Sixty years ago this November, aliens landed a spaceship on the 23rd floor of the Ala Moana Building and opened a restaurant. Well, that’s what it looked like to me.
Its name was La Ronde. I went there several times in the 1970s and 1980s but did not know it was the first revolving restaurant in the U.S. It opened in 1961, a year before the Seattle Space Needle.
The idea began with Donald Graham, vice president of Dillingham’s Hawaiian Land Co., which built Ala Moana Center in 1959. He thought a revolving restaurant would be a signature attraction for the shopping mecca.
In early designs it was placed in the middle of the mall, but as things came together it was moved to the top of the Ala Moana Building at Kapiolani Boulevard and Keeaumoku Street.
Graham approached restaurateur Peter Canlis, but he didn’t think the idea was viable. His search led him to chef Alphonso Batz, who pitched the idea to John Henry Felix.
Batz had been a paratrooper during World War II, Felix recalled. He jumped on D-Day and won a Bronze Star, Purple Heart and four battle stars. “He was a workaholic,” Felix said.”I could not have operated the restaurant without him.”
Felix had worked with Roy Kelley at Outrigger hotels and was Gov. William Quinn’s chief of staff. His father, Henry, agreed to finance the restaurant. Felix was just 31 at the time and became the general manager. Batz ran the day-to-day operations.
“La Ronde” means “the merry-go-round” in French, Felix told me. He and Batz came up with it. Graham suggested it look like a spaceship.
The dining area was set on a 16-foot turntable that revolved within an unmovable structure that included an elevator entrance, lobby and serving facilities.
A three-horsepower motor with two others for backup moved the 175-ton structure at 3 feet a minute. In an hour, diners would move through all 360 degrees to have breathtaking panoramic views from the valleys to the ocean.
It could be a little disorienting for waiters, and patrons who got up to use the restroom. Your table wasn’t quite where you left it.
The 72-foot-wide restaurant could seat about 160 and often served an impressive 800 meals a day.
Felix and Batz had 10 restaurants at one time, although only La Ronde rotated. On the 20th floor they had The Belfry (a purposeful pun on Batz’s name), which later became John Henry’s restaurant.
Menu
Felix says his mother’s shrimp curry ($3.75) was a customer favorite. Other popular dinners included Chicken Kiev, $4.25; Veal Cordon Bleu, $4.50; Prime Rib, $5; Rack of Lamb, $5.50; Lobster Tail, $4.75; Filet of Mahi-Mahi, $3.75; or Brochette of Beef, $4.50. All entrees included a salad, potatoes or rice, rolls and butter, and beverage.
Astronaut club
The space race was just getting started in 1961, and La Ronde offered children membership in an elite club. They received a card that said, “The bearer of the card did complete one orbit in the spaceship La Ronde and is hereby appointed a Captain-Astronaut in the La Ronde Space Agency.”
Jokes
Besides “Batz in the Belfry,” La Ronde lent itself to jokes. You could literally have “pie in the sky” for dessert.
Jim Pollack offered another. “The jokesters of the day suggested that if ever the machinery rotating La Ronde jammed, it would screw the whole building right into the ground!”
Tommy Waters
City Council Chairman Tommy Waters said he was a busboy at La Ronde for a few years starting in 1984 when he was 18 or 19 years old.
“I skateboarded to work from Waikiki, along with fellow busboy Bill Cameron, wearing tuxedo jackets and bow ties. A few times, we were mistaken for car valets, downstairs, standing around in our monkey suits. We both put ourselves through college with money from La Ronde.
“The view was the best at sunset. I particularly enjoyed looking Ewa to the reef runway and Mount Kaala. But the valleys, mountains, Diamond Head and the ocean slowly coming into view was spectacular. It was also an excellent place to see fireworks on the Fourth of July.
“Working in a revolving restaurant was challenging,” Waters said. “The dumbwaiter — we called it the ‘puka’ — where we passed dishes to the kitchen three floors below, was stationary but often hard to find. We’d frequently circle the restaurant looking for a customer. We got lost constantly.
“The waiters, like Kino Cablayan and Ernest Chan, made Caesar salads and a flambe rum cake dessert tableside. It was very artistic as well as delicious. They took pride in their work.”
“Working at La Ronde prepared me for a life,” Waters said. “I was a shy 18-year-old. I wasn’t used to walking up to strangers, but it was my job. I’d approach and say, ‘Hi, I’m Tommy. Would you like some lavash?’
“I’d put it on the table with butter and water and just be friendly. Later in life it helped me in politics, because I’m walking the district, knocking on strangers’ doors, saying, ‘Hi, I’m Tommy Waters. Can we talk about how to make our community a better place?’
“It’s the same thing as what I was doing as a La Ronde busboy. And whose door did I knock on in 2018? John Henry Felix. I told him I worked at La Ronde back in the 1980s, and we spent some time reminiscing.”
Batz in The Belfry
Alice Tucker told me her husband, Jerry, had an office in the Ala Moana Building in the 1960s. “One day the three kids — 2, 4 and 6 at that time — and I were going up to his office on the seventh floor.
“I expected that when I started walking somewhere, my kids would automatically follow like little ducks following the mother duck. I got out at the seventh floor, and the boys followed. Jill didn’t and the elevator doors closed.
“I told the boys to quietly go and tell Jerry that Jill was ‘misplaced’ and to call building security. They went screaming down the hall, yelling, ‘Daddy, mom lost Jill!’”
Tucker checked every floor. Nothing. “Finally, I got up to the 20th floor. On the mauka end of the building was The Belfry. I went in and TA DA! There was Jill sitting at the bar eating chicken and rice, without a care in the world.
“Turns out she wandered in and the bartender asked her where her mother was, and she said she didn’t know. He then asked her if she was hungry. She was ALWAYS hungry! So he sat her on a bar stool and gave her his meal.”
Sold
Felix sold the restaurant in 1984 to the W.W. Robinson family, and they closed it at the end of 1990 after serving over 5 million meals.
The high cost of maintaining the custom-made parts ground La Ronde to a halt. The spaceship structure still is there for all to see, but the restaurant has faded into our rearview mirror.
Felix is 91 today. He is Hawaii’s oldest active Eagle Scout and is the author of six books. He was a founder or owner of eight companies, including Borthwick Mortuary, Academy of the Pacific and Hawaii Medical Assurance Association.
He was a City Council member for 16 years and has served on over two dozen nonprofit boards. A few of them, such as Hawaii Public Radio, began in his office at La Ronde.
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Have a question or suggestion? Contact Bob Sigall, author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books, at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
