One of my fondest memories of Santa Ana is going to the Kono Hawaii on 1st Street. I can still smell the food and the foil-wrapped baked pototoes. They had the coolest Koi fish creek running through the restaurant and the servers were dressed in beautiful Japanese dresses. Is wear I can still remember what that cool place looked like. Too bad they turned it into a night club. I went with my husband when it was a Vietnamese restaurant but it wasn't the same. What a waste of a cool restaurant.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Kono Hawaii Restaurant, Santa Ana
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
OCThen reader, "Deanie" writes of her memories of visiting the Kono Hawaii restaurant in Santa Ana...
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7 comments:
wow Kono Hawaii. when i was a little boy growing up in tustin calif i use to live next door to a lady name miss Kono. she use to invite my famley over to there restrunt. Kono Hawaii.. its was neat back then.fire dancers Hula girls. Koi pound. I even remember the candy they gave us that you would eat and the paper and candy melted in your mouth. this was around like 1963 up til 66. Miss Kono would give me pop bottles when i went around collecting bottles to return for money..lol....
I remember going to Kono Hawaii around 1980. My stupid boyfriend took me. It was great. He told me later that he didn't have enough money to pay the bill, and we almost ended up doing dishes!
i remember seeing society of seven there singing (celebrate good times).I thought they were the orig. singers. silly me. great food and a great show. little bit of hawaii in our own back yard. the year was around 79 or 80
My parents took me there for my 6th birthday (which was in 1967)... over 40 years ago! If I remember correctly, Don Ho sang to me for my birthday. The song was "Fountain of Youth". I remember looking up at my Mother and asking, "Mommy, what does 'youth' mean". A wonderful memory. Thank you Kono Hawaii Restaurant.
We still see Mrs. Kono every so often at Hawaiian functions and get togethers. But Kono Hawaii and the Building itself are long gone. (Present date is Sept. 7, 2010.)
Moana, who used to manage the showroom, is living in Tustin.
Leialoha, one of the polynesian dancers, is living in Buena Park. Pupule lives on Maui.
We always ate in the Japanese Tea House. It was my first introduction to Japanese food, we loved it. Especially funny were the servers who were straight from Japan and could not speak english very well. The desert was always a choice of coconut Ice cream or "Rime" sherbet. We always laughed when she said that. The always had little umbrellas stuck in the ice cream and one time the server sneezed on them, but they were protected, lol
i danced for the matis polynessian review at kono hawaii when i was alittle girl it was a fun time doing hula and performing for all the people that came to see the shows
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