International Market Place to house big-name eateries

Celebrated chef-restaurateurs Michael Mina and Roy Yamaguchi will open restaurants in the new International Market Place in Waikiki.

Of the 10 new restaurants planned, two are Mina’s creations.

STRIPSTEAK, an 8,600-square-foot restaurant, will be on the center’s third-floor lanai. Serving prime steak and imported Wagyu beef, the restaurant also will offer fish, seafood and seasonal produce.

This will be Mina’s first restaurant in Hawaii but his third STRIPSTEAK, which also is in Miami Beach and Las Vegas. Gazing at the stunning plating of the dishes on the restaurant’s website might put you into a dream state, not to mention make you hungry.

STRIPSTEAK “is a very upscale steakhouse, but in Michael’s way,” William Taubman, chief operating officer of Taubman Centers Inc., told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Taubman is developing the marketplace with San Francisco-based CoastWood Capital Group and Hawaii’s Queen Emma Land Co.

“It’s something much more contemporary, not the old-fashioned style (of steakhouse),” he said.

Mina also will introduce a 12,500-square-foot gourmet food hall called THE STREET, which will feature diverse food and beverage choices, from ramen to typical American street food, handcrafted cocktails and culinary souvenirs.

“I’ve been traveling to Hawaii for years and have fallen in love with its culture. I’ve been wanting to do a project there for a very long time,” Mina said in a news release.

His schedule was jam-packed, according to his director of public relations, so he could not be reached Tuesday.

Mina will be “curating” the food hall, said Taubman.

“The way he’s designed it, two-thirds to three-quarters of the offerings within the food hall will be his own, and then he’s found great local chefs … and world-class chefs to work with him” in the other spaces, Taubman said. “Some will rotate, so there will be new ideas coming in (and the food hall) will always seem fresh and new.”

“The thing is, Waikiki has such fabulous traffic, but there are really very few places to eat, and there will be no place to eat anything like what Michael’s going to do,” said Taubman. “Wonderful, healthy kinds of food … quicker and not quite as expensive as a full-line restaurant.”

Mina Group operates more than a dozen restaurant concepts with more than two dozen locations, including his namesake Michael Mina restaurants in San Francisco and Las Vegas, each of which has received a coveted Michelin star. The stars are awarded based on a stringent list of criteria and are awarded only in certain markets in Europe and the United States. Mina also has won a James Beard Foundation Award among many other industry accolades.

“Michael knows the market and has been offered dozens of opportunities in the past but never found anything he felt created the right upscale positioning” prior to the International Market Place, Taubman said.

Taubman’s centers are known for their luxury retail offerings, given “a heavy proliferation of upscale anchor tenants including Saks, Bloomingdale’s … and Nordstrom,” Taubman said.

Eating House to open

Roy Yamaguchi, Hawaii’s first James Beard Foundation Award winner, will open his third Eating House 1849 location at the new marketplace. The first opened on Kauai earlier this year, and he recently spoke with the Star-Advertiser about the second, set to open at Kapolei Commons in the spring.

Yamaguchi operates his eponymous Roy’s restaurant, focused on Hawaii regional cuisine, at several locations, including the nearby Waikiki Beach Walk. Eating House 1849 is a different concept that honors Hawaii’s multiethnic island culture in contemporary ways. The concepts and cooking styles are so different that he is not concerned about cannibalization of his customer base, he told TheBuzz.

“Our shoppers want … some combination of the best of the local with the best of the international concepts,” Taubman said, “and what’s more Hawaiian than Roy?”

More on the way

London-based Hakkasan Group also plans to open a restaurant at the marketplace, though just which of its concepts has yet to be announced. The company “has a number of restaurants around the world. … They’re extremely successful in London, Miami and other great cities around the world,” Taubman said.

Hakkasan, owned by an Abu Dhabi-based investment company, also operates nightclubs, something it calls ‘day clubs’ centered on swimming pools, and has hotel projects in development through a joint venture.

Marketplace developers do not plan to have a nightclub within the complex, Taubman said.

Other restaurants signed to open at the marketplace include Flour & Barley, a pizza restaurant led by executive chef Anthony Meidenbauer; Kona Grill; and local favorite Goma Tei Ramen, with others to be named over time, Taubman said.

Kona Grill will be the first Hawaii location for the Arizona-based chain. The more than 30 locations in the U.S. and abroad serve pulled-pork sliders made with kalua pork and Asian slaw, dishes served with Japanese, Chinese, Thai and other familiar-to-locals flavors; and the Hawaiian rib-eye steak marinated in teriyaki sauce and served with mashed potatoes, seasonal vegetables and a slice of grilled pineapple.

The new marketplace is set to open in August, anchored by Hawaii’s first full-line Saks Fifth Avenue. In addition to the 10 restaurants, the center will have about 75 retailers and offer 700 parking spaces and valet parking service.

“I think what we’ve put together creates something so unique and different” that it will be a major draw for local residents and visitors, Taubman said.

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