Just landed from a Las Vegas business trip with my husband where we saw two familiar Maui faces looming large on the Strip’s neon billboards: Willie Nelson & Family, highlighting six shows at The Venetian (just completed), and Mick Fleetwood and his iconic sideways ponytail, touting Fleetwood Mac’s final world tour concert coming up at T-Mobile Arena on Nov. 16.
I’d wager that Willie was having fun playing poker between gigs when he was on the “Ninth Island,” as Las Vegas is called. I was a guest at Willie’s Maui home a while back when he told me, “I have a hankering to get back out there. I’ve just got to sing ‘Whiskey River’ now and again.”
We did shots of tequila to toast his getting back “on the road again” and our late friend Jim Fuller, founder of Charley’s Restaurant & Saloon in Paia, where Willie’s Bigger Trigger guitar, gold records and other memorabilia are displayed.
On Maui, Willie’s son, Micah Nelson, aka “The Particle Kid,” will feel the beat in drum circles at the Hawaii Farmers Union United Statewide Convention on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Mahi Pono’s Community Farmlands on Cane Haul Road in Puunene. Other highlights include chef and ag discussion tents, dozens of speakers, food demos, live music and even campsites with hot showers. Micah also will entice at an acoustic jam with pals from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday at The Mill House in Waikapu for a related HFUU locavore feast. For more details or to register, visit hfuuhi.org.
MEAL DEALS IN WAILEA
It’ll cost way more than a Burger King combo, but if you’re craving a gourmet feast served in Wailea’s toniest restaurants, then you’ll get deep discounts today through Saturday in the popular biannual Restaurant Week Wailea dinner promo.
Maui Food Bank is the beneficiary, so hurry and pick up your smartphone to make reservations or jump online to opentable.com. That’s because seats fill up as fast as chef Hyrin Salaguinto of DUO can mix a chopped salad, smoked macadamia-nut mahimahi and flame Modern Bananas Foster at the upscale restaurant at Four Seasons Resort Maui.
“With the holidays approaching, the timing couldn’t be better, as Restaurant Week Wailea once again looks forward to assisting the Maui Food Bank during this time of need,” said Bud Pikrone, GM of Wailea Community Association.
Chef-inspired, three-course meals cost $29, $39, $49 or $59, depending on the restaurant. Beverages, taxes and gratuities are extra. Some restaurants create wine pairings at discounted prices, too.
In the $29 category, Manoli’s Pizza Co.’s chef Tasha Chung will feature house salad; entree choices of shrimp scampi, free-range chicken piccata or Hawaiian-honey pizza; and dessert of house tiramisu. Mulligans on the Blue will showcase a traditional Irish potato boxty (pancake) with smoked salmon and creme fresh or potato-leek soup, and entrees of vegan bangers and mash with olive-oil mashed spud, Gaelic steak in Jameson Irish whiskey sauce or poached St. Patrick’s salmon, all by chef Greg Mohn. Meanwhile, Mulligans’ sister restaurant, Fabiani’s, will produce a $29 meal by chef Oscar Vergara.
The only $39 meal is at The Pint & Cork by chef James Wilfong. For a complete list of the 20 participating restaurants and menus, visit restaurantweekwailea.com.
Also in Wailea, Spago Maui at Four Seasons Resort Maui has closed for an extensive renovation, with its grand reopening scheduled for before Thanksgiving. Legendary owner/chef Wolfgang Puck is expected to dazzle diners here with his deep and sexy Austrian accent, California-fusion fare, updated restaurant and oceanfront views during grand-reopening festivities.
Former Wailea restaurant people, chef Geno Sarmiento and manager Donny Abernathy, flew the coop from the Tri-Star Restaurant Group that encompasses Nick’s Fish Market, Manoli’s, Sarento’s on the Beach and Son’z at Swan Court, the latter in Kaanapali, back in June. Soon they’ll launch their own Kihei restaurant with another former Tri-Star employee.
“We go back 30 years,” said Ron Panzo, the third partner and also owner of Nalu’s South Shore Grill in Kihei. “We opened Nick’s in the Fairmont Kea Lani together. Now we’re launching Ekolu Kitchen 1279. ‘Ekolu’ is Hawaiian for ‘three,’ for the three partners. It’s targeted to open in mid-January in the former Shearwater Tavern space in Azeka Mauka in Kihei.”
Ekolu will be a dinner bistro with Kurobuta pork chops, baked fish, pastas and vegan options. It’s going to feel upscale with wine service and bar offerings but will be affordable. “After all, it’s in Kihei, and it will cater to a mainly local crowd,” added Panzo.
Also on the South Maui front, The Shops at Wailea just held the cutest little Keiki & Pet Halloween Costume Contest. The Shops at Wailea supports a different Maui nonprofit each month with a portion of the special-event parking fees donated to the selected charity. This event helped Women Helping Women, whose mission is to end domestic violence through advocacy, education and prevention and to offer safety, support and empowerment to women and children.
SPANNING THE ISLAND
Pat Simmons Jr. recently performed outdoors at the new Toohey’s Butchery and Bistro in Haiku. The Kokomo Road bistro is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. with live music on the weekends in what will soon be pegged “the beer garden.” For now it’s BYOB. The butchery portion is open daily and purveys fresh pork from Malama Farms in Haiku along with other fresh, organic and GMO-free meats.
Sometimes I like to save the best news for last. While it’s already been released in the press that the Mani Brothers Real Estate Group with hotels in Malibu and Napa Valley in California purchased the Travaasa Hana resort in late September, the big news for foodies is that its new executive chef will be none other than Jeff Scheer, who was formerly exec chef of The Mill House in Waikapu and, before that, owner of Maui Executive Catering in Haiku.
“I just love Hana, love it,” Scheer gushed in a phone interview. “The new owners’ goals and visions are on par with mine. I came out to Hana, and within two seconds I thought, yes, I can work here. Yet it’s a crazy transition. A new management company has yet to be announced, the hotel will change names. The kitchens have been renovated.
”It’s one of the most beautiful spots on the planet, and it’s a cool group, a cool crowd; the yoga room is packed all the time. In January we’ll be ready to rock with new menus and more.”
Veteran journalist Carla Tracy pops the cork on Maui’s dining and entertainment scene in her weekly column. Email her at carlatracy808@gmail.com.
