 Welcome to Restaurants of Hauai on Think Tech Hauai. I am your host, Siobhan Garcia. I'm the Executive Assistant for the Hauai Restaurant Association. And today I am filling in for our Executive Director Cheryl Matsuoka. Today we're talking with Malia Zanoni who is the Marketing and Sponsorship Director at International Marketplace. But before I have her introduce herself and give her a quick welcome I wanted to real quick talk about what we're here for, which is the Hauai Restaurant Association 75th Anniversary Diner Round. This will be hosted by the International Marketplace. It will take place on Tuesday, December 6th from 5 to 7.30pm. And we will feature a number of our member restaurants all located within the International Marketplace. So if you haven't already signed up to attend we ask that you email us at info at HauaiRestaurant.org and we can send you over information on how you can become a participant. And with that we're going to go ahead and introduce Malia. Thank you Malia. Can you please introduce yourself and give us a little bit of background on International Marketplace. Hi, yes, thanks for having me. We really appreciate it. Malia Zanoni, I had the pleasure of being the Marketing and Sponsorship Director at the International Marketplace here in the heart of Waikiki, just outside my window, what you can't see out there. I'm really fortunate to have this role as a Marketing Director for International Marketplace because we all are familiar with the original IMP that was this Polynesian village that came up in the 1950s and during the kind of golden era of this white travel to Hawaii and you know with names like Don the Beach Comer and Don Ho and Dukahana Moku really carving the path for tourism to Hawaii and for the story of International Marketplace. So it's a really exciting place to be able to market and to be able to continue to tell the story and to carve the path for a new journey for the space. Something that people don't often understand or realize is that International Marketplace actually sits on land that is part of the Queen Emma land company. It was formerly known as Kalua Okao and land of Queen Emma. And so what why that's important is that in the process of the redevelopment and in the thought that went into how can we take this space that was certainly a tourist destination with kitschy Polynesian villages and find Tiki culture. We take that space. Remember, you know what put us on the map, but then still respect and tell the story of what came before and why it really truly is important to Waikiki and to the continued storytelling of Native Hawaiians of Hawaiian history Hawaiian culture. So if you look at this new imp that was reimagined in 2016, and it's big and fancy and it looks different and we've got, you know, three levels of shopping and dining. People sometimes say what happened to you know the culture what happened to the history. And what we like to say is that the culture and history is now more integrated, and more part of International Marketplace than it ever was before. You look at the banan tree that's over 165 years old that still stands and it's thriving. The same arborist who's been with that tree for 40 years can speak to the fact that the tree is doing better than ever, and kind of our, our marquee place in the center. And as you walk through the center you see there's really beautifully integrated cultural elements like we have water feature that represents a pohokihau stream coming from Manoa Valley, the ahupua'an which we sit. We have the Queens Court which honors Queen Emma and King Kamehameh IV and her son, Prince Albert. There's a celestial pool in Queens Court that represents Queen Emma journey to Lake Waiao on the big island after the passing of her son and her beloved husband. And then we have the Malco Court which honors the ahupua'an of Waikiki. There's beautiful water feature representative of Waikia Cool Falls and a pohokihau which means basket of dew. The chandelier represents that so there's all of these cultural elements that are tied into the center that people don't realize. I mean we always try to make sure that we share that because it's really important for us to remember where we came from so that we can continue to honor that in the things that we do. And that's kind of like the basis of this redeveloped international marketplace and why I'm so excited to be part of it because it's a story that was being told but maybe not loud enough and so with this new center we get to do that. And kind of moving into some of the more fun facts of the you know the redevelopment. Obviously we all know that food brings people together, especially in Hawaiian Hawaiian culture food is super super important and so we are so excited to be part of our grand lanai, our level three. It is the largest collection of open air outdoor restaurants in Waikiki. Maybe even on a walk we have to look at to check it in the past on this. But right now we have a collection of eight restaurants up on the ground and I all of our restaurant spaces that could be open are open we have one space at the raw space that we still activate as an event space. So, the over the last kind of year and a half it's been really inspiring to see the restaurants who have remained open through the pandemic the restaurants who have opened like skybox house during the pandemic. And then the restaurants who have opened just afterwards to see their resiliency to see their creativity to see their passion in overcoming all of the challenges that they faced I mean, really, really cool to see all the hard work starting to pay off for these restaurants up on our ground and I. And hearing our community say you know it's so great that we have bakeries open we go up there for lunch we go up there for breakfast dinner with our family, we told our visiting friends to go, you know check out the ground and I so it's. It's been really awesome for us to be able to just see this transition and see it really come to life up there at the ground and I. So that being said, our ground and I is home to like I said eight restaurants hopefully one more in the coming year, but because of that we do like to host two marquee events a year. On the ground and I and so we have our ground on a restaurant week which typically happens in April or May, just like most restaurant weeks it's a week long celebration. I think restaurants have really great menus that they offer at either special pricing or special add-ons that guests can can choose from. And then we'll have activations to kind of get generate the buzz and get people out to enjoy, whether it's a new restaurant that they haven't tried yet or if it's just them coming back to their favorite restaurants. On the ground, we have that really cool event. Look for that is spring 2023 at international marketplace. I promise you is always going to be the most delicious day here at IP. And then we also have a mixology month and our mixology months. This year we moved it to August because August is our anniversary month. And so with mixology month ideas all about mixology. You know, we know that people love to drink they love to socialize and you know, a nice good strong cocktail brings people together and I get them talking and that's that's what we like and then hopefully they walk down there as they go shopping at all of our stores. But our mixology month is exactly what it sounds like it's a month all about mixology and libations and highlighting the really the craftsmen who are working in our restaurants to provide these unique experiences to customers that they may not get, especially customers who are visiting from like the mainland US Midwest they may not get these tropical flavors, or they may not expect to get some of these really great whiskey cocktails. Tequila cocktails that are our bartenders at strip steak and eating house and money are putting together for everyone. So throughout that month. There's obviously specials on cocktails that we offer. And then small bites to go along with it. We relaunched our battle of the bartenders, which was a huge success. The winning bartender came from skybox and he wanted $2,000 cash prize. So cool. Yeah, awesome and he just had a six month old daughter so so great. And his wife is there so it's really fun to see the community come together at IMP for that. Our partner school on a run we've provided who provided run for the event were really great to come and step up and at the last minute and say hey, I want to get involved in this and we're looking to grow that so that we want to highlight our mixologist here at IMP but I think there's so much talent in the food and beverage industry in the mixology industry in Hawaii that it would be really great for us to be able to expand beyond our center and welcome other people in to participate in those types of in those types of programs that we offer and that we hope our guests enjoy doing. Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure they all do. What's really great is that, you know, restaurants all in one location they're not fighting for the attention right they get to kind of be part of something all together. So those types of events sound like it brings everybody together they all get to socialize themselves and, and kind of become partners as opposed to people competing for the next customer right. Exactly. And I mean, you when you think about a visitor right they're averaging this day four days here in Waikiki. We're in some sense, people are competing because you can't eat at all 10 restaurants but right beauty of the ground and I that someone can know that there's a strip stick here and have no idea that anything else upstairs exists. Oh my gosh there's a bakery and look how big that bakeries we need to go try that bakery tomorrow there's pastries in there maybe we'll just pick up pastries on our way to the beach after you know. So that's the beauty is that when all the restaurants are there together they can, you know customers may not realize that what's there and they can kind of check things out. And then for us locals it's like, you know, one Friday I might be in a mood to go to Moani the next Friday might be being a mood to go to eating house. I might want to do a date night at strip sake or I might want to have brunch, you know, and herringbone with my girlfriends and so there's all these options and they're, they're so close together. And it's been really exciting to see our restaurants come together and and realize that and realize the power that we have as the Grand Lanai and not just as a standalone restaurant. Yeah, speaking to that, we have concepted a dining dining pass program so customers can come to the customer services they can business online starting in January purchase this past, where is it purchase a pass online it looks like a festival pass. So cute. And they can go on and they can kind of like bar hop. Yeah, restaurant hop on the ground and I, you catch one Uber you don't have to Uber from bar to bar. There's all of our restaurants and eateries, and you can like, you can hop around and if you're you know if you're feeling it feeling your drink at strip sake you can stick there for dinner or if you want to go check out the live music at Moani. You can do that and it's been you know we see people doing that it's been awesome to see, like I said things just really come alive, and be able to do things like the dining around event that we folks are working on for the restaurant association I mean it's just, it makes it so convenient for everyone to work together and put together fun events. Yeah, and what's really great about that is, you know that's so many of our members all in one location to get to feature all of them, which is kind of decided on that location, not only because of the location itself right you know I mean, it's central there's that, as we all know to parking is a really big deal and why key key so so much parking there's so many options. It's great to be able to highlight and feature a bunch of our members, all at one time is kind of a big deal you know everybody gets to participate in, and, you know, be part of the success of the Hoy restaurant Association, and, and, you know, we're really looking really excited, and we will be putting out more details, as far as restaurant participating restaurants and their poobles that they'll be featuring but keep the mystery a little bit going so, you know, we chose the location also for the reason that you said which was the history of the national marketplace and as we mentioned this is our 75th anniversary so combined right we have this history together that I think we are really excited to celebrate and to showcase. You know so with that I we've talked about the different restaurants and the Grand Lanai and we've talked about our event, do you guys host other events and if, if you do how would somebody go about getting in contact with you guys. So I mentioned we have eight open restaurants on the ground and I am right now we have a vacant space or a raw space rather that we've converted into kind of an outdoor Lanai event space area. And so, anyone who's interested in activating that space, they just shoot us an email, give us a call, and they can hold about 100 to 150 people depending on the style of event if it's a sign up cocktail. Sometimes we overflow into the common area space a little bit. You can set up music a bar, we always encourage everyone to, to use our restaurants for catering, because they're right there and it's super super easy. Right, but yeah it's, it's, it's as simple as just reaching out and kind of having a talk story about what the customer has in mind and what how we can support them. And like I said very easy to do and you folks are doing your event we just we just hosted our own event for the concierge we're doing an event in December with some of our tourism partners so we host events there all the time and we welcome people who are looking for a unique event space in the heart of instead with easy access to partner being definitely yeah. And then we're we're activating that space actually for New Year's Eve so our again talking about the restaurants coming together and the restaurants realizing the power, the, you know, the power of the collective. Right. The restaurant came to us and said hey we think that we could do a New Year's Eve event we think imp would be a great you know spot and selfishly I'm like well of course it is it's. Yeah. Outdoor, open air collective restaurants are like a key what are we going to do. And so we are working on a New Year's Eve event it'll be our first ever New Year's Eve event on the ground and I. We've got six of our restaurants we're going to be participating. If you think about it like a block party style of event where you buy the ticket you have access to go in and out of all these restaurants you have access to the specialty cocktails and specialty menus that they'll be serving that night. So a very fun social event and again playing into the whole idea of the ground and I ground and I being a walkable space. You've meant for you know communal experience. That's what we're going to be doing for New Year's Eve so we've got some really exciting announcements coming up I can't say that because I don't have it. I don't even have contracts in yet on this. But stay tuned because you're going to want to people are going to want to come out to the ground and I for New Year's Eve. It's going to be super exciting and just a fun elevated cocktail walk around pop it and now you know enjoy culinary enjoy entertainment type of experience. Well that's that sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun and we can't wait to hear more details and please you know as as you get more details please let us know we would love to let everybody in our community know that this is available and it's up as you mentioned you know the outdoor spaces is still such a big deal you know, even though we're kind of coming out of coven we still have a lot of people who are concerned and so, you know, the fact that they're able to be outside and mingle and talk story. You know it's so great and. And I like I said to I like that you can, you know, a lot of us want to go and just try some of the different places and this kind of gives it to you all in one place you know go here for a poo poo go here for a different one you know go here for a drink and it offers it in one convenient location so that's. I love the love about it and such a beautiful space to they did such a good job with reimagining everything. Yeah, the color the kind of variety in the collection of restaurants is really great it's pretty diverse in terms of we've got strip steak which is, you know going to be chef Michael Mina, it definitely has this upscale mainland. We've gone into it and experienced to it, and then next door we've got a bakery which is really approachable for families, locals obviously love the bakery know the bakery, but it's always fun for us to share with our visitors. Hey, are you aware of the bakery you know what they want to famous for, and get people in there to experience that, and then eating house chef or Yamaguchi who doesn't love chef Roy and everything he has to offer. And so that concept there really cares to our, you know, local flavors, with an kind of elevated herringbone California coastal so you've got fresh fish you got food you got oysters, who doesn't have oyster hour. Come on. And then that sort of them is money and money is brought in, you know, a really strong local audience to the center. It's awesome to see a local family that kill the news come to come into wiki and really own it and. You know, generate buzz that wasn't there before so it's been, we've loved having money there they did a big Halloween event that was like oh it was like a party over there. And then skybox house I mean talk about resiliency they opened, you know, kind of like for the tail end of the pandemic but it's the same operators. And they saw an opportunity and they went for it the concept is really really great they cater to visitors and locals they've got you know to sports bar they've got who know I can't remember how they have all these TVs are there. My husband was just there the other day with his friends awesome. They started six in the morning they're open at six in the morning. And they've got the branding is just really really strong and they have great food. So it's awesome to see them thriving and doing all this really cool outdoor space that a tailgate space for those of you haven't seen it you've got to go check it out they've got a whole food truck out there and like a spigot so it looks like a beer can be your app but it's it's a fountain. Don't get up here. And then sure fire you know through the pandemic sure fire was so creative in the way that they operated the way that they said let's support local musicians let's bring music musicians into the into the restaurant. And they charge a ticket price that ticket price go straight to paying the musicians, people came, they supported they were sold out every week and I celebrated my birthday there was Mike love played I think it was. And you know they had natty vibes they've got all kinds of great artists who've come in and played on their line I, and that sort of, I think, really put sure fire, top of mind for a lot of the local customers who didn't know what was going on a white key. And then we just recently opened cracking kitchen. And they're like one of those seafood cross seafood bakes great for families, just really interactive and fun approachable price points, and, you know, adding to the overall experience, just kind of rounding out that diversity of the ground that I have been great. And then downstairs we've got coup avenue football so someone's looking for something quick and fast. Yeah, other whole like the whole thing another variety of food you can have. We're lucky here that there's just so much variety, and that everyone has been really great and supportive of each other's success. I have a meeting at two o'clock today to go over the New Year's Eve, New Year's Eve event and it's so awesome to have all of these amazing restaurant operators come together and share their ideas, share, you know their experience with each other, and support each other. It's, it's incredible, like right, the work that they're all doing together is really impressive and I'm proud and honored to be able to be part, a small part of that, and thankful that they have, you know, folks like the Hawaii Rational Association to continue to support them in that space. Yeah, well thank you you know and thank you so much for taking the time to really talk about international marketplace I think, as you've mentioned right it was before such a, what we thought of it as like a tourist location and destination and, you know, to see a lot of the locals especially during the pandemic come out and really support. You know, we forget sometimes, especially in Waikiki right because it's so touristy. We do forget that locals are still needed in these places right they're wanted they you know it's it's not only for people coming. Cool. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. We're the locals, what beer are the locals drinking we're the locals you probably want to know that's a good stuff. Yeah, exactly so you know and it's so great to have you guys as our partner as well you know I mean, to really be supporting the restaurant supporting us as well. And we want to make sure that we support you guys to so thank you so much for joining us and giving us, you know little background and some history but also encouraging everybody to get out and still continue to support our restaurants because we know even though we're somewhat getting back to normal we're not there there's so many other factors and happy to support and we're so excited to have everyone at the 75th anniversary dine around. Thank you again for Malia for joining us. Of course it's my pleasure thank you so much. And again as we mentioned our 75th dine around anniversary event will be on Tuesday, December 6 from five to 730pm. And if you are interested in joining us and coming to celebrate please email us at info at Koi restaurant.org. And as always the HRA is the voice of Hoy's restaurants and food service industry. If you would like more information please feel free to reach out to us. Thank you again everyone.