What’s Opening, What’s Closing in Honolulu

Scratch’s second location opens, Dong Yang Inn is for sale, and Greens & Vines lives on.

April 24, 2017

Catherine Toth Fox,

1. Scratch’s Second Location Opens With Dinner Coming

Scratch Kitchen & Meatery opened its second location in Ward this month, serving its popular milk-and-cereal pancakes (left).

Photos: Courtesy of Scratch Kitchen & Meatery

Scratch Kitchen & Meatery, the tougher younger brother of Chinatown’s Scratch Kitchen & Bake Shop, opened at the Ward Village’s South Shore Market earlier this month, serving brunch and lunch for now. (Dinner service is slated to start in June.)

The 1,950-square-foot space is located next to Core Power Yoga. The design is much more masculine, with dark woods, red accents, metal chairs and dramatic lighting. The kitchen—twice the size of the one in Chinatown—is the focal point here.

“I thought I wanted a bigger kitchen,” says chef/owner Brian Chan, laughing, “but I miss being five feet from everything.”

Fans of the Chinatown location will be relieved to find many of the staples on the menu here, including the popular milk-and-cereal pancakes, cider-braised pork belly and apple pasta, and shrimp and grits. Dinner will bring new dishes, many of them Southern- and New Orleans-inspired, to the table. Chan’s planning on cured meats, aged steaks and a lot of smoked meats. “We’ll be running our smoker all day long,” he says.

South Shore Market, 1170 ‘Auahi St., #175, 808-589-1669, scratch-hawaii.com

2. Eating House 1849 Opens in Kapolei

On Wednesday, Eating House 1849, the plantation-inspired concept by James Beard Award-winning chef Roy Yamaguchi, opens at the Kapolei Commons, an open-air shopping and entertainment complex in West O‘ahu. This is the second location for this restaurant on the island. (The other is at the International Market Place.)

The kitchen will be headed by executive chef Randy Bangloy, who was most recently the sous chef at Roy’s Ko Olina. The Waipahu High alum is a graduate of Leeward Community College’s culinary program.

Eating House 1849 will open daily for lunch and dinner.

Kapolei Commons, 4450 Kapolei Parkway, #540, Kapolei, 808-447-1849, eatinghouse1849.com

3. Two Chinatown Restaurants Close

Less than a year after it opened, Palate Craft & Eatery is now closed.

Owned by Pat Kashani (Tropics Tap House on O‘ahu and Tropics Ale House on the Big Island), and the team of chef Troy Terorotua and Lisa Kim (Real a Gastropub in Ward and Brew’d in Kaimukī), Palate featured a thoughtful craft beer lineup with matching dishes: deviled ham deviled eggs, fried pickled onions with a blue-cheese dipping sauce, pipi kaula poke and ancho chili candied bacon.

When running all three restaurants was too much, the partners decided to close the 1,750-square-foot restaurant. The space had been renovated at a cost of more than $300,000 and is being sold as a turnkey operation.

On the next street over, Restaurant Epic quietly shuttered its bright orange doors. (Its website is still up and running, though.) No more bacon chocolate chip cookies.

4. A Wahiawā Korean Takeout and Malassada Shop Selling

The news that Dong Yang Inn in Wahiawā might be closing sent shockwaves across social media platforms.

The Korean takeout institution—it’s been in business for 41 years—isn’t closing, but the owner, Yong Suk Potts, is retiring and wants to sell the business.

The same is true for Champion Malasadas on Beretania Street. Owners Joc and Sandra Miw, who own the property the bakery sits on, wants to lease the 2,150-square-foot space and sell the bakery’s name, all of the equipment and, most importantly, the secret recipe for malassadas.

Miw, who hails from the Portuguese enclave of Macao in China, is already meeting with potential buyers.

5. Greens & Vines Lives On

Soon after Sylvia Thompson closed her popular Greens & Vines restaurant across from the Blaisdell, she sent out a hopeful newsletter to her loyal customers.

The buyer of her business—which includes the raw-vegan catering service Licious Dishes—says she will continue using her recipes at the 909 Kapi‘olani location, the farmers markets and for meal plans. The new owner, whose name has not been announced, has even agreed to hire back all of Thompson’s employees. The name, Greens & Vines, though, will be changed.

In addition, the new owner, who is vegetarian and from China, will add to the menu something called “stretchy noodles,” pasta infused with spinach or butternut squash that can be served in soups, sauces or with veggies.

Thompson has plans to start a gourmet raw vegan foundation, recently traveled to Japan to promote her raw-vegan cooking, and will continue to update her friends and fans through her newsletters. If you haven’t subscribed, sign up here.

6. McDonald’s in Kāhala Undergoing Major Renovation

A rendering of what the retail area where McDonald’s in Kāhala will look like once it opens in late summer.

Photo: Courtesy of McDonald’s of Hawai’i

One of the most popular McDonald’s restaurant on O‘ahu is undergoing a major facelift—and sending people craving Big Macs and french fries into a panic.

OK, so that’s a slight exaggeration. Still, the project, which started this month, will involve a major renovation of that side of Kāhala Mall, including McDonald’s. The existing structures—the fast-food restaurant, the closed bowling alley and the in-line food tenants—will be redeveloped and scheduled to reopen by late summer.

McDonald’s will gain 900 square feet of space and feature a new design that, according to Veronica Kaneko, president and managing director of McDonald’s Restaurants of Hawai‘i, will coincide with a “national rollout where guests will be able to experience McDonald’s in a new and unexpected way, with a new level of choice, engagement and service.”

Rest assured, the fries will stay the same.