Eat your heart out: Burger House gone
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
The management at Kenny's Burger House at Kamehameha Shopping Center in Kalihi didn't know what it was in for after notices were posted Tuesday announcing that the popular eatery would be "closing on Saturday December 14, 2002 at 4 p.m."
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
At that point, said manager Yolanda Blackwell, the place got so packed, the help couldn't keep enough food in stock. Four times on Friday, Blackwell had to call her distributors to rush in extra burgers.
Kenny's Burger House in Kamehameha Shopping Center served generations of customers since it opened during the Christmas holidays of 1960. Yesterday, James Hightower, right, whose father introduced him to Kenny's, brought along his two sons for a last meal there and some talk-story with the staff. With him, clockwise from lower left: Philip and Vernon Hightower, Erlinda Cruz, Yolanda Blackwell and Roselani Ramones.
"Last night we had to lock the doors for an hour so we could restock," Blackwell said yesterday, as she and 17 employees scrambled feverishly to feed the multitude that streamed through the doors. "It's been like a grand opening."
But it was just the opposite: After 42 years, Kenny's Burger House was calling it quits. It was during the Christmas holiday season of 1960 that the place had its grand opening. Yesterday marked something of a grand closing.
Throughout the day, folks showed up to eat one last round of Kenny's teri-beef specialties or to pose for photos beneath the Kenny's sign outside.
Alma Lau Grocki, 43, who had snapshots taken out front with her two sons, Dan, 9, and Nick, 7, said Kenny's had been a constant part of her life.
"I remember coming to a Chubby Checker dance contest here when I was, like, 5," she said. "I lived at Houghtailing and School streets, so Kenny's is back yard for me."
"My dad used to bring me here all the time when I was a kid," said Darlynn Donohue, whose dad happens to be Honolulu Police Chief Lee Donohue. "I've never seen this place so busy."
Roselani Ramones, 72, agreed. In 35 years of working at the burger house, she couldn't remember a more hectic time than the establishment's last days of business.
"I'll miss this place," she said as she wiped her brow with a tissue. "But it has just been packed like this all week. Last night people refused to leave."
Kenny's was one of those fast-food joints where folks put in an order and then wait to hear their number called out.
"Two-forty — teri burger!" yelled Ayana Poole, who worked at Kenny's for two years and said she had no idea what she'll do next.
Eric Madriaga came for one last meal of saimin. Betty Obatay ordered a final cheeseburger.
Meanwhile, at the opposite corner of the shopping center, it was business as usual at Kenny's Coffee House and Restaurant, which will remain open.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Both Kenny's operations were started by the late Kenneth Kaneshiro, who was a longtime Honolulu restaurateur. First came the Burger House, followed by the Coffee House and Restaurant five years later.
Three of the last customers leave Kenny's Burger House, which will become the location of another McDonald's. At the other end of the Kamehameha Shopping Center in Kalihi, Kenny's Coffee House and Restaurant remains open.
Kaneshiro later sold both places and became general manager of Jolly Roger Inc. Today, Kenny's is owned and operated by the Fujieki family.
According to James Hightower, 43, the two Kenny's operations at the shopping center catered to different crowds. People were loyal to one or the other.
"My family has always come to Kenny's Burger House," said Hightower, whose late father introduced him to the restaurant back when it was an open-air diner. Hightower's sons, Vernon, 22, and Philip, 20, represent the third generation of the Burger House's regulars.
Yesterday all three showed up for one last meal.
Hightower described the Burger House as "the" high school hangout throughout the 1960s and '70s. Kids from Farrington, Damien and Kamehameha high schools considered it a must place to meet friends and bring a date.
On Saturdays the school gang started out at Kenny's, hopped in their cars and drove to Waikiki and cruised beyond Diamond Head to Kahala Beach Park before making their way back to Kenny's, said Hightower.
"Roselani was my first-grade teacher when I was going to Kalihi Uka Elementary," he said. "Then, she kept me in line here at Kenny's all through the years."
He and his two boys said they wished Kenny's Burger House didn't have to end.
When the end came, it was sudden. At 1:32 p.m. — 2 1/2 hours before management expected to pull the plug — the mauka entrance was locked and Ramones stationed herself by the makai door to inform customers that Kenny's Burger House was closed for good.
"Sorry," she told the parade of would-be customers at the door. "No more food. We're out of buns, we're out of fries and we're out of slush syrup."
Those who were already eating or waiting in line were allowed to remain inside. At 1:44 p.m., Amor Bueno put in the last order ever at Kenny's — "No. 280!" — for four teri burgers, three large orders of fries and two slushes.
Bueno handed Blackwell $15, and she handed him back $4.78 in change. But it was the cash receipt that occupied Bueno's interest most.
"I'm having this framed," said Bueno, Farrington High School class of 1980, who worked at Kenny's in the mid-1970s, as did many of his classmates.
Bueno had a seat, ate his food and departed. The good times were finished at Kenny's Burger House, he said. It was a one-of-a-kind kind of place, according to Bueno.
He wasn't sure what to make of the fact that Kenny's Burger House would be replaced by a McDonald's.
