FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                   March 16, 2006

Release M-33-06

NEW CAFÉ OPENS AT BLAISDELL CENTER

CONCERT HALL

            Mayor Mufi Hannemann and officials from Centerplate, Lion Coffee and the City Department of Enterprise Services will celebrate the grand opening of the new Lion Pride Café at the Blaisdell Center at 8 a.m. tomorrow (Friday, March 17).

            Hannemann will be a guest on the Bobby Curran Show on KKEA Radio (AM 1420), which will be broadcast live from the Lion Pride Café.

            The café is located on the Diamond Head lanai of the Blaisdell Concert Hall and features Lion coffee, tea, soft drinks, pastries, sandwich wraps and other items. The café is open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

            It’s a venture of Centerplate, which holds the food and beverage concession at the Blaisdell Center and Lion Coffee, a subsidiary of the Hawaii Coffee Company and the world’s largest buyer and roaster of Kona coffee. 

            “The City provides the space as part of the Blaisdell concession and receives revenue from the café,” said Sidney Quintal, director of the City Department of Enterprise Services. 

            “This is just the kind of public-private partnership my administration is seeking to foster in order to make the best use of the City’s limited resources,” said Mayor Mufi Hannemann. “Our Department of Enterprise Services, which operates the Blaisdell, the Waikiki Shell, Honolulu Zoo and our municipal golf courses is building an impressive record of innovative entrepreneurship.”

            The café opened for business on March 1 with little fanfare, and it’s already growing a steady clientele from nearby Straub Clinic and the hundreds of commuters who park daily at the Blaisdell Center.

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Contact:

            Bill Brennan, 527-6928

            Mark Matsunaga, 527-5767