Cafe captures Tommy Bahama’s spirit

The power of a brand can be measured in how much it can repeat its success over different platforms.

If true believers like your clothing, why wouldn’t they like the accessories, the home furnishings, music, airline or hotel associated with your brand, your taste, your style?

TOMMY BAHAMA RESTAURANT

298 Beach Walk

Food ***

Service ****

Ambience ****

Value ***

Call: 923-8795

Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily

**** – excellent

*** – very good

** – average

* – below average

Tommy Bahama is one of those powerful lifestyle brands that makes it easy to envision what various aspects of the business might be like if they existed.

As the story goes, Tommy Bahama’s founders Tony Margolis, Bob Emfield and their wives dreamed about a lifestyle that entailed never leaving the beach. They created a character named Tommy Bahama in the 1980s and grew their brand by asking, “What would Tommy wear?” The trappings of his life transported shoppers to an island state of mind, in the same way that a souvenir from a vacation can whisk you back to a happy place while stuck in a dreary 9-to-5 existence at home.

Knowing nothing about Tommy Bahama restaurant, you’d probably envision a breezy, tropical, upscale-casual environment and food to match. And you’d be right.

The boutique opened on Beach Walk Avenue in Waikiki last month, along with a rooftop bar and second-floor restaurant with an interior reminiscent of stately Manoa homes. Its indoor-outdoor spaces and living walls of lush greenery embrace the notion of the ideal life being one that balances modern-day creature comforts and nature.

The restaurant, of course, is heavy on the creature-comfort aspect. As soon as you step into the dining room, your eyes will alight on the enticing dessert tray waiting at the top of the stairs. You’ll see the chocolate- and brulee-filled pineapple before you see the hostesses.

Another prominent feature of the dining room is its central bar, graced with a recycled glass countertop, the color of ocean shallows. Reclaimed monkeypod, mango and mahogany trees were used to produce all the outdoor tables.

Many clothing brands are able to branch out in compatible categories like accessories and jewelry, but few are able to make the leap to running a restaurant, which is a whole other beast. In a bit of magical thinking, I wished that clothing sales would defray the cost of a meal, but the reality is, more square footage equals more rent, so in some instances you will pay a Waikiki premium. The restaurant’s size, at 10,000 square feet, more than doubles the 4,200-square-foot retail space.

The menu might be thought of as Hawaii imagined by a band of outsiders catering to mainstream diners, with nothing too scary or challenging, unless you fear raw fish. Ahi is the go-to, stacked Napoleon style with a layer of avocado ($19) and piled into wonton-shell tacos ($17) that have a beautiful crunch, dressed with a light hand, with slaw and wasabi-avocado.

A recent dinner special featured a crudo trio ($24) of ahi, citrus-cured marlin and New Zealand king salmon, drizzled with olive oil and strewn with bits of parsley, celery leaves, onion and dill. Quite lovely if you can stomach sashimi with anything other than soy sauce and wasabi, or ponzu.

This is the kind of place where you can make a light meal of appetizers for lunch or dinner. In addition to the ahi dishes, there is a trio of seared scallop sliders with smoky chipotle aioli and slaw ($18) that gives it a good crunch, preventing the textures of the dinner roll and scallop from being too matchy-matchy.

Hamakua mushroom and apple flatbread ($17) with a splash of truffle oil brings a comfort element into fall. The dish is topped with goat cheese and lightened with lemon arugula.

Though thoroughly contemporary, you’ll find such throwback items as the restaurant’s famous crunchy coconut shrimp (in two sizes, $19.50/$14.50) and a mostly simple plating style involving the triumvirate of starch-meat- vegetable that preceded the nouvelle and Hawaii Regional Cuisine movements. The difference? The greens are better, and that “starch” might turn out to be green as well, whether a sweet potato or cauliflower mash.

While the main menu can seem rote and staid, nightly specials help keep things fresh, allowing the kitchen to veer from standard fare and get more creative, on both palate and plate. I loved a recent offering of fatty slow-roasted pork belly paired with juicy seared Hokkaido scallops and five-cheese fondue ($22).

By day you’ll find several burgers and sandwiches, including a kalua pork sandwich ($17) with a sweet mango-guava barbecue sauce that makes it taste more Southwestern than local. There’s also a beer-battered fish sandwich ($17.50) and all-American burger made with clean-tasting Hawai‘i Ranchers beef ($18). Only the Smokehouse Bacon Burger ($19.50) returns on the dinner menu, layered with sharp white cheddar, barbecue ketchup and garlic aioli. Served with fries, it’s yummy and filling enough to share.

The evening menu is heavy with meat, even when it comes to a char-grilled filet mignon salad ($23.50). At most places you’d get more greens than beef, but here the steak seems to dominate. And that serving of steak might be enough to satisfy a carnivore’s craving. Otherwise, it’ll cost you $41 to try the Maui Mokka coffee-crusted rib eye. Why anyone cares for this combination is beyond me, but luckily, the coffee’s graininess doesn’t interfere too much with the flavor of the Hawaii beef. This dish is accompanied by cauliflower-chive mash.

What I like about the menu is that they’ve also considered the needs of the gluten-sensitive and vegetarian, offering suggestions and a handful of special dishes for both parties. I was impressed by a dish of roasted seasonal vegetables ($24) with cauliflower, lemon arugula and protein source of a warm farro salad dotted with edamame. The nonvegetarian can spice it up with chicken or shrimp.

Desserts are a tropical dream. In addition to a triple chocolate cake ($8.50/ $12.50), there are pina colada cake ($8.50/$12.50) and key lime pie ($7/$11), but I gravitate toward the pineapple-Tahitian vanilla bean creme brulee ($11.50) with a surprise center of white chocolate mousse.

Bon voyage!

Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.