One of the greatest family restaurants in Hawaii history, in my opinion, was the Columbia Inn. It wasn’t a fancy place like the Third Floor or Canlis, but it had good, affordable food and was open 24 hours a day.
Columbia Inn was founded by brothers Frank and Fred “Tosh” Kaneshiro in 1941 on the corner of what today is Beretania and Maunakea streets. The area was redeveloped, and Columbia Inn moved to the “Top of the Boulevard” at 645 Kapiolani Blvd., next to the News Building, in 1964.
The brothers named it for the country that made some of the world’s best coffee at the time. They had branches in Kaimuki and Waimalu for a short while. Tosh died in 1981, and the Kaimuki restaurant closed in 2007. The Waimalu Columbia Inn is now a Gyotaku.
Their Kapiolani Boulevard location served 1,000 meals on an average day, which is phenomenal for any Hawaii restaurant, past or present.
Tosh Kaneshiro was the Tom Hanks of local restaurants — a friendly, average guy everyone could relate to. He was a Los Angeles Dodgers fan and turned it into an art form.
Columbia Inn was Dodger Stadium West, visited by team coaches and players; the owner, Walter O’Malley; and announcer Vin Scully.
Dodger mania
How did Tosh Kaneshiro develop an affinity for a baseball team whose home stadium was 5,000 miles away in Brooklyn, N.Y.? I asked his son, Gene.
It began during World War II when he was in the Army and stationed at Fort Shafter. “Armed Forces Radio carried many New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers games. People used to tune them in and developed favorite teams. My father always chose the underdog. Back then, that was the Dodgers.”
Tosh Kaneshiro used 10-inch cardboard cutout letters spelling GO DODGERS GO and hung it over the bar before every baseball season at the Columbia Inn, at its original 116 N. Beretania St. location.
“When the Columbia Inn moved to Kapiolani Boulevard, he gave it a higher profile and hung GO DODGERS GO over the counter in the dining room.
“The sports thing, that was my father,” Gene recalls. “He always said, talk sports, don’t talk politics, don’t talk religion, or you’ll lose your customers.”
Ti leaves and matches
Soon after the Columbia Inn moved to Kapiolani Boulevard, reporters from next door began congregating in its bar. Three-dot columnist Dave Donnelly even had a telephone line installed at the round table in the bar’s back corner, so he could work from there. Gene Kaneshiro cut up old menus for him to use as scratch paper.
Donnelly and Tosh Kaneshiro were both Dodger fans from its pre-1957 Brooklyn days. They decided to fly to Los Angeles together to go to Dodger games, something they did many times.
“Tosh brought along ti leaves, which he waved around during the games for good luck,” Donnelly said.
“Tosh always brought along boxes of Columbia Inn matches, which he’d pass out at Dodger Stadium to everyone within reach. He’d also leave them on tables in every restaurant or hotel lobby we’d visit, and most certainly in the Stadium Club at Chavez Ravine (Dodger Stadium).
“Before Walter O’Malley, the late Dodger owner, ever visited Columbia Inn, he was well aware of Tosh, because the clever restaurateur used to see to it that his name (and that of Columbia Inn) was flashed on the huge Dodger Stadium message board. Everyone would see that he was in town and cheering on the team.”
Once, when Tosh had gone ahead to see the message-board man, Donnelly and Dr. David Eith, another Dodger fan from Honolulu, chanced upon O’Malley as they were entering the stadium.
“What are you doing over here in L.A.?” asked the affable Dodger owner. “We came over with Tosh Kaneshiro to see some games,” Donnelly told him.
O’Malley’s eyes lit up. “That’s the character who owns the Columbia Inn, isn’t it?” he asked.
“Tosh’s fame had preceded him. Later, when we recounted the conversation to Tosh, he couldn’t believe that the owner of his beloved Dodgers actually remembered the name of his restaurant.
“I figured O’Malley had probably run across some of the Columbia Inn matchbooks at Dodgers Stadium,” Donnelly joked.
How millionaires watch baseball
O’Malley was introduced to the Columbia Inn by John Bellinger, president and CEO of First Hawaiian Bank. O’Malley was in Hawaii to golf in the pro-am of the Hawaiian Open at the invitation of Bellinger, who was a friend and business associate.
Several years later Bellinger heard that Donnelly’s dream was to celebrate his 40th birthday at a Dodgers game, Gene Kaneshiro recalled.
He arranged for Donnelly and Tosh to attend the game and to sit in O’Malley’s private luxury box. It had a dinner buffet, television monitors and radio headsets (to listen to Scully).
“Dave was totally blown away and said to O’Malley, ‘So this is how millionaires watch a baseball game!’
“O’Malley pointed at the players on the field, ‘Nope, they are all down there!’”
Hawaii Day at Dodger Stadium
In 1972, to show their appreciation for Tosh’s relentless enthusiasm, the Dodgers declared Aug. 17 “Hawaii Day” at Dodger Stadium.
United Airlines organized the weekend in L.A. for $364 per person. It included airfare, hotel, transportation, two special dinners, three Dodger games, an L.A. Rams vs. Oakland Raiders football game, and sightseeing trips to Disneyland, NBC and Universal Studios.
The stadium message board welcome Tosh and his friends from Columbia Inn.
Tosh’s stadium
Cartoonist Harry Lyons went to the 1978 World Series with Tosh. “Going to a World Series game at Dodger Stadium with Tosh Kaneshiro is a little like taking a tour of the Vatican conducted by the pope.
“Dodger Stadium is Kaneshiro’s park. ‘Howzit?’ asks Tosh, as the man at the turnstile tears his ticket.
“‘Fine, fine,’ answers the ticket man. ‘How’s things at Columbia Inn?’
“The ticket-takers, vendors, ushers and the rest of the O’Malley crew don’t actually genuflect or anything, but they sure know who the little man wearing the oversize Dodger cap and clutching the ti leaves is.
“We stop at the entrance to the press box. He goes up to the big, unsmiling security man guarding the door, waves the ti leaves with one hand and taps the bill of his Dodger cap with the other,” Lyons noted.
“Eh, howzit?” grins Kaneshiro. “How’s about being a good fella and getting the public address announcer, what’s his name, out here? Tell him Tosh from Hawaii’s here. OK? Mahalo!”
“The announcer promptly abandons his microphone, comes out and introduces us to an aide. ‘Take these friends of mine wherever they want to go,’ he instructs. ‘Want to go to the Stadium Club, Tosh?’
“My God,” Lyons wrote. “I think Kaneshiro must really lay the teriyaki steak and shrimp tempura on these guys when they come to Honolulu.”
16-year drought
The Dodgers made it to the World Series in 1966, 1974, 1977 and 1978 but lost all four times. They faced the New York Yankees in the 1981 World Series and lost the first two games. But they won game three, four and five by one run in each game to take a 3-2 lead in the series.
Finally on Oct. 28, 1981, they beat the Yankees 9-2 in the sixth and deciding game as a packed house at Columbia Inn cheered wildly. Sadly, it came three months after Tosh Kaneshiro died in July from cancer.
The next day, a popular editorial cartoonist, Corky Trinidad, drew a caricature of an angelic Tosh, clicking his heels, with a halo above his Dodgers cap.
“That cartoon ran on the front page of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin sports section without a caption,” Gene Kaneshiro remembers. “Everybody in town knew what it meant, and the phone rang off the hook at the restaurant. Most were saying, ‘Too bad Tosh didn’t see the Dodgers win another one!’”
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Bob Sigall is the author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books. Contact him at Sigall@Yahoo.com or sign up for his free email newsletter at RearviewMirrorInsider.com.
