town

There are some places I eat because they have great food. Some places I eat because they have a soul. Then there are the rarer ones that serve great food without having sold their soul along the way. It's great food with a clear conscience.

Meet town, located on the corner of 9th and Waialae in Kaimuki.

Straight off their menu, the vision of town is, "Local first, organic whenever possible, with Aloha always." For owner/chef Ed Kenney it's a passion that extends beyond the restaurant's four walls as he champions local ingredients in classrooms, farms, markets and conferences around Hawaii. To hear him talk food, his words tripping over themselves with excitement, is to get a glimpse inside the heart of a chef who isn't just jumping on the "eat local" bandwagon as marketing. He's a believer.

Conviction doesn't mean compromised taste either. There's a good reason town won last year's Hale Aina Gold Award for Best Bistro. The menu, loosely California cuisine with an Italian influence, changes daily to take advantage of whatever is freshest. You can get a feel for what to expect from my recent visit.

The strength of this plate was the diced ahi, served on a risotto cake with scallions, piquant capers and balsamic vinegar. It's hard to go wrong with fresh ahi.
Clams are clams; you like them or you don't. (I do.) In this case, it's the broth that truly shines. I was scrounging for bits of bread to sop up the light cinzano broth long after the clams had been devoured. Our server almost collected the empty yet soupy bowl until she saw the murderous look in my eye.
The flatbread, topped with fresh mozarella, basil leaves and locally grown tomatoes, sounded better than it tasted. The portion is good for sharing, but was bland enough not to bother; our one disappointment from the evening.
I'm a sucker for confit in general, and duck confit in particular. Slow cooking duck in salt and it's own fat concentrates the flavor while keeping the meat moist. The leg was served with a bed of braised bitter greens, pine nuts, amazingly plump golden raisins and a kohlrabi puree.
The fresh fish selection for the evening was ono, simply dressed with a meyer lemon and caper berry butter.
Town's ribeye is a generous 13oz. cut of Kulana grass-fed beef, proportioned for those who brought an appetite. It was heavy on the seasoning for my tastes, but delicious meat nonetheless.

Also sampled that same evening were:

• gnocchi in sage butter ($16) - a perfect comfort food, rich and fun to chew
• hand-cut tagliatte with fennel sausage and Hamakua mushrooms - heavy on the tomato, but we were willing to overlook that because the homemade fennel sausage held a little party in our mouths
• chocolate and apple banana "banini" - town's signature dessert doesn't do much for me, but most people really like the combo of toasted bread, bittersweet chocolate and bananas
• "milk and honey" buttermilk pannacotta - an ideal dessert, not too heavy or sweet

Town also serves a breakfast crowd, drawing regulars from the neighborhood to create that Cheers' "where everybody knows your name". The Elvis scones and Lime in the Coconut scones ($1.75) are both popular, as is the Egg, Fontina and Prosciuto Panino ($3.75, a steal!). Coffee beats Starbucks in both taste and price ($1.50), including free refills. To top it all off, town offers free wifi internet to feed your non-food addictions. Breakfast is casual drop-in, but reservations are recommended for lunch or dinner.

The vibe at town is hip, dressed with rotating artwork, mellow mood lighting from cool Mark Chai lamps and brushed steel tabletops. The space can at times be loud with sound bouncing off a poured concrete floor, but rarely so loud that it annoys. Half the fun is checking out my fellow hipper-than-me diners. I've dined alongside movie stars, Lost cast members, other chefs from around town and local artists, all of them stopping in for good food with a conscience.

Now for the disclaimer: Town is my home away from home. I know Ed, Chef Dave Caldiero and most of the staff on a first name basis after months of spending more of my dining budget here than anywhere else in Hawaii. Yes, I'm probably biased, but I wouldn't keep coming back unless it were good. Fortunately, I'm not the only one who likes town:

→ Honolulu Magazine has an interview with Ed along with a couple of recipes.
→ I can't tell which Honolulu Star-Bulletin food critic Nadine Kim prefers more, the food or her fellow diners.
→ Helen Wu of the Honolulu Advertiser, "Sitting on Wai'alae Avenue as if it had always belonged there, Town is a valuable addition to Kaimuki's eateries."

town
3435 Waialae Ave
Kaimuki, HI 96816
808-735-5900
www.townkaimuki.com / info@townkaimuki.com
6:30am - 9:00pm (last seating) Mon - Thurs
6:30am - 9:30pm (last seating) Fri - Sat

Update: in an earlier draft of this post I referred to the flatbread as bruschetta. I don't know what I was thinking, but I've now corrected that. I'm not confident on the pricing of the flatbread, so I've omitted it.