This week I thought I’d write about two noteworthy Oahu restaurants that have passed into our rearview mirrors.

Haiku Gardens

Ken Takeya told me his great-uncle George Ing had a Kapahulu plant rental company, Nursery Associates, that was displaced by building the H-1 freeway. He moved to Kaneohe and later opened Haiku Gardens in Kaneohe.

The area has an interesting history. Sixteen acres were once owned by Edwin Baskerville, and the area was called Baskerville Springs.

It later became a private estate owned by Wilhelmina Tenney.

Wilhelmina Rise, known as Paina (“crackle”) to ancient Hawaiians, was named for Wilhelmina Tenney, daughter of Edward Tenney, onetime president of Castle & Cooke, according to “Place Names of Hawaii.”

Edward Tenney was associated with the Matson Navigation Co., so many of the rise’s streets were named for the fleet’s ships. Among them: Matsonia, Lurline, Mari- posa and Monterey drives.

Following her death in 1951, Tenney’s estate was turned into a nursery by botanist John Dominis Holt IV, landscape architect James Boyd MacKenzie and King W. Chapman, a Honolulu insurance executive. The three men called it Haiku Gardens.

Holt was a descendant of John Dominis, consort of Queen Lili‘uokalani. Mac- Kenzie was a descendant of Archibald Cleghorn, the father of Princess Ka‘iulani.

MacKenzie’s grandfather James A. Boyd had owned all of Maunawili and introduced the first bird of paradise plants to Hawaii in 1884.

The bird of paradise was native to South Africa and propagated by the Duke of Bedford. Boyd accompanied Queen Kapiolani to England for Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee, and they met the duke there.

The Duke of Bedford gifted Boyd with several of the plants, which came home with him to Maunawili.

Haiku Gardens sported an orchard of macadamia trees, as well as mango, banana, mahogany, teak, bamboo and sandalwood. It had a series of ponds, trails, a Japanese teahouse, Hawaiian grass shacks and a bird sanctuary.

Haiku Gardens was chiefly a wholesale grower for other nurseries. George Ing (1901-2006) was displaced from his Kapahulu nursery by the building of the H-1 freeway. It had been in the area between Harding and 3rd avenues, and Kapahulu Road. The state paid him $110,000.

He bought Haiku Gardens in 1955 for $70,000. Designer Walter Loo converted the cottage into a restaurant.

“Several investors, including Don Ho, Ben Awana and Harry Dang, operated the restaurant for a couple of years,” Ing recalled, “but they lost around $50,000 and had to shut down. The building stood idle for two years. I finally decided to have a go at it myself.

“I felt that a restaurant, properly staffed and managed in such an ideal location, could be successful,” he said.

Before opening, Ing enrolled at the University of Hawaii and took evening courses in restaurant management. K.J. Luke, president of Hawaii National Bank, lent him $200,000 to get started.

Ing hired Jerry Punzal away from Spencecliff as executive chef. The gardens catered luaus for up to 400 persons, with lomi salmon, chicken long rice, kalua pig from the imu, fried rice, poi, haupia cake, banana fritters and more for $8.25 per person (in 1980). Its dinner buffet with top sirloin roast, carved to order, was just $7.95.

One specialty was Mandarin spareribs, smoked in an oak barrel over local keawe charcoal. Sauteed mahimahi, teriyaki steak, brochettes of beef, shrimp curry, lobster tails and Taiwan prawns were also available.

Haiku Gardens became a Chart House in 1990 and a Haleiwa Joe’s Seafood Grill in 2000. Joe, by the way is Joe Lazar, the owner.

Like Like Drive Inn Restaurant

Like Like Drive Inn just closed last month after 67 years in business at 735 Keeaumoku St.

It was the third restaurant started by James and Alice Nako and their family. The first was the New Emma Cafe in 1932 on Beretania and Queen Emma streets.

The second was Donald Duck Drive Inn in 1946, and the last was Like Like Drive Inn, started in 1953.

Donald Duck Drive Inn was sold to Bea Miyasato in 1953, and she went to Disney and asked whether she could use a picture of the illustrious duck. They said she could not use the likeness or the name. So she changed it to Bea’s. Bea retired in 2001 after 48 years on Kapiolani Boulevard across from Kaimuki High School.

“Like Like Drive Inn is not named for the highway or after Princess Miriam Likelike, who was the sister of Kala- kaua and Lili‘uokalani and mother of Princess Ka‘iulani,” said Nako’s daughter Dora Hayashi, who owned the restaurant with her husband, Roy.

“Dad used to hang out with several friends after golf at Likelike store, which was near Likelike School in Palama,” continued Hayashi.

“He believed it meant ‘gathering place’ and named the restaurant based on that. But after opening, we asked several Hawaiian friends, and they told us that it’s a woman’s name. Dad kept the name anyway.”

Mary Kawena Pukui said in “Place Names of Hawaii” that Likelike means “alike, similar, resembling.” In a military context it can mean “uniform.”

Few restaurants on Oahu were open 24 hours a day, but Like Like Drive Inn was from the beginning. James Nako felt customers were confused by restaurants that had different hours on different days.

Entertainers often came in late at night for an after- show snack.

Janice Goo and her husband, Joe Miyamoto, from Kaneohe, dined there for brunch and later for an early dinner seven days a week for over 20 years.

“We treat our employees like family,” Dora said. “We give and they give. One, Nancy Fujiwara, worked with us for 50 years. Manea Nakata worked with us over 41 years.”

The Nakos said their recipe was simple: Fresh, down-home cooking with prompt service and reasonable prices.

A stack of pancakes was 85 cents when they opened. Hamburger steak was $1.75. You could dine inside or be served by carhops from 6 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. until 1967.

The Hayashis are related to several other businesses. Dora’s sister Agnes Asato’s family owned Wisteria and KC Drive Inn. Husband Roy’s family owned the Pagoda Hotel and Pacific Beach Hotel (now called Alohilani Resort at Waikiki Beach).

“Mom told me before she passed away that the restaurant is your baby,” Dora said. “Cherish it.”

I enjoyed Haiku Gardens and Like Like Drive Inn more times than I could count and will miss them. I tip my cap to those families who started and managed these rest- aurants for so many years.

Have a question or suggestion? Contact Bob Sigall, author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books, at Sigall@Yahoo.com.