Some people can go to the same restaurants week after week, sticking to a handful of favorite dishes, whether it’s a pork cutlet or acai bowl.
I’m not one of those people. The same-old has always bored me and I gravitate toward the new and different.
Except … There was a period in my life, after moving back into Honolulu from Kailua around 2005, that my husband and I spent almost every weekend at the Pavilion Cafe at what was then the Honolulu Academy of Arts (now Honolulu Museum of Art). Each time we’d order the same things. I would get the Anaheim chili with capers and anchovies, and he would get the Nicoise salad.
Things change.
Our favorite dishes came off the menu in 2013, when the cafe was renamed Honolulu Museum of Art Cafe. It was just as well, because my husband died the same year and I no longer had my art buddy for museum visits.
Some things can’t be resurrected, but the many who also saw their favorite dishes disappear from the menu will be elated to see some of them — including my favorite! — back this month, in celebration of the cafe’s 50th anniversary.
THE GARDEN Cafe served its first guests on Oct. 22, 1969, when, according to a story written by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin’s Lois Taylor, 48 women paid $5 for a fashion show luncheon (the regular price of a two-course lunch after this special event would be $1.50). She warned, “Be kind to your waitress. She may be your husband’s boss’s wife.”
That’s because the cafe was started by the Academy Volunteers Council, comprising wives of prominent CEOs and business and civic leaders.
On the menu that day: asparagus puree sandwich on white bread, pate sandwich on rye, and chicken salad on whole wheat. A relish tray featured curried hard-boiled eggs, celery, peppers, marinated beets, olives and mandarin oranges in French dressing. For dessert, there was vanilla ice cream or watermelon sherbet served with a tray of chocolate and raspberry sauces and chopped candied ginger.
Taylor wrote that the guests agreed the cafe would be a regular lunch stop, because, one said, “Where else can you contemplate a Van Gogh or Whistler or a Picasso while waiting for a ham sandwich?”
And so it has been for five decades of art lovers seeking afternoon respite.
The six returning dishes date from 1997 to 2001. Cafe supervisor Chris Murphy said each of the dishes has its own contingent of fans, who haven’t forgotten them over the years and have often requested a comeback.
HoMA Cafe chef Ben Abes was in the kitchen back then working under other bosses, so he remembers the dishes well. To the enjoyment of longtime fans, he is able to reproduce them faithfully.
I was all smiles as I bit into those Anaheim peppers ($18) for the first time in six years. Originally introduced in 2000, they tasted exactly as I remembered them, which is to say, not for everyone. In fact, I believe most people will think it’s a scary dish, the blistered peppers drenched in olive oil and flavored with a potent combination of capers, garlic and salty anchovies, bold flavors straight from the Mediterranean as introduced by Mike Nevin, who, prior to arriving at the museum, owned the Italian restaurant Il Fresco at Ward Centre.
The Nicoise salad, from 2001, was also very familiar. Seared coriander-crusted ahi is served over greens drizzled with a roasted shallot vinaigrette. Its replacement these days is a pepper-crusted seared ahi salad ($22) served over Waipoli greens with baby arugula, diced avocado, papaya and Hauula tomatoes, with a papaya seed dressing.
Under manager Joshua Hancock, and looking forward to the next 50 years, the cafe has made sustainability a priority, earning the Surfrider Foundation’s Ocean-Friendly Restaurant certification for such eco-friendly practices as cutting down on plastics by using sustainable packaging materials and metal straws. There’s also more focus on vegetarian- and vegan-friendly options, and an emphasis on locally sourced ingredients.
During the month, each guest will go home with a recipe card featuring the cafe’s 50-year-old recipe for Cafe Chocolate Sauce.
The most popular of the dishes making this month’s comeback are a white bean salad introduced in 2001 ($18) on arugula and radicchio; a feta, tapenade and Hauula tomato salad sandwich ($18), and an Oriental chicken salad, introduced in 1997, before that designation became politically incorrect. (New York State banned “Oriental” from state documents in 2009.)
For large appetites, an herb-roasted chicken half is served over pesto pasta ($22), also back from the year 2001.
What’s interesting is the throwback dishes fit in seamlessly with the contemporary menu. Ingredients may have changed to reflect today’s sustainability efforts, but the focus remains on a clean, spare elegance that has characterized the cafe from Day One.
HONOLULU MUSEUM OF ART CAFE
900 S. Beretania St.
>> Call: 532-8700
>> Hours: 11 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays
>> Admission: Free to dine at cafe. Pay $20 if you wish to visit the galleries during your visit.
>> Prices: Lunch about $35 to $45 for two
A 1969 Honolulu Star-Bulletin article quoted cafe volunteers as saying their recipes were “stolen, gifts or made up.”
The article included this sandwich from the cafe’s opening menu:
GARDEN CAFE SHRIMP SANDWICH FILLING
By the Honolulu Museum of Art
2 cups chopped cooked shrimp
2 cups chopped celery (5 to 6 stalks)
1 cup diced sweet onion (1 large)
Scant 1/4 cup French dressing
1-3/4 cups mayonnaise
4 tablespoons lemon juice (2 lemons), if needed
2 teaspoons Ajinomoto (MSG)
1/2 cup EACH chopped parsley and chives
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
Salt, to taste
Combine ingredients. Serve filling on bread covered in thin coat of butter. Add a watercress sprig.
Makes enough for 30 sandwiches.
Nutritional information unavailable.
Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.
