is tentatively set to open on about Dec. 20, but it could be in January, Mijo said, depending on the permitting process.

Once open, its hours of operation will be at least 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week, Liko Mijo said.

Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com, or on Twitter as @erikaengle.