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Mothers of Reinvention
From the moment Honolulu shut down in early March 2020, restaurants and bars have valiantly swiveled to counteract the pandemic’s effects. We have had a dazzling choice of takeout (with spots such as Senia turning it into a high art), chef kits (Pai Honolulu had a creative series), and premium produce (MW Restaurant sold farmer friends’ goods). But some are reinventing the integral idea of what a restaurant is. Alejandro “Aker” Briceño, the former Nobu Honolulu pastry chef who was part of the pioneering eateries V Lounge (where he introduced the city to Neapolitan pies and Caputo flour) and Prima, returned to Honolulu in 2019 after five years with Nobu Malibu expressly to open a V Lounge 2.0 with then-partner Chris Kajioka. They were negotiating a lease when the pandemic hit. “It changed everything. Financially it didn’t make sense,” Briceño says.
Alan Wong’s Closes After 25 Years, Town After 16 Years
These two restaurants shaped modern Hawai‘i cuisine in ways few others have.
November 9, 2020
I feel a little guilty writing this, like missing my grandparents while knowing that I didn’t see them often enough, for the truth is I hardly dined at Town or Alan Wong’s in recent years. But just as with family, our present relationship doesn’t change our past. More than any other restaurants, Town and Alan Wong’s laid the foundation for my understanding of Hawai‘i. And, I’d argue, over the last two decades, few other restaurants and the restaurateurs behind them have shaped modern Hawai‘i cuisine as much as these two.