Yasmin Dar has returned home to Hawaii to take a break from life as a TV news anchorwoman.
The former KITV weather anchorwoman received what she called "the opportunity of a lifetime" in 2012 but has now left KVAL-TV in Eugene, Ore., to come home and focus on raising her son, Gianluca Fasi, born in June.
Dar had worked at KITV for three years and had done other TV work on shows such as "Hawaii Five-0" and "Lost" when she was offered the anchorwoman position for CBS affiliate KVAL’s main weekday newscasts at 5, 6 and 11 p.m.
"For the past 21⁄2 years, my husband was commuting back and forth," she said.
Her husband, Sal Fasi, son of the late Mayor Frank Fasi, is a commercial real estate broker in Honolulu.
"There was a year that we got engaged, then I got the job offer, so … I moved to the mainland while I was planning a wedding, and he was commuting back and forth this whole time. Then we had the baby," she said.
"I loved my time in Oregon," she said "but we don’t have any family" there.
Since she has returned, she’s picked up great parenting tips from Gianluca’s grandmother Joyce Fasi as well as her sister-in-law Gina, not to mention her own parents, Marivic and Ather.
"My plan right now is to focus on my baby, and I’m very, very grateful that I can do that," she said. "I definitely want to go back to work, though I don’t know when that will be. I’m going to keep all my options open, including television news," Dar said.
In the meantime, given that a communicator must communicate, Dar has a blog in which she writes about beauty, being a mom, fashion and do-it-yourself things.
———
On the Net:
» yasmindarlive.com
1 returns, another departs
Justin Fujioka, former KITV weather anchorman and, most recently, former public information officer for Gov. Neil Abercrombie, left Hawaii for a new job using both his weather and governmental skill sets.
He is now a PIO for the Washington State Department of Transportation.
Luckily for him, the job is not like that of the Hawaii Department of Transportation PIO, who is saddled with airports, harbors and highways. Rather, he has roughly 40 co-workers in communications who cover six regions as well as the ferries that traverse the state.
His main kuleana is highways.
Fujioka is assigned to the Northwest Region, which covers King County, where Seattle is, to the Cascade Mountains, to the Canadian border.
"My main duty is to handle public and media affairs for the highways, along with issues that may arise (and) yes, that includes winter weather!" he said via email.
Seattle had its "first snowfall of the season on Saturday," he said.
Fujioka was to have stayed with the Guv until Monday, but his new employer "needed me in mid-November to prepare me for the winter season," he said. He left the Governor’s Office on Nov. 7, and after "a crazy and fast relocation," he started in the new job Nov. 17.
"A move to the mainland was always something I thought about doing for a while," and with Abercrombie leaving office, the timing was right to make the jump. However, Fujioka added, "Hawaii is home, though, and I know I’ll be back."
Roy’s sold
Mainland locations of Roy’s restaurant, operated by Florida-based Bloomin’ Brands Inc., have been sold to an Applebee’s franchisee.
Sunil Dharod, operator of 69 Applebee’s locations in and around Texas, formed United Ohana LLC for the transaction and bought the 21-location Roy’s brand for undisclosed terms in a deal expected to close within 60 days, according to industry publication Nation’s Restaurant News.
Bloomin’ Brands put Roy’s on the market in early November after deciding it would perform better "outside the portfolio," CEO Elizabeth Smith said at the time. Bloomin’ Brands is the parent company of Outback Steakhouse, Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, Bonefish Grill and Carrabba’s Italian Grill.
On Tuesday and during the weeks since the Roy’s franchises were put on the market, officials at Bloomin’ Brands and the local Roy’s restaurant operation have declined repeated Honolulu Star-Advertiser requests for comment.
Nevertheless, the deal is not expected to affect Roy Yamaguchi’s wholly owned and operated restaurants in Hawaii, including the Hawaii Kai; Waikiki; Ko Olina; Kaanapali, Maui; Waikoloa, Hawaii island; and Poipu, Kauai, locations.
The restaurant company was founded in Hawaii in 1988 by Yamaguchi, who in 1993 became the first Hawaii chef to win a James Beard Award.
———
Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.
