Nicole Chang always knew she would have her own business, but didn’t know it would be a restaurant where her husband was the chef, and she didn’t know it would be so popular it would expand to two locations in Japan through a licensing agreement.
She is looking to grow locally, with potential expansion at Koko Marina Center, as well as a second Oahu location in Ward Village.
The 1,500 square-foot Moena Cafe in Hawaii Kai seats 43 people and regularly has a cluster of people outside who have signed up for tables and are waiting for their names to be called. Moena Cafe does not take reservations out of concern over no-shows and people who show up late for a reservation but who still expect to be seated immediately. On weekends the wait can be as long as an hour and a half or two hours. "It makes me feel bad," Chang said. It is a problem that can accompany success, rave reviews, dining awards and media buzz.
The potential Ward Village spot could be "three times as big as this," she said.
Her husband, Eric, has some 27 years’ experience in the restaurant business, perhaps most notably as the head dinner chef at the Moana Surfrider hotel in Waikiki.
The food is worth the wait to the teeming streams of regulars and first-time customers, including the investors from Japanese-based Kiwa Corp., who became so enamored with her restaurant concept that they opened a Moena Cafe in the Omotesando area of Tokyo in June, followed by another location in Kyoto in August.
Chang opened Moena Cafe at Koko Marina in May 2012, "and by December we had (the investors) contacting us," she said.
Others are now encouraging her to franchise the concept, but Chang expresses concern about "getting too big too fast" and "diluting the brand."
This is why she will keep any expansion manageable and true to her desire that any location of Moena Cafe have a sort of intimate, "boutique" feeling, she said.
"I’m really big on customer service," she said, and works to keep her staff happy so they will keep the customers happy.
For Halloween they were told they could dress up, tastefully, she said. One server wore cat ears and a tail with feline makeup including whiskers, while a male server had a Batman logo painted on his face. It was fun and whimsical but not over the top.
A pair of customers came in for breakfast dressed as bacon and French toast. What they ordered to eat is unclear, but it could have been any number of dishes for which Moena Cafe has developed loyal patronage.
Its braised short-rib loco moco was named the best in Hawaii in Hawaii Best Restaurant 2015, a Hawaii dining guide for Japanese visitors compiled by five reviewers. Moena Cafe’s acai bowl was ranked No. 2 in the state, while some of the restaurant’s popular competitors did not make any of the lists, she said.
Among the most ordered dishes Moena Cafe serves is banana pancakes with Chantilly sauce, and extra side orders of the Chantilly sauce are commonly requested among customers who order other dishes. Whether they simply eat the sauce with a spoon is unknown, but we are not here to judge.
In addition to the menu’s familiar, comfort-food-type flavors, stronger, atypical flavors are offered in other dishes, such as the garlicky Mo’Egga, which includes artichoke spread on two slices of hearty bread topped by poached eggs.
Moena is not open for dinner, though that is in discussion, and if a Ward Village location is opened, dinner service will be a certainty, Chang said.
ROCKING ON
Classic-rock fans of a certain age will hear a familiar voice return to the airwaves Monday night as Jamie DeMatoff, "The Rock Warrior," starts working the night shift on K-Rock 101.5.
DeMatoff was last on the air in the early part of the century at a station owned by iHeartMedia Inc. (formerly known as Clear Channel Communications Inc.).
Since his radio years his involvement with a popular Haleiwa submarine sandwich shop led him to establish Aloha Sub Deli and Sandwich Shop at 1602 Kalakaua Ave.
The surf-themed concept has proved popular to the point that he has "six licensed out with eight more going up in Hawaii and two on the mainland," he said.
"Radio, to me, was never anything I wanted to ever do again, because of how I felt about the direction radio was going," he said.
Now, however, with his business swimming along, and after being approached by K-Rock program director John Miro and station owner George Hochman, he decided to return to the fray.
It is common on smaller radio stations for air personalities to pay the station to get their show on the air, but DeMatoff is a station employee, Hochman confirmed.
"It’ll be familiar, good, classic. Rush, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Korn, groups we can relate to," DeMatoff said.
ON THE NET:
» www.krock1015.com Opens in a new tab
» alohasub.com Opens in a new tab
Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.
