Olive Garden plans excite breadstick and pasta lovers

Olive Garden is finally engaged in actual lease negotiations, versus vaporous rumors of talks, for its first Hawaii location, the MacNaughton Group confirmed Tuesday.

MacNaughton is expanding Kapolei Commons, anchored by Target, at Kapolei Parkway near Kalaeloa Boulevard, which could be the first of multiple possible locations.

Hawaii residents who don’t get to travel to the mainland have endured seeming decades of torturous talk about never-ending soup and salad with breadsticks that appear on television to be cloud-soft, not to mention the images of salivation-engendering pasta and other dishes.

This column has provided regular updates on the Florida-based restaurant chain’s parent company since the early 2000s, with, until now, the deflating news that no plans were in the offing.

"Darden Restaurants Inc. does extensive research in its site selection process, including demo­graph­ics, traffic counts, site size, trade area size, market size, growth patterns, etc.," said Real Estate Coordinator Dottie Morgan in 2009.

"At this time we have not identified Hawaii as an area of expansion for any of our concepts, however we will continue to monitor this area for possible future expansion," she said back then.

My, how things change. As the lease is not yet settled, there is no firm opening date, nor are other details available.

2 TO BID ADIEU

Tourism industry heavy hitter Marsha Wienert is about to leave her position as regional director of public relations for Starwood Hotels & Resorts in Hawaii.

Enthusiastically she said, "I’m actually moving back to Maui," which has been her home since 1972 after moving there from Oregon.

Wienert will continue on with Starwood for a couple weeks, working from the Westin Maui with the same contact information including phone and email.

As for Oahu, "it has been a pleasure to be here," she said. Nevertheless, "my heart’s always been on Maui."

For 7 1⁄2 years before joining Starwood, she was the state’s tourism liaison under former Gov. Linda Lingle and previously was executive director of the Maui Visitors Bureau.

Husband John moved back to Maui after the Lingle administration job ended, and she’s eager to be home seven days a week.

She will be looking for work, but "I’m not going to rush into anything until I find that perfect thing," she said. In the meantime they’ve just added on to their home, and "I have some landscaping to do, and I have to empty some boxes," she said.

Separately, this Aloha Friday, Keoni Wagner will bid aloha to Hawaiian Airlines, his employer since 1988.

He started in the marketing department and worked his way up to vice president for public affairs, and for most of the past 25 years, he has been the go-to guy for media contact any time the airline has made news.

Wagner says he’s not ready to announce his next position yet.

YOUR NAME HERE

The often cute and silly, sometimes all-knowing dog in the advertising for City Mill Co. Ltd. is missing something.

A name.

You can help and maybe gain something for your effort via the company’s "Name the City Mill Dog" contest from July 1 through 14, which will play out on the company’s Facebook page, where one entry will be accepted per person.

No purchase is necessary, but a Facebook page is and those are free to set up.

At the stores, stickers will be distributed to customers to promote the contest.

The winner, to be announced July 26, will receive a $100 City Mill gift card, a life-size cutout of the doggie and see the winning name they submitted in advertising.

The dog is part of the animated family introduced in this very space in 2007, which has engaged in indoor home improvement and outdoor family activities as a way to help the 114-year-old Hawaii-based City Mill ply its wares in a fun and engaging way.

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