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Recently I wrote about several Oahu restaurants that existed in the 1950s to 1980s. This generated more comments and email than any column I’ve written in the past year — for places that have been gone for over 40 years!
For instance, I wrote about Scotty’s Drive-In last week. It was one of the first places to sell french fries on Oahu. Three people wrote to tell me they had their first date or met their spouse there. I’ll write more about them next month.
A few weeks back I wrote about the restaurant at 747 Amana St. in the Pacific Grand condominium. It was formerly Mr. Christian’s and later was Palffy. Linda Sakuma could not remember the name of the gourmet Portuguese eatery that was there from about 1977 to 1985.
A dozen readers wrote with details. Ruth Sakai told me that “from the wellsprings of my husband’s steel-trap memory, the name of that restaurant, we believe, was Lisboa.
“I have a wonderful memory of not only the owner’s graciousness, but of the food. I chose a fish that was seasoned ‘a la Africa.’ It was the hottest chili I’d ever experienced. But I also had a sacher torte for dessert that hasn’t been matched since.
“Thank you to Linda Sakuma for triggering the memory of a wonderful food experience in Honolulu!”
Elizabeth and Anthony Borge say the owner and chef, Irwin Koval, would come to each table to describe his signature seafood stew, Caldeirada, which was made with clams, oysters, lobster, crab, fish, shrimp, scallops, Portuguese sausage, tomatoes, onions, parsley, mushrooms and wine. “He made it sound soooooo delicious, and once you had it you were hooked.”
“His escargots” — cooked with ham and Portuguese sausage in garlic, butter, wine and cream, and topped with fontina and Parmesan cheeses — “were also the best. We’d have two dozen between the two of us … plus the Caldeirada. Till today, 40 years later, no one on Oahu even comes close to Lisboa’s escargot.”
Roger Komori remembers chef Koval “coming to our table and regaling us with the delicacies in the seafood stew: clams from Manila, shrimp from Louisiana, mussels from Washington state, etc.”
“I went on a date there and didn’t have enough cash for the tip. I didn’t have credit cards back then, so I went to my car and emptied all the change from my car’s ashtray to come up with enough coins.”
Koval claimed the Portuguese were international spice traders who invented curry and introduced tempura to Japan.
Don Mackay told me that “Lisboa had the best paella I’ve had outside of Spain.”
Koval said his version was prepared from “the oldest known recipe in the world.” It was made with seafood, shellfish, sausage, chicken, meat, vegetables, cooked with onions, saffron, turmeric, peppers, and served on a bed of rice.
Louis Ripple concurs. “We had the best paella ever. Lisboa closed about September 1985. We were assured by the owner it would reopen on Kuhio Avenue. We are still waiting.”
Reader requests
I’ve received a number of new requests from readers in the past month.
Takeo Kudo wants to know the name of a small fish shop at the Ewa end of the ground floor in the McCully Shopping Center that he enjoyed around 1990. He thinks “Sunnyside” was in the name.
“They sold takeout lunches. The fried ahi belly was something to die for, and I can’t count the number of times I frequented that place. I took many friends there, and everyone (including visitors from Japan) raved about the food. Then one day it just disappeared(!), never to surface again … and I can’t find anyone who knows what happened.”
The shopping center staff were not around back then and couldn’t identify the place. Do any of my readers know any details?
Edwin Chu asked for help in remembering the name of the drive-in on Ward Avenue and Kawaiahao Street in the 1960s where Asahi Grill is located.
Michael Mochizuki asked about an elongated copper penny he has that says “Punahou Carnival 1977” along with the school seal. Does anyone have more information on this coin or the machine that makes it?
JoAnne Yamamoto asked if anyone remembers the TV kiddie show “Just Kids” with Chubby Roland. “It was a live broadcast from the KONA (now KHON) studio located off Ala Moana Boulevard.
“The show had local kids in funny-face contests, hula hoop and other competitions. My younger sister once won the funniest-face contest!”
Cynthia J. Larson told me she works near King Street and Kapiolani Boulevard.
”On the other side of my workplace is a miniwaterfall rock feature depicting a fisherman. Someone told me that long ago (in the 1700s) there was a stream nearby that ran from Punchbowl and flowed through Kakaako into the ocean. Early Hawaiians lived near the stream.”
Is the rock feature an homage to the fishermen and stream that once flowed in that area? she asked. Do any of my readers know?
Baron Ohta says he wonders about the significance of the brick steps in Ala Moana Beach park (near where Piikoi Street is). Did they once lead somewhere?
Bill (who preferred to remain anonymous) asked about something that would be politically incorrect today.
“Growing up, I saw over a hundred baseball games at the Honolulu Stadium. By far, the most interesting were two games in 1953 between white versus black Major League Baseball stars.
“The former was called Ed Lopat’s All-Stars, and the latter was named Roy Campanella’s All-Stars. Eddie Lopat was a famed Yankee pitcher. Roy Campanella, the popular Dodger catcher, led the black team.”
“Can you tell us more about a competition that could no longer be played in these PC days?” Bill asked.
I looked into it further. Hawaii has an interesting relationship with baseball in that Alexander Joy Cartwright Jr., who laid down the rules of modern baseball in 1845, moved to Hawaii four years later and lived the rest of his life here. Last week we celebrated the 198th anniversary of his birth.
One hundred years later baseball and sports were thriving in the islands. And many of the teams here were formed along racial lines. We had Japanese teams, Hawaiian teams, Chinese teams … You get the picture.
So the idea of a white team playing a black team was politically correct in 1953. Both these teams barnstormed the country in baseball’s offseason and mostly played against local all-stars.
Campanella’s team included such greats as Junior Gilliam (the National League rookie of the year), Don Newcombe and Joe Black.
Eddie Lopat’s team included Yankee catcher Yogi Berra, Billy Martin and Bob Lemon. Many of the players on both teams are now in the Hall of Fame.
Campanella’s All-Stars took the Honolulu Stadium series 2 games to 1 and left the islands to play in San Francisco. Lopat’s team traveled to the Big Island where it beat the Hilo All-Stars 8-3, then left to play games in Japan.
The newspapers’ sports sections covered the Honolulu three-game series extensively. I read all the details of the games, but not a word was written about the segregation of the teams along racial lines. In 1953, apparently, no one thought that was unusual.
Bob Sigall’s “The Companies We Keep 5” book contains stories from the last three years of Rearview Mirror. “The Companies We Keep 1 and 2” are also back in print. Email Sigall at Sigall@yahoo.com.
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