‘Imiloa’s Sky Garden Restaurant Announces Dinner Service Thursdays through Saturday

05/30/2008

Hilo, Hawai‘i – ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center today formally announces expanded meal service hours for its in-house Sky Garden Restaurant. The restaurant, run by long-time Hilo restaurant operators Andy and Lin Cheng, will now be open for dinner three nights a week, starting this week, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights from 5p.m. to 8 p.m. For dinner, the restaurant switches from its day-time, all-American and buffet menu to a Mandarin-Chinese menu.

“We are pleased to have the community enjoy ‘Imiloa at night in our restaurant,” said Ka’iu Kimura, associate director of ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center, “and having the restaurant open evenings provides us with ways to enhance some of our evening educational and special programs.”

Since January 2, the Chengs have been the operators of the ‘Imiloa café space. They re-named the ‘Imiloa Café the Sky Garden Restaurant and slowly began introducing its menu, and expanding the service and hours of operation. Today, Sky Garden Restaurant is open for breakfast at 7 am and offers its breakfast menu throughout the day. Start one’s day with espresso, cappuccino, latte, mocha or chai latte or one of six specialty teas offered. The breakfast menu includes a range of breakfast sandwiches, country breakfast offerings local style with Portuguese sausage, Spam, and other meats, to a variety of omelets. It is becoming a new breakfast meeting option for groups, and stopping place before work.

At lunch time, from 10:30 am to 4 pm, Sky Garden Restaurant offers burgers, sandwiches, soup and salads, a salad bar, and a daily changing buffet that has become very popular. There’s also a keiki (children’s) menu, and two local soup dishes: saimin and Chinese beef noodle soup.

At dinner time, the Chinese menu will include soups, appetizers, rice and noodles, as well as entrees that include seafood, vegetable dishes, beef, pork and chicken prepared in Mandarin or Taiwan style. Recently, Sky Garden Restaurant at ‘Imiloa received its liquor license and is able to provide wine and beer service to guests.

The Cheng family previously operated the Ting Hao Restaurant for nearly 15 years at Puainako Shopping Center, then moved their restaurant to the Naniloa Hotel on Banyan Drive. The Ting Hao restaurant at the hotel closed in 2006 when the lease expired. The Chengs also operated for nearly ten years a Chinese restaurant in Kona. Both Andy and Lin Cheng have long family tradition and experience operating restaurants. Lin Cheng’s family operates restaurants in Shanghai, China and Andy’s family has been involved in Chinese restaurants in Hilo for over 25 years.

The restaurant is also open whenever ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center is open, such as Memorial and Labor Days and during special evening programming. It began Friday night service last week when ‘Imiloa introduced its new weekly planetarium music program, “Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon,” and was open Thursday nights for six weeks while the ‘Imiloa Planetarium’s “Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Cosmos,” was running. The restaurant had also begun to open for the Center’s monthly “Maunakea Skies,” planetarium presentation on the last Saturday of the month.

“It’s been a slow and deliberate building of our capacity and experience to run evening programs and to have evening dinner service,” said Carlos Moller, ‘Imiloa facilities manager, who said that the Chengs have worked closely with ‘Imiloa to coordinate and collaborate on operations. As a LEEDS-certified building, the Center strives to be “green” and efficient and prudent in its use of energy.

Opened in 2006, ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai‘i is a part of the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. The Center celebrates both Hawaiian culture and Maunakea astronomy. Through its exhibits and program, ‘Imiloa strives to share inspiring examples of science and culture together advancing knowledge, understanding and opportunity. The Center is located at 600 ‘Imiloa Place in Hilo, off Komohana and Nowelo Streets at the UH-Hilo Science and Technology Park. For more information, go to www.imiloahawaii.org" or call (808) 969-9700.

Media Contact:
Gloria Chun Hoo
‘Imiloa Astronomy Center
808-969-9705
gchunhoo@imiloahawaii.org

Vincent Recinto
‘Imiloa Astronomy Center
808-969-9714
vrecinto@imiloahawaii.org