Recently, Freddy Rodriguez asked about the Maile Room restaurant that used to be at the Kahala hotel.
“My brother in-law is a manager at the hotel, and he told me that a lot of people loved the Maile Room. He wishes he knew more about it.
“I am also curious about any other information you can find about what was there before the hotel.”
I’ve written about the Kahala Resort before, but not the Maile Room specifically, so I appreciate the question.
Waialae is a historic place. Kamehameha’s warriors are believed to have landed there when they attacked Oahu in 1795. A century later the area was a famous ranch owned by Paul Isenberg. He threw lavish parties with King Kalakaua as a frequent guest.
On one occasion the king wrote a song, “Waialae,” for the host, called “Paulo” by Hawaiians. Isenberg had a beautiful baritone voice and was often asked to sing the song.
Later the ranch was leased by Dairymen’s and then Meadow Gold from the Bishop Estate. The Royal Hawaiian Hotel built a golf course there in 1927 that evolved into the prestigious Waialae Country Club.
Local developer Charlie Pietsch and hotel magnate Conrad Hilton teamed up to open the Kahala Hilton in January 1964, just five years after statehood. Their idea was something as elegant as the Halekulani, near but not in Waikiki.
The hotel was spacious, light and airy, set in a tropical garden, with a white-sand beach on one side and a waterfall-fed lagoon on another. It had a magnificent, grand lobby with 30-foot-high ceilings. Room rates began around $22 a night.
A marble bridge spanning a flowing stream led to the Maile Room, the Kahala Hilton’s signature restaurant. It quickly became one of the top restaurants in Hawaii. The executive chef for 18 years was Martin Wyss.
It took a while for visitors to embrace the hotel. Former marketing manager Jane Tatibouet told me she would turn guest room lights on at night so nearby residents would think the hotel was more occupied and popular than it was.
One marketing tactic the Maile Room employed was to have a Night in Thailand, Paris, Germany, Mexico, Ireland, Hong Kong, France, Portugal, Greece, Scandinavia and other countries every two months.
These events would feature food from those faraway places and musicians, singers and dancers from there as well. The public loved it and these nights became weeklong events.
Aina Haina residents Alice and Jerry Tucker made a point of going to as many of those special dinners as they could. “They were truly memorable,” Alice said. “The menu was glorious, but every time (except those special cuisine nights) I was there, I’d go back to my favorite, duck with orange and lilikoi sauce. It was divine!”
Other popular regular menu items included Lobster in the Moon (brandy-flavored, served in a puff pastry, $6), shish kebab, flambeed in Armagnac, $6.75, and French-cut lamb chops Castellana, $5.50.
“Oh, that marvelous, marvelous place!” Alice Tucker continued. “Immediately, I think of the adorable Charlene ‘Charlie’ Goodness, the Maile Room manager.
“She greeted everyone like they were royalty or her long-lost relatives, and that set such a pleasant tone to the entire evening. The food was splendid, of course, but the whole ambience of the place was totally classy!”
“Charlie” set the standard for gracious style, uncompromising quality and impeccable service.
The University of Hawaii travel industry management graduate began at the Kahala as a bell desk clerk. Her work focused on luggage and laundry. She moved up to waitress, wine steward, assistant manager and finally manager while still in her 20s. She felt that “every patron should feel like a guest of honor.”
“The Maile is like a beautiful woman who must keep her admirers interested,” she said.
“When the Kahala Hilton opened,” Tucker continued, “a noteworthy introduction to our palates was — ta da! — lavash. That was their signature bread, just as naan was the signature bread of The Third Floor restaurant. Everyone was raving about lavash!”
Star-Bulletin food editor June Crosby put the recipe for this cracker in her weekly column. “I used it for decades,” Tucker said. “My kids adored it and would gobble it up like candy.
“The original recipe included sesame seeds and poppy seeds. They’re not inexpensive, so the local bakeries that started baking lavash omitted first the poppy seeds and then the sesame seeds.
“The stuff that restaurants and grocery stores provide as lavash nowadays is nothing like the original. At any rate, the Kahala Hilton brought lavash to Hawaii.”
The background story on this unleavened bread is interesting. The recipe took months to perfect and was not a winner at first. But soon they got it right and then had trouble keeping up with demand.
Larry Price remembers that when he was new to KGMB radio in the late 1970s, Hal “Aku” Lewis used to take him out at night and train him.
“He called me ‘Kid’ all the time. For a former football coach to be called ‘Kid’ by a failed violinist, it used to (tick) me off. He’d say, ‘Kid, you’re going with me to the Kahala tonight.’
“He’d have a beautiful girl on his arm, and we’d go down to the Maile Room and he’d try to teach me how to behave in public. We’d go out once a week, kind of like a class. He’d say, ‘Act like you own the place.’
“The other thing he told me: ‘Never go on time.’ He’d say, ‘Meet me at 7 o’clock.’ I’d be there at a quarter to 7. He’d say, ‘If I tell you 7, that means we’re going to walk in around 20 after so that they’re all looking for us.’
“I said, ‘If I come in 20 minutes late, I’m going to crawl in.’ He said, ‘Kid, don’t look at the ground. Look up.’”
Executive Chef Martin Wyss married Jeanie Fujii, the head waitress at the Maile Room, former Aaron’s maitre d’ Skip Lambert recalls. They left the Kahala in 1982 and took over the Sty restaurant in Niu Valley.
They turned their Swiss Inn into an iconic neighborhood restaurant that prospered for many years, Lambert says. Martin ran the kitchen, and Jeanie was the front of the house.
“We’re located several miles away from the tourist district,” Wyss said, “so most of our business comes from islanders. Many of them cannot afford the high cost of dining at fancy restaurants, so we try to serve them good basic food at a reasonable price.”
He specialized in Veal Zurichoise, Wienerschnitzel, Trout Caprice, Scallops Madagascar, osso bucco, most served with rosti potatoes. Yum!
The Wysses retired in 2000. The Kahala renovated in 1995 and replaced the Maile Room with Hoku’s.
The Swiss Inn “house” salad dressing lives on, available at Foodland, Times and Tamura’s markets.
KAHALA HILTON LAVASH
3-2/3 cup bread flour
1-1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp sugar
1/4 cup shortening
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 cup milk
Sift together, in a bowl, the flour, sugar and salt. Work in the shortening and then the slightly beaten egg with milk. Let the firm dough stand for 30 minutes.
Roll it out very thin, 1/8 inch. Sprinkle a large sheet pan with roasted sesame seeds, place the sheet of dough on top of the seeds. Sprinkle the top of the dough with poppy seeds. Bake in a 375-degree oven for 15 minutes. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container.
Nutritional information unavailable.
The Rearview Mirror Insider is Bob Sigall’s weekly email that gives readers behind-the-scenes background, stories that wouldn’t fit in the column, and lots of interesting details. My Insider “posse” gives me ideas for stories and personal experiences that enrich the column. I invite you to join in and be an Insider at RearviewMirrorInsider.com. Mahalo!
