B on Hawaii

There hasn't been a whole lot of news coming from The Kahala Hotel since the owners injected their own management team, which has been steadily growing over the past two and a half months since Mandarin officially fled the scene. We at B on Hawaii hadn't heard much of anything, all but a few grumblings, so we decided to investigate and see if anything interesting was brewing at the other end of Kahala Avenue.

Chef Jason Koppinger of the Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort is officially the youngest certified master chef in the United States. The distinction, as classified by the American Culinary Federation and the Culinary Institute of America in New York, has been granted to less than 80 chefs nationwide.

Last month the Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. (ML&P), which owns 23,000 acres of land on Maui's west shore, ended our suspense as to what will take the place of the Kapalua Bay Hotel, slated to be razed this June.

Approximately once a year a few venture capitalists, clad in freshly creased Aloha shirts, emerge on to the Hawaii scene with claims of launching new inter-island air service, thus undercutting the existing majors. From hence forward, that ever-so-familiar phrase, "I remember when it was, like, $50 round-trip to fly outer island..." would cease to be uttered.

And like a Kona wind in late August--they are gone.