Shortly after returning home from the mainland in 2012, chef Chris Kajioka received his first James Beard Foundation nomination — for Rising Star Chef of the Year — while serving up elaborate, creative $300-per-person meals at Vintage Cave.

His latest project is Papa Kurt’s, modeled after saimin havens of the past century.

Ask “Why saimin?” and he’ll simply ask right back, “Why not?”

You can take the boy out of Hawaii, but you can’t take Hawaii out of the boy, and he teamed with fellow local chef and Culinary Institute of America alum Mark “Gooch” Noguchi in the endeavor. It’s named after their mentor, the late Kurt Hirabara, owner of Hirabara Farms.

The new restaurant brings the local noodle soup back to the forefront of the dining scene, after it started losing ground to the Japanese import, ramen, 40 years ago.

The new restaurant is in the St. Louis Alumni Clubhouse at 925 Isenberg St., in the space formerly home to Agu Ramen.

The brief menu serves up nostalgia in the form of a large bowl of saimin ($10) or wonton min ($12). The saimin comes with juicy char sir, choy sum and fishcake, with marinated onsen egg on the side. But it one-ups the vintage shops with serious upgrades to side dishes: thick cuts of charcoal-grilled chicken and venison meat sticks ($3 each), plus Pulehu short ribs. Spaghetti mac salad with tuna will also spark small-kid-time memories.

Coke floats and Green River ice cakes also will strike a chord with anyone around since the 1950s.

The restaurant is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays for takeout. No walk-up orders accepted; order online only at papakurts.com.