Lahaina: biggest little town in Hawaii
By Don Chapman
In Lahaina the sugar cane grows
in Lahaina the living is slow
in Lahaina the mango is sweet
but the centipede it crawls all over your feet.
"Lahaina," Loggins & Messina
Being assigned to write a story about the town of Lahaina is the journalistic equivalent of winning the lottery. Seldom is research so much fun.
"People fly from all over the world to party in Lahaina," says entertainer Willie K. And he should know. Willie grew up in Lahaina and began performing there. He's taken that ethos with him. Whether he's playing in his home town, in Waikiki or on the Mainland, it's always a party, a little bit of Lahaina.
Lucien Charbonnier, who runs Maui restaurants Chez Paul, Orient Express and Lobster Cove and lives in Lahaina, echoes Willie: "This has always been the party town."
Indeed, Lahaina is to "a good time" what Don Ho is to mellow, a definitive example.
The little town also boasts one of the loveliest natural settings in Hawaii. Lahaina is tucked between the base of the steep, green West Maui Mountains on one side and the edge of the deep, blue Pacific Ocean on the other. Although Pu`u Kukui, a native rainforest just six miles away in the West Maui Mountains, rises to 5,788 feet elevation and receives about 400 inches of rain a year, making it one of the wettest places on Earth, Lahaina is in its lee and receives less than five inches of precipitation annually. It is one of the sunniest spots in Hawaii.
The waters off Lahaina are relatively calm, protected from wind and waves by the mass of Maui and by sister islands Molokai to the east and Kahoolawe and Lanai to the south. Locals refer to Lahaina's kaiolohia (Hawaiian for tranquil sea) as "the birthing room" because so many humpback whales give birth to their young just offshore.
Front Street, a narrow two-laner with wooden sidewalks in some sections, runs parallel to the shore and presents a charming mix of art galleries, restaurants, art galleries, retail shops, restaurants, art galleries, scrimshaw shops, bars, restaurants and art galleries. There are beaches at both ends of town. Ships of every size and description from fishing sampans to the luxury cruise liner QE2 anchor offshore.
By day, Maui visitors have a choice of outdoor activities.
And by night, there's the lure of Lahaina's lights.
The town's setting and lifestyle are major reasons why producer Don Bellisario last month began shooting the two-hour pilot "Crowfoot" for CBS in Lahaina. Bellisario is the guy who made Tom Selleck a household word with "Magnum, P.I."
(Plot-wise: Crowfoot is a half-American Indian, half-German detective who uses his psychic powers to solve crimes with a Native Hawaiian female sidekick. This scenario would seem preposterous only to those who don't know Lahaina.)
"People ask me why Don Bellisario chose to write a show specifically for Lahaina when there are so many other places in the world," says Georja Skinner, film commissioner for Maui. "The answer is simple: There is only one Lahaina."
It's been that way since the ali`i (chiefs) of old Hawaii used Lahaina as their playground. Lahaina was a particular favorite of Alexander Liholiho, King Kamehameha II. In fact, Lahaina was capital of the kingdom for many years.
Whalers turned Lahaina into party central of the Pacific during the mid-1800s. The influence of those days is still so strong at places like the Pioneer Inn, you'd think it was just yesterday that sea-weary whalers on liberty were carousing and careening down Front Street's boardwalk. In fact, it was the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania in 1859 -- 135 years ago -- that brought an end to Maui's whaling industry. Kerosene suddenly replaced whale oil in Americans' lamps and Hawaii's leading economic activity was effectively harpooned. Lahaina nearly became a ghost town.
Then the American Civil War, 1861-65, cut the North's supply of sugar from the South and created Hawaii's sugar industry. On Maui, men such as Samuel Alexander, Henry Baldwin and Claus Spreckels became immensely wealthy. Lahaina became a busy plantation town. The Pioneer Sugar Mill is a vestige of those days when sugar was king.
The town continues to change with the times. This time around, Lahaina has created an appealing new image for the `90s and beyond. The difference is that today there are so many more ways to have fun. For a (diversified) good time, call L-A-H-A-I-N-A.
How do you have fun in Lahaina? Let me count the ways.
Did I mention art galleries and restaurants?
"Lahaina is the art capital of the world," Willie K. asserts. "Except for Paris, of course."
Stroll down Front Street and in eight blocks you'll find a dozen art galleries, two each by Christian Riese Lassen and Wyland, who is best known for his "Whaling Walls" around the world. Lassen, who moved to Maui in 1968 at the age of 10 with his parents and graduated from Lahainaluna High School, is one of town's most successful artists with other galleries in Haleiwa, San Francisco, Las Vegas and La Jolla. And he recently signed an agreement with Disney to incorporate their figures into three paintings. Not bad for a guy who admits: "I try to surf every day." The first Disney work, "The Sorcerer of the Sea," depicts Mickey Mouse in his classic role as the sorcerer's apprentice, directing life below the sea from a hillside. The second painting is due for a June release featuring the Little Mermaid.
Art is not limited to Front Street. There are also galleries in the Lahaina Cannery Center, Whalers Market, Whalers Village and in nearby hotels at Kaanapali and Kapalua.
Art even has its own day of the week. As the locals say: "Friday Night is Art Night in Lahaina." Every Friday evening, there's live musical entertainment and artists are present in galleries to talk with patrons.
This is such a big deal in Lahaina that every June, on the anniversary of the first Friday Night is Art Night, they close down Front Street to vehicles and have an artsy block party! We are not making this up. Art is big in Lahaina. In fact, as a major party event, the anniversary of Art Night is exceeded only by Halloween. Only in Lahaina.
They might as well celebrate the day that Robert Lyn Nelson moved to Maui. That was in 1977.
"There wasn't much going on in Lahaina then," Nelson recalls. "There were two little galleries. The popular work of the time was ships in the fog. An artist, G.S. Hills, was mass-producing them. I've heard he's now on the East Coast."
Nelson had come to Maui to do a series of paintings on the history of Hawaii whaling.
"The perspective was above the water. And the whales were always the victors in those paintings," Nelson says. "They knocked over boats, things like that."
Nelson began scuba diving and "found rather by accident that the animals underwater are really beautiful. But nobody was painting them. I sort of stumbled onto the idea of painting a whale underwater."
That was in `77 and quickly led to Nelson's much-imitated style of painting scenes above and below the surface of the ocean. Nelson's marine art quite literally put Lahaina on the map. Galleries began to flourish. Nelson fulfilled a dream by opening his own gallery on Front Street last month. He has another in Monterey.
"When I started, nobody was doing marine art. But today it's everywhere, world-wide. In all modesty, I do feel responsible for creating marine art (as a genre)," Nelson says. Appropriately, he was honored at the just-concluded Maui Marine Art Expo, for which the theme was "The Masters."
One of the nice things about living in Lahaina, says Nelson, is the restaurants.
"We travel a lot and I really prefer the local food, mostly because of the fish," Nelson says. "There are so many good restaurants in Lahaina, I love to eat here."
Ironically, the food scene began to change at the same time that Nelson was changing the art scene.
"When I first came over in 1973, there were four restaurants in Lahaina, none of them what you'd call great, and just one traffic light," recalls Charbonnier, a native of Belgium. "The dogs were still sleeping in the street -- and they weren't bothered too often."
These days, Lahaina is the capital of Hawaii Regional Cousine, the movement by young local chefs to create a blend of tastes from around the Pacific Rim with local produce. (Random House will publish a book of their recipes this year.) In recent months, national magazines Bon Apetit, Gourmet, Food & Wine, the Wine Spectator, Gentleman's Quarterly and Conde Nast Traveler have focused attention on Lahaina's lively cousine scene.
"There's no question, this is a hot spot for good food," says David Paul, owner-chef of David Paul's Lahaina Grill, which opened at the Lahaina Hotel in 1989. "The other night, I had a table full of some of the top restaurateurs in the country. They were on a scouting trip. The word has gotten out about Lahaina. We're sort of like Aspen -- a resort town where people do things outdoors during the day and then in the evening have a choice of great restaurants. I make that comparison because I brought in a guest chef from Aspen and he knew six of the people at our tables from their trips to Aspen. We're getting the same kind of clientele.
"Nobody has a higher standard of professionalism than we do in Lahaina. There are only a couple of restaurants in Honolulu that can compare. It's not just the food -- anybody can cook a steak -- it's also the service. We're still laid-back. Maui wouldn't be Maui if its wasn't laid-back. But you can still be skilled and professional."
The success of owner-chef Mark Ellman at his Avalon restaurant on Front Street, quickly got the attention of other restaurateurs, among others. Ellman, an instrumental force in creating Hawaii Regional Cousine, was asked to cook for Bryant Gumbel and Willard Scott when the "Today Show" visited Maui.
"When Avalon opened in January 1988, there was only Longhi's, Gerard's and Chez Paul doing anything exciting, that was it," recalls Ellman. "We were the first to start doing a Pacific Rim style of food. Really, Hawaii Regional Cousine is just modern Trader Vic's. He had the right idea. We've just sophisticated it, taken it to another level."
Longhi's is the landmark restaurant that Bob Longhi decided to open during the third day of a Lahaina vacation in 1976.
"I'd been in the insurance business for 18 years in New York City and Washington D.C.," Longhi recalls. "I came over here on vacation and never went back. And I'd never been in the restaurant business before."
Longhi's opened in 1977, the year that Nelson did his first undersea painting.
Down the street at Gerard's French Restaurant, Gerard Reversade soon developed a legion of devotees, as did Charbonnier at Chez Paul in the nearby berg of Olowalu.
But Lahaina's reputation as a food town really began with "Bob Apetit." Longhi's has been one of Hawaii's top-grossing independent restaurants in the state for years. He's been so successful that Longhi is a part-owner of the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Asociation.
"Bob still serves the best breakfast in town," says Ellman, who worked at Longhi's for a year and a half before setting out on his own. "I think the competition has been good for all of us. I know that keeping up with the Jonses has made me a better chef and it's made Avalon a better restaurant." Though just six years old, Avalon recently underwent a total facelift and expanded.
As leases expire on some of the retail shops on Front Street -- the best-named of which is the women's clothing store Apparels of Pauline -- new restaurants will probably replace them. At least 10 new restaurants are in various stages of development.
There have already been plenty of recent changes: The former J.J.'s Beach Grill is now Pacifico. Upstairs, the former night club Studio 505 (past owners include rockers Huey Lewis and Steven Stills) is now an Italian restaurant, Casa de Mateo. That leaves Blue Tropics and Longhi's as the only places to go dancing in Lahaina.
Planet Hollywood, a music-oriented restaurant, is due to open by June. It is described as being similar to the Hard Rock Cafe.
One positive change is that a new community plan has been agreed upon. It includes a beautification program that will put Front Street's overhead utility wires underground.
Happily, some things never change. The Lahaina Yacht Club is still a bastion of local color and characters. "Some people have been sitting on the same bar stools for the past 20 years," says Skinner. "Don't ya love tradition?"
When it is suggested to Longhi that Lahaina is "one of the best places in Hawaii," he quickly interjects: "How about in the whole world? To me, this is really the perfect town. It's changed, but not that much. It's still a great place to live. It's not too big, but there's a lot going on. The weather is great, the people are friendly, I can go barefoot any time I want. And you can still breathe the air. That's what first attracted me."
The quality of life is reflected in the remarkable number of outdoor activities available.
"There are few places in the world that offer such a range of activities in such a small area," says Craig Hill, president of Activity Information Centers.
For starters, Maui's golf courses and tennis resorts are world class. There's unmatched hiking and kayaking.
"And Lahaina Harbor alone offers so many things," says Hill. "There's big game and bottom fishing. You can ride in a submarine, on a glass-bottom boat, on a fast sailing boat, or an ocean rafts, one of which can go 60 mph. There are dinner sails, lunch sails, whale watching cruises, trips to Lanai for lunch or for snorkling. One boat runs out to Molokini. The Windjammer has just been refurbished and the Navatek 2 is coming to Lahaina. It's not just the range of activities that is remarkable, it's the choices available once you've made up your mind what you want to do."
Hill adds that two of the best deals in Lahaina are free: "We have a historical guide that has self-guided historical tours of Lahaina," he says. "It's a lot of fun and it's free. And during the winter and early spring, I like to have lunch at Kimo's. You can do whale-watching from your table.
"That's another of the things that makes Lahaina special. There's not many places where your lunch entertainment is watching a mother whale and her baby swim free in the ocean."
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