Last Columbia Inn set to close
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
The last Columbia Inn restaurant will close at the end of next month, extinguishing the name recognized as a local-food institution created by the kama'aina Kaneshiro family 60 years ago.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Kyotaru Hawaii Corp., which recently sold or closed its five other O'ahu restaurants including the landmark Columbia Inn on Kapi'olani Boulevard, said it will close the Columbia Inn at Kaimuki Shopping Center and lay off 58 employees Sept. 30.
Columbia Inn in Kaimuki, the last of the popular restaurants, will close by the end of September.
That means no more of the house-specialty oxtail soup or award-winning beef stew for regular customers, some of whom sought out the lesser-known Wai'alae Avenue restaurant after its older cousin closed in January.
Taking over will be restaurateurs Thanh and Tri Nguyen, who purchased the Columbia Inn lease, but not its name and recipes.
The Nguyens plan to reopen the restaurant in mid-October with a similar menu and casual atmosphere, according to their real estate broker John Haig of Commercial Locations.
The Kaimuki Columbia Inn was operated by the late co-founders and brothers Fred "Tosh" Kaneshiro and Frank "Gen" Kaneshiro, until they sold the business to Kyotaru Hawaii in 1986.
Kyotaru Hawaii opened the Kaimuki Columbia Inn in 1989 in the place of another long-time eatery, King's Bakery & Coffee Shop.
But about a decade into its Hawai'i expansion, the Tokyo-based parent company of Kyotaru Hawaii ran into financial trouble and in 1997 filed for bankruptcy. At the time, it owned a chain of 761 restaurants and sushi outlets in Japan and six restaurants in Hawai'i, including a Kyotaru Restaurant in Waikiki, one in Waimalu and two downtown plus Columbia Inn restaurants in Kaka'ako and Kaimuki.
Last September, Kyotaru Hawaii notified its 250 employees that it would try to sell its restaurants.
Hawai'i-based automotive, office products and insurance company Servco Pacific bought the Kapi'olani Columbia Inn property as a potential expansion site for its Lexus dealership across the street. The restaurant closed, displacing 62 employees, 14 of whom transferred to the Kaimuki location.
All but one of the other Kyotaru Hawaii restaurants also were closed. Earlier this year, managers bought Kyotaru Restaurant in Pearl City for an undisclosed price and reopened it Aug. 1 as Gyotaku Japanese Restaurant. Co-owner Tom Jones said business is doing well, especially among former Kyotaru regulars.
Jones, general manager of Kyotaru Hawaii, said he could not talk about Columbia Inn business. But others said the restaurant is doing well.
"It's always been a good restaurant for them," said Jackson Nakasone, a principal of Grubb & Ellis/CBI, which manages Kaimuki Shopping Center. "It's always been busy. It's been a good draw for the shopping center."
Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.
