Pacifico Pizza Napoletana will open its second location in Kapolei during Thanksgiving week, giving area residents a taste of the four different pizza styles that Kaneohe residents have been scarfing down for years, not to mention the calzones, garlic and cinnamon knots, salads and more.
It’s in the Kapolei shopping complex anchored by Safeway, said Alastair Hannmann, who owns and operates the mom-and-pop business with his wife, Brittany.
A new wood-burning oven made in Naples was ordered for the new location, a former Boston’s North End Pizza. Ironic, as the Hannmanns met working at Boston’s stores in Hawaii Kai and Kaimuki before moving to the Kaneohe operation, which they have since taken over. They got married along the way, and rebranded the Kaneohe shop earlier this year.
At about 1,000 square feet, the Kapolei location is smaller than the Kaneohe restaurant, but “there’s a ton of outdoor seating … 20 to 30 people are going to be able to sit outside,” he said.
“We’re just doing some slight remodeling, updating the facade and replacing old equipment,” he said. The new location also will have a garden to grow herbs for the restaurant’s pizzas and other dishes.
The Hannmanns also have a mobile wood-burning oven that they’ve used to take their pizzas to the Ward Village farmers markets.
Island Olive Oil growing, too
The new owner of Island Olive Oil Co. in Ward Center is planning an expansion.
“Actually, we’re trying to expand into two more locations,” said Brian Foster, who bought the business from founder Dana Bergeman a few months ago. Foster is considering the Windward and west sides of Oahu, likely Kailua and Kapolei, perhaps to open by spring.
The store sells extra virgin olive oils, specialty oils and balsamic vinegars imported from various places around the world, as well as macadamia nut oils made in Hawaii, many of them infused with additional flavors. It also sells other gourmet food products, as well as accessories for use with the oils and vinegars. Customers can sample the oils and vinegars to make tastebud-informed purchases.
Bergeman opened a second Island Olive Oil at Royal Hawaiian Center in 2013, but it has since closed, Foster said.
He said he bought the business because he “loved the product so much,” comparing his decision to that of the late Victor Kiam, a businessman who bought Remington Products Co. because he liked the company’s shaver so much. Kiam starred in Remington’s commercials for more than a decade.
Foster worked in missile defense weapons systems in the Middle East for several years. “I was fortunate, blessed, to be able to put some money away. And I wanted to come home,” he said.
But once home he didn’t get right back into the workforce. A lunch with his mother changed that.
“Get your own company,” she told him. She has her own company, an uncle has his own company, and so on. “That’s not a bad idea,” Foster told his mother.
Yes, for the record, yet another mom was right.
O
n the net:
http://pacificopizzahawaii.com
http://islandoliveoil.com
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