This week we take a culinary adventure to the moon and back. Fasten your seat belts. We’re blasting off.
The first Hilton hotel on the moon
Last week I wrote about the iconic Maile Room at the Kahala Hilton. Ruth Rittmeister wrote and told me about their most unusual International Night: “A Night on the Moon”!
Rittmeister was the person who came up with the idea for these events. They went from one evening to become weeklong events every other month, celebrating the food, music and entertainment of such places as Israel, Ireland, Thailand, Scandinavia, Portugal and France.
Rittmeister emceed the shows for nearly seven years. She works in the travel industry (A Touch of Class Travel) and had her own TV show on Channel 13 in the 1960s called “This Wonderful World.”
She traveled all over the globe and met many popular entertainers, “so, it occurred to me to bring some of them to Hawaii. The airlines did great things, which seem unbelievable today. They flew all the entertainers and props to Honolulu for free!”
“One time I did not have a country to feature,” Rittmeister told me, “so I contacted an old acquaintance, one of the original Apollo astronauts, Walt Cunningham, and asked if he could help me with ‘A Night on the Moon.’
“And he did come through. It was quite a success. He even sent a mock-up of a small space capsule. The hotel had special room keys made for the first Hilton Hotel on the moon. Every guest that night got one as a souvenir.”
Honolulu Advertiser columnist Wayne Harada called the dinner “Lunar lunacy at its wildest” and said the event was a giant leap for mankind in the imagination department. This was a mere five months after our first moon landing in 1969.
Waitresses wore black-and-silver moon-maiden outfits with plastic antennae. University of Hawaii dancers frolicked in outlandish costumes, as if in a Fellini movie, taking “passengers” on a simulated trip to the moon.
The futuristic decor included miniplanets with Saturn-like rings, spacesuits and photos of outer space.
The buffet dinner cost $7.50 and included green cheese as well as salads, appetizers and such terrestrial entrees as sashimi, knockwurst, salmon, sukiyaki, roast beef, chicken popiara and out- of-this-world desserts. The cocktail of the evening, of course, was a special moonshine!
Smorgasbord
Nake‘u Awai asked me recently about the old Waikiki Sands, located where the police substation is today on Kuhio Beach. He wondered whether it was the first to have a smorgasbord — a Swedish buffet — in Hawaii.
The Waikiki Sands smorgasbord was an all-you-can-eat affair with a Polynesian floor show. It was owned by Ruddy Tongg, who was a founder of Aloha Airlines. It was there from about 1954 to 1960. Dinner was $1.25.
Smorgasbords became popular in the U.S. in the 1930s, and by 1941 readers wrote into the newspaper, asking whether there were any in Hawaii.
The earliest local smorgasbord I could find was put on one evening by Queen’s Hospital in 1942 for 150 servicemen and 150 employees of the hospital during World War II.
There was music, singing and hula after the Swedish smorgasbord-style supper. It was an event that was repeated a few times.
The first permanent smorgasbord restaurant in Hawaii was Petrows Honolulu Tea Shoppes in the Na Pua Hotel, at 1030 S. King St., in 1944. That’s across from McKinley High, where Longs Drugs is now.
After World War II it moved to the Colonial Hotel, 1447 Pensacola St. Petrows said it was new to Hawaii but was founded on the mainland in 1904.
Customers ordered off a menu (sirloin of beef, creamed salmon, pork chops, mixed grill, chicken a la king), then helped themselves to the “famous smorgasbord, consisting of a variety of canapes, hors d’oeuvres, salads and relishes.” It cost $1 for lunch and $1.50 for dinner and included beverage and dessert.
Many of you probably remember Perry Boys Smorgy at Kuhio Avenue and Kanekapolei Street in Waikiki. It opened in 1964.
Coleman Perry founded the chain in 1961 in Fresno, Calif., and named it for himself and his sons, Mark and Reese. It cost $1 for lunch and $1.95 for dinner. Their buffet offered 30 different choices every day.
They had several in Waikiki, but all were closed by 2010.
Tin Tin
Several readers wrote about Tin Tin Chop Suey at 1110 Maunakea St. It was open until 2 a.m. (3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays) and served generous portions. It was there from about 1951 to 1985.
Skip Lambert said his dad and he used to patronize it after a day on horseback in Kahana Valley.
“It had amazing food, zero ambience and an eclectic customer base that included cops, strippers from Club Hubba Hubba, taxi drivers, Chinatown gamblers and their bodyguards, and political figures.”
Kendrick Lee says he attended UH from 1970 to 1975. “We used to frequent Tin Tin because it stayed open late, gave huge portions and was cheap as hell — all very important to a broke, starving college kid.”
Sampan Inn
JoAnne Yamamoto asked me about a hole-in-the-wall restaurant where the sampan fleet docked. Fishermen and other local folks enjoyed the simple home-style cooking at the Sampan Inn, which was on the Diamond Head side of Kewalo Basin from about 1951 to 1968.
A 1955 newspaper article says it had a counter with four stools and two tables. The owner was Walter Miyashiro.
Mike Hamm wrote, “Back in 1960, at the age of 12 years old, I took my parents to dinner at the Sampan Inn.
“I delivered newspapers for the Star-Bulletin and used my earnings to take my parents out one night. It was a treat to eat at the Sampan Inn, because for $5, for a family of three, we had T-bone steaks with dessert. Back then a T-bone steak was a real treat.”
Yoshiko Kitagawa
Eddie Flores wrote to tell me that Yoshiko Kitagawa, who sold L&L Drive-in to him for $22,000 in 1976, died last month. She was 99. Kitagawa was the third owner of L&L in Liliha. Flores is the fourth. Flores says she was ”the kindest person I ever met.”
Kau Kau Korner
In November I wrote about Sunny Sundstrom’s Kau Kau Korner, which preceded Coco’s on the Kalakaua Avenue and Kapiolani Boulevard site.
Peter Clark told me his mom used to take him there when he was 3 years old in 1940. He had trouble pronouncing the name.
“I’d tell her I wanted to go to ‘Tau Tau Torner’ and get a ‘Tota-Toa’ (Coca-Cola). THOSE WERE THE DAYS!!!”
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!
