The straight-from-the-fish-auction furikake ahi and the famed Pier 38 fish burger featured on the Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” are now being served in Kailua.
Chef Nico Chaize’s other specialties, as well as creations by executive chef Norman Soderberg, are gaining new fans as Nico’s Pier 38 has opened a second location in the former Pinky’s restaurant adjacent to Pali Palms Plaza, across Mokapu Road from Aikahi Park Shopping Center.
Alongside the seafood, local favorites such as beef stew and chicken katsu are on the menu, with a 10 percent discount for takeout orders of five or more plates picked up before 11 a.m.
Nico’s also offers grab-and-go selections and a fish market with a variety of fresh seafood, poke, poke bowls and luscious desserts. Nico’s cilantro dip ($6), plum vinaigrette and lemon miso dressing ($8) are sold. Chaize is working to convince chef Soderberg to bottle his aioli for sale.
Made-to-order combination poke bowls can include a trio of poke choices atop white or brown rice or ’Nalo greens, for $10.95, making any inability to decide a little less devastating.
Many of the fish market selections are marked with the nonprofit Hawaii Seafood Council’s logo, verifying that the fish is locally and sustainably caught.
“We are directly connected to the source of the fish,” said Juliana Chaize, wife of the chef and restaurant namesake.
The menu — at 808ne.ws/nicokailua — is not as expansive as at the original location on Nimitz Highway, but there are daily specials, adding to the selections.
“A lot of residents live around the restaurant, and we’re getting a pretty good crowd on the weekends,” Nico Chaize said.
The restaurant opened quietly in April, open for lunch and offering a full bar. Nico said he is still hiring to expand to dinner and beyond. Nico’s at Night is coming soon, he said.
OPEN AND ALREADY EXPANDING
Hawaii’s first Rita’s Italian Ice marked its grand opening inside Tiki’s Family Fun Center at Dole Cannery last week, but the business is not just chilling. Its second and third locations are already in the offing.
The national frozen treat chain offers Italian ice, its specialty cream ice, and other flavored frozen fun.
Tiki’s and Rita’s second Oahu location is being built inside the former PriceBusters space at Koko Marina Center, expected to open in September or October, said Dean Park, co-owner of Tiki’s, and area developer for Rita’s in Hawaii.
Rita’s first Maui location will open in Azeka Shopping Center in Kihei, in July or August, Park said.
The Hawaii Kai Tiki’s is a little smaller than the Iwilei location, but will offer bumper cars, a laser maze “and an all-new sports simulator” that offers baseball, soccer, golf, shooting and hockey, Park said. The Hawaii Kai location also will have party rooms, and Park is working on applying for a liquor license.
The Hawaii Kai Rita’s will be identical to Iwilei’s, offering the treat Park could not get enough of, even after five days of training during a mainland trip. “On the fifth day, we left training, and I said, ‘I want another Rita’s,’ so we stopped on the way to the airport,” said Park. “There are so many different combinations.”
Park has decided to sell franchises in the islands, but by territory, to make sure franchisees don’t compete against one another.
A GRATEFUL FAREWELL
After 57 years in business, Larry’s Bakery will close its doors for good Saturday afternoon.
Iris Yafuso-Toguchi and brother Lance Yafuso have been running the bakery their father started, with older brother Keith stepping in as he can to help with the crush of business since customers learned of the impending closure.
The Salt Lake building that houses the bakery is for sale. The family considered moving, Yafuso-Toguchi said, but the expense, coupled with a desire to devote time to their ailing mother, Irene, resulted in the decision to close.
Irene, 84, was in the bakery daily until just two years ago. Some days she asks to go around the island, or to the zoo. “I tell my brother … we need to stop, so that I can do stuff with her,” Iris said.
Irene will be at the bakery Saturday to greet longtime customers.
Lance has been working in the bakery for 39 years, Iris for 30. “We worked longer than my dad had worked,” she said. Larry Yafuso died of a brain hemorrhage in 1979, when Iris was 9. “We carried this legacy for my dad. It was (an) honor. I have no regrets, and I don’t want to have regrets for not taking care of my mom.”
The bakery will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for the next few days. An “everything must go” sale will be held on June 10 and 11.
Send restaurant news and notes to erika@staradvertiser.com or call 529-4303. Follow Erika Engle on Twitter @eriKaengle.
