Kyotaru managers to buy Pearl City restaurant

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

Two managers of Kyotaru Hawaii Corp. have agreed to buy the Kyotaru Restaurant in Pearl City from the company, which has been forced to close four of its six Hawai'i eateries under the bankruptcy reorganization of its parent firm in Japan.

Tom Jones, Kyotaru Hawaii's general manager, and Nobutaka "Tony" Sato, the company's operations manager, hope to rehire the majority of the restaurant's 63 employees and reopen the restaurant as Gyotaku Japanese Restaurant after a one-day transition.

The buyout and transition are expected to occur in August, according to Jones. Other terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Jones said Gyotaku will have the same style of food, service and prices.

"Customers will have to get used to a new name, everything else will pretty much be the same," he said.

Kyotaru Restaurant at 98-1226 Ka'ahumanu St. used to be a Columbia Inn restaurant established by the local Kaneshiro family in the 1970s.

After the Kaneshiros sold the chain to Kyotaru Hawaii in 1990, the Pearl City restaurant briefly served a mix of local and Japanese cuisine as Kyotaru Columbia Inn, before losing the Columbia Inn fare, according to Jones, who has managed Kyotaru Hawaii restaurants with Sato since 1990.

In 1997, the company's parent in Japan filed for bankruptcy, forcing the Hawai'i chain to dispose of its six Kyotaru and Columbia Inn restaurants.

Last year, Kyotaru Hawaii put the restaurants up for sale in hopes buyers would keep the eateries open and preserve the company's 250 jobs.

But in January, the company closed the Kyotaru Restaurant in Waikiki, affecting 31 employees, and the landmark Columbia Inn on Kapi'olani Boulevard, affecting 62 employees.

Two takeout restaurants downtown also have been closed.

Columbia Inn on Wai'alae Avenue in Kaimuki remains open and is still for sale.

Andrew Gomes can be reached at 525-8065, or by e-mail at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com