A previous post brought another wonderful culinary and architectural memory from the Pacific to my mind: A July 1981 dinner at Canlis´, "The World´s Most Beautiful Restaurant", in Honolulu.
The language of advertisements is often exaggerated, but in this case it came close to the truth; Both the exterior, and particularly the interior of the Honolulu Canlis´ restaurant were architecturally stunning. The restaurant was designed by the legendary Honolulu architect, George J. "Pete" Wimberly, who, when he died in 1996 at the age of 80, had established himself as perhaps the most succesful resort architect in the world. G
In an arcticle in the Honolulu Weekly ( Dec. 2000), Curt Sanburn describes Wimberly´s design:
Cur
... "and, of course, Canlis’ Restaurant (1954), which seemed to be everyone’s sentimental favorite of Wimberly’s buildings. With its open-air dining room, bold Polynesian decorations, wall of orchid plants, koi pond, garden setting and legendary kitchen, Canlis’ Restaurant asserted Honolulu’s status as a uniquely stylish crossroads-of-the-world in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Indeed, palm-lined Kaläkaua Avenue itself, with all of its Wimberly-designed buildings, was among the most gracious boulevards of any tropical city in the world".
Also the owner and founder of the restaurant, Peter Canlis was legendary. In the early 80´s he owned three top class Canlis restaurants; the most famous one in Honolulu, one in San Fransisco and one in Seattle.
On July 16, 1981, my dinner at the Canlis´ included the following delicious "Canlis´ Special Salad":
Try it. You will not be disappointed!
PS
The Canlis family still operates the fine restaurant in Seattle, but sadly the Honolulu Canlis´ is gone.
