TableOne Hospitality, a company that creates exclusive hotel restaurant concepts by world-class chefs, is cooking up at least 12 new restaurants in Hawaii, including its Hawaii flagship restaurant MARA, which opens in April at the Renaissance Honolulu Hotel &Spa.

The partnership between Michelin-star chef Michael Mina’s MINA Group and hospitality leader and restaurateur Patric Yumul and the hospitality investment and management company Highgate is designed to identify opportunities for food and beverage retail within hotels, resorts and mixed-use developments.

Yumul, who opened Stripsteak Waikiki and The Street in the International Market Place, is CEO and co-founder of TableOne, which spun off from the MINA Group, where he was formerly president.

“With TableOne we wanted to create a company that could focus on creating new and up-and-coming ideas,” Yumul said, “but also partnering with up-and-coming and established chefs and utilizing all of the resources and all of the systems and platforms that we built at MINA Group.”

He said Highgate is TableOne’s largest client, and its partnership with the hotel chain comprises about 80% of its business.

“Hawaii and New York will be our biggest footprints,” Yumul said. “Hawaii will probably get there first. (It’s) a big part of our business plan. Highgate has a great footprint with some amazing properties out there.”

Kelly Sanders, president of the Hawaii Group for Highgate, said the partnership will allow Highgate to differentiate itself from its hotel competitive set by elevating the dining experience. San­ders said hotel food and beverage, especially at boutique hotels, is typically a “nice to have” and not necessarily a profitable business model.

“For the most part, you see a lot of just average delivery,” he said. “What TableOne brings to our Highgate hotels is that creative, thoughtful execution on new opportunities for how we engage our customer base, but also how we bring in the local market to really enjoy the food and beverage within our properties.”

Yumul said another benefit is that TableOne provides workforce development through a range of independent restaurants that allow culinary talent to grow within the company, potentially to the point of partnering on their own signature restaurants.

“It’s always been a desire for myself and Michael to be able to give people the opportunity to grow as far as they want to grow and to help up-and-coming chefs expand,” he said. “We tried doing it under the Michael Mina umbrella. It was a little tough, not to Michael’s design, but he always stole the spotlight. When we created TableOne, we created an opportunity to really keep the spotlight centered around chefs and talent. We’ll have the job opportunities for them, and we’ll also have the exposure to different cuisines for them.”

TableOne did the initial food and beverage concept development for three new food and beverage venues that opened Feb. 12 at the new AC Hotel by Marriott Honolulu. Chef Nicholas Amoriello is the executive director overseeing the culinary program at the AC Hotel by Marriott Honolulu, which was developed by Continental Assets Management and is managed by Highgate. Amoriello, originally from the rural farmlands of Pennsylvania, had a successful career on the mainland before making a name for himself in Hawaii as a consultant and with appointments at the Turtle Bay Resort and the Aulani Resort &Spa, where he opened Ama-Ama.

The Dotted Line at AC Kitchen and AC Lounge is a 3,730-square-foot, three-meal-a-day restaurant that offers an executive breakfast as well as the “power-hour” menu, which caters to those who need a lunch in 45 minutes or less. It’s also open for dinner, pau hana from 4 to 6 p.m. Live entertainment is offered Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 4 to 7 p.m. Late-night libations are served, and there is a “cravings” takeout window. It’s a small-bite menu with cocktails and beer and wine. However, diners can add high-end a la carte selections like black truffles, uni, caviar and A5 Wagyu.

Yours Truly Bar &Speakeasy is a tiki-style underground bar and lounge. The hidden speakeasy pays homage to the space’s history as a satellite post office and taboo print shop during the Prohibition era. Cocktails are served through a secret portal called ‘The Post Order.” The location, which is for those ages 21 and over, is open Wednesday and Thursday from 5 to 11 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 5 p.m. to midnight. There’s a nighttime happy hour from 8 to 10 p.m. The venue will entertain patrons with offerings such as artist performances, comedy nights, sketch-culture doodle pads, temporary tattoos, karaoke and an interactive AI photo booth.

Common Ground, a coffee shop featuring exclusive blends from Big Island Coffee Roasters, is open for breakfast and lunch. It offers perks like free Wi-Fi and a public lanai workspace, and is paired with a locally inspired artisan marketplace in collaboration with Mana Up Hawaii.

Continental Assets Management’s Patricia Chang Moad, who led as executive project manager for AC Hotel Honolulu, said in a statement: “As a hospitality developer headquartered in downtown Honolulu, I wanted to create a renewed gathering place for the business community celebrating the culture, historical significance and networking demands of the central business district.

“It was also time to bring back the downtown ‘Power Hour Lunch’ and ‘Pau Hana’ social scene, so I built an immersive executive playground on the corner of Bishop and Hotel Street.”

TableOne also is opening and operating major food and beverage spaces in Renaissance Honolulu Hotel &Spa, where it will manage the culinary program for the property, which is owned and developed by JL Capital and managed by Highgate.

Sway and the Coral Club Lounge, which are amenity offerings for hotel guests and condominium owners, opened Wednesday in concert with the Renaissance’s grand opening. In early April, TableOne is slated to add MARA and Lamill Coffee to its conceptualized lineup. In-room dining also is available for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

MARA, the hotel’s 204-seat, 6,700-square-foot signature restaurant, is the premier restaurant in the partnership between TableOne and Highgate in Hawaii. MARA is highlighted on the TableOne website along with other acclaimed restaurants in its U.S. portfolio, including Bar Sprezzatura and La Societe Bar &Cafe in San Francisco; Mother Tongue in Los Angeles; The Sundry in Las Vegas; and Sol 7, Chardon and Buck 40 Supper Club in Houston.

Chef Michael Ocampo, whose career spans 15 years in San Francisco and includes Bar Crudo and Off the Grid at Google, and chef Franz Wohlrab, formerly an executive chef at the Four Seasons, will offer a MARA menu that fuses Hawaii’s multicultural cuisine with Mediterranean flavors and a fresh-seafood focus.

Yumul said, “You are getting a lot of all the product that is coming from what’s happening locally, and then you are using recipes from the Mediterranean, but you are kicking it up a couple of notches. We’ll feature an amazing bounty of locally caught fish.”

For example, Yumul said Lobster Fra Diavolo will use spiny lobsters from Kauai. The restaurant will serve ceviche, which is raw seafood “cooked” by a citrus marinade, in a Mediterranean style. There’ll also be fresh sashimi and wood-fired seafood.

Sway, an eighth-floor pool bar with mountain and city views, is named for the gentle sway of surrounding palm trees. It offers al fresco bites from MARA and craft cocktails.

Coral Club Lounge, a quick-bite hotel club venue, will offer a Mediterranean fusion menu and be open for breakfast, snacks and evening cocktails.

Lamill Coffee, the Los Angeles-based coffee roaster’s first location in Hawaii, will offer grab-and-go breakfast options, including fresh-pressed juices, coffee drinks and light bites.

In Waikiki the partnership between Highgate and TableOne extends to The Romer Waikiki at the Ambassador and The Romer House Waikiki, which will soon open after extensive renovations to the former Pearl Hotel Waikiki. Yumul said the Waikiki Swim &Social Club is already open at The Romer Waikiki at the Ambassador, and a ground-floor cafe will open there late summer. Opening early summer is an izakaya at The Romer House Waikiki.

Highgate and TableOne also are in concept development for food offerings at the Coco Palms Resort Wailua in Kauai and the Royal Lahaina Resort on Maui, which Sanders said “has huge potential to create something that has been missing on Maui’s west side.”