Jason Doktor will no longer be able to walk over to his favorite watering hole. His friends, Jim and DeMarias Sojka, who introduced him to the place, won't be able to visit there when they come into town. Isani and Jesse King will have to find someplace else to go after 20 years. Lindsay and Jaime Koons will no longer be able to share a Flaming Volcano with their friends and their parents. LaDonna and Elliot Curzon will have to meet friends at their own tiki bar. And Anthony and Carole Russo will only have one opportunity to share one of their favorite places with 10-month-old daughter, Isabella.
The favorite and revered place of all the above was the Honolulu Restaurant. It closed its doors last Saturday evening after almost 26 years of doing business. Doktor used to live in Hawaii and like many, he was skeptical when his friends, Jim and DeMarias, first brought him to the Honolulu. After all, it looks more like a tattoo parlor than a restaurant from the outside.
"Once you get inside and meet everyone, it's great," said Doktor.
Carole Russo was also born in Hawaii and started coming with her husband about three years ago. They haven't been able to come lately because they now have a baby. However, they made sure that they went this past weekend so that their little one could be a part of the memories.
Lindsay and Jaime Koons have many happy memories of Honolulu's, as do their parents, Greg and Joni Koons.
Greg Koons, a guidance counselor at West Potomac High School, said, "I will miss Honolulu's."
Lindsay and Jaime's cousin, Derek Sauser, come up from Florida with his girlfriend, Nichole Provisions, just to enjoy a final meal with his cousins and their friend, Kirk Myers.
HAD THE BUILDING housing the Honolulu not been claimed by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project, it may have stayed another 26 years. Who knows what the future might have held for Anna and David Chan, owners of this quirky, eclectic restaurant with the Polynesian flair? VDOT offered to pay them to move elsewhere, but there was nowhere for them to go. Total amount paid for the remainder of their lease and their business? $15,000.
"You can't even buy a car with that," said Anna, who's not sure what the landlord who owned the building with the Honolulu and 7-11 received from VDOT. Anna is sad about the closing, but is also ready to relax. She and her husband have no plans to reopen elsewhere, nor do any of their three daughters, Sandy Cross, Angie Keaton or Debbie Alvarado.
Cross' feeling is, "I'll have my Friday and Saturdays free now." She will carry on the family tradition in a much different sense by working on their newly created website, www.time2tiki.com, which will sell a line of David and Anna's Signature Blends. This includes: Mai Tai Mix; salad dressing, with its unique tangy taste; Stir Fry Sauce, which has been used as the base ingredient for many of the delicious entrees like Kung Pao Chicken and Mongolian Beef; and Teriyaki Sauce, which is another popular sauce used in many of the popular dishes at the Honolulu Restaurant like the PuPu Platter.
Customers can send in photos for the online scrapbook and share news about each other, or maybe a newly discovered replacement for the Honolulu, which may be an unlikely event.
Isani King said, "We've been coming here for almost 20 years, you can't replace it. I don't know of anything that has the same charm. Maybe we'll find something [like it] when we travel."
ALTHOUGH MOST CUSTOMERS say that there will never be a replacement, life goes on and once the building that housed the Honolulu is knocked down, that time and place will soon be a distant memory. Anna said that the date of demolition has been moved from May 1 to May 15; had she known she might have stayed open a little longer. At this point, however, she doesn't want to reopen. She's tired. Not only did she and David have a busy few months, but they hosted their daughter's wedding the day after their closing.
Cross said, "They were engaged here, it was only fitting that they should be married here."
Construction on the Telegraph Road won't even begin for several years, but John R. Undeland, public affairs director for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project, said that they have to put in some high-powered utilities. The work has to be done well ahead of the construction, so that's why the businesses on the west side of the road have to leave earlier.
In addition to the memories, some customers will have a bit of the Honolulu, quite literally, in their homes. A silent auction of some of the decorations and restaurant paraphernalia brought in almost $14,000. Cross said that her parents will use that money for their retirement. The Kings paid $600 for one of the masks on the wall; they also purchased one of the coconuts used to hold drinks for an amount significantly higher than what it would cost if purchased outright.
Curzon said that she wanted to buy one of the totem poles, but was outbid. She would have used it in the tiki bar in their house. This is where she and her husband will have a wake for the Honolulu with a small group of "Hut patrons;" they will all be there with Hawaiian shirts.
Curzon said, "In the old days, when you came into the door at the Honolulu, you were always welcomed with a colorful, plastic Hawaiian lei. We plan to do that at the wake in memory of past times spent at the Honolulu."
LaDonna Curzon said, "I'm really sad to see the Honolulu go. I used to live near the Honolulu, so I've been going there for almost 24 years. I liked the Honolulu before the Honolulu was cool. So many milestones have been celebrated at the Honolulu, our engagement, marriage, birth of our two daughters (both of whom learned at an early age how to use chopsticks at the Honolulu), job promotions, quitting jobs, you name it. When both my daughters were in diapers, I would come into the Honolulu for a brief respite and Anna would pick up my youngest and talk to her in Chinese. David would always surprise my daughters with a Shirley Temple on the house. They loved that. It's sad to see it close. It's like saying goodbye to an old, trusted friend."
Lindsay Koons summed up what most customers were feeling when she said, "I feel like we're losing our family. I don't know what we're going to do."