Liz’s big move to the Harbor
Elizabeth Hata Watanabe, owner of the popular O Lounge, fulfills a dream by opening Harbor Court Bistro
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Watanabe urges.
Although I cringe at bananas, I gave it a try - with a french fry, of course. And it was really good.
“Try the homemade sorbet, it’s so good. We make all our ice cream in house.”
OK, gave that a try and nearly ate the whole thing without thinking that I still had a lot more on the table.
Next, the house bread rolls, which also are made fresh daily.
Hot out of the oven, it smelled so good that I had to pop it in my mouth. Minus the burning sensation, I give it a two thumbs up.
“Oh my gosh, you have to try the flavored waters,” says Watanabe. “When I was younger I always drank cucumber water and so I asked Chef to make some, and they are so good.”
I gulped down the cherry water, then alternated between the lemon and goji water. As a person who avoids juice because of the sugary empty calories, I really appreciated having a yummy drink that was actually good for me.
The Portobello Mushroom Sandwich was the highlight of my food feast. Anon-meat eater, I have tried many vegetarian burgers/sandwiches. This has to be one of my favorites!
And there are many that I still have to try, like the King Crab Lobster Bisque, Miso Glazed Salmon and Jasmine Rice, French Maui Onion Soup, Green Papaya and Jumbo Shrimp Salad, Dragon Shrimp and Red Wine Poached Pear.
And for the meat lover, there are selections such as the Kalbi Chicken Sandwich, Rosemary Leg of Lamb, Classic Meat Combo Pizza, Prime Rib and the Prime Burger.
To accompany the array of eclectic food choices is an equally eclectic décor. Watanabe searched high and low for the interior decorator who designed a spa that she loved. And after finding her designer, Maura Fujijira, Watanabe did what she says she learned after years as a business owner, which is to let people do what they do best.
“After hunting her down, she agreed to do this project with me,” laughs Watanabe. “It’s very crisp, modern and is intertwined with traditional. There’s a warm, old vintage feel.”
Watanabe’s ambition to own a business started many years before she
even knew what owning a business meant. At the age of 5, Watanabe moved to Hawaii from Mexico to live with her grandparents, Minoru and Shigeko Hata.
“I think I had a really average childhood,” says Watanabe. “My grandparents were very strict about studying, and there was really little socializing and playing around. But the one thing is they always made me feel like there is nothing I couldn’t do if I tried. That to this day, I believe. I can’t get in my head saying you can’t do something.”
Growing up in the Y. Hata shop on Ilalo Street, and surrounded by others who were business owners, it became almost ingrained in her from an early age that owning a business is “what everyone did.”
She says it wasn’t until she was older that she realized that not everyone owned a business, but still she was hard set on one day owning one of her own.
For Watanabe, the reality of it came fairly early and at a very interesting time in her life - just after the birth of her son, Kevin. Along with her bouncing baby boy, Watanabe bounced on the scene with the opening of the night club The O Lounge.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I need to do something really serious with my life,‘and I was really mistakenly fooled into thinking that a night club would allow me time during the day to spend with my child and at night I could work,” says Watanabe. “It didn’t work out that way.”
The realities of owning a business and being a full-time mom became quite a lot for Watanabe to manage. Completely new to the business world, Watanabe relied on her “everything is possible” attitude to put everything into focus.
“I’d like to say that priority, to me, was always family, but I had a really difficult time making that switch,” says Watanabe, who is the only female sole owner of a night club in Hawaii. “When I first opened The O Lounge, my head really hit the wall and I realized I had to choose which is more important. My enlightenment was really learning what it meant to put family first and prioritize. I found out that there’s no such thing as being a part-time mom or part-time business owner. I made a conscious decision that I wanted to be a full-time mom.”
Also a full-time wife to husband of five years, Kevin,Watanabe really embraces her family life, with which she says she has been blessed. Kevin, a Pearl City graduate, has been with the Honolulu Police Department for 21 years.
Traveling, which was a big priority for the Hata family when Watanabe was younger, has become a regular activity for her family as well. While attending Aina Haina Elementary School, Niu Valley Middle School and Kalani High School, Watanabe spent a lot of time traveling the world.
“My mom had us traveling from when we were 3 months old,” says Watanabe, who is trilingual (Spanish, English and Japanese).
“And my grandparents always emphasized to travel when you’re young.”
All grown up, Watanabe is taking on the world in her own way. Besides traveling with her family, she has immersed herself in community service and helping charitable causes, especially those dealing with children and homelessness.
“I believe that only in trying to initiate change that we can make a difference, so that’s when I decided that I wanted to get involved in all of these different organizations that I believed in,” says Watanabe, who is a board member of Manoa Valley Theatre, YWCA and the Hawaii Performing Arts Foundation.
Watanabe’s work with charitable organizations expanded through her very own Women’s Closet and Children’s Closet, which she started about two years ago at The O Lounge. The event features fashion shows, manicures, game areas, makeovers, massages and a huge discount off clothes, jewelry, accessories and items from local businesses.
“Both events came about with the intent to get the community involved in some things that I felt needed more awareness, and they are 100 percent for charity,” says Watanabe. “It’s my way to emphasize supporting local businesses, as well as organizations. Through both of these closets, I have been able to work with more than 20 organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, Child and Family Service, Next Step Shelter.”
This year, Watanabe will unveil her own nonprofit charitable organization in memory of her grandfather, called the Hata Foundation.
“The emphasis and the focus will be to help children in different transitional stages of their lives who are facing some form of hardship,” says Watanabe. “I worked with one organization to help a little boy, and he had made mention that he had applied to other organizations and he didn’t fit the criteria. And I just thought, that’s so unfair that so many children must fall through the cracks. As a mom, you just can’t think of a child not having hope or help.”
Watanabe has managed to maintain a healthy balance with family, community and work. All intertwined where it needs to be, separate when it should be and “watered” where she wants it to be.
“I learned a really neat thing from a guest speaker at our service that made sense of something that is so cliché,” says Watanabe. “Don’t think the grass is greener on the other side, the grass is greener where you water it. It’s where you take care of it, cultivate it and focus on that it will flourish. I think that’s so powerful.”
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