Post #245687 by velveteenlounge on Sat, Jul 29, 2006 4:47 PM

Well, here's the latest about Hawaii Fountain, from today's Times Herald-Record. Sounds like they gutted the inside. I'm consoling myself with the fact that the new owners seem to be keeping the exterior (including the tikis) intact, they're keeping the tropical drinks and some of the old staff. It could be worse, I guess. It could be another chain. The new name will be You You.

July 29, 2006

Landmark eatery under renovation

By John Sullivan
Times Herald-Record
[email protected]

Town of Wallkill - The dynamo waiter known as "Little Johnny" will be back, as will old-time bartenders Victor and Kenny, who served up signature drinks with the umbrellas sticking out.

Those drinks - the Mai Tai, the Pago Pago and the Scorpion - will also be staying.

But after nearly 30 years as a Route 211 landmark, Hawaii Fountain will be no more, to be reincarnated as You You, a Chinese-Japanese establishment to be operated by Louis and Francine Wong.

The couple, who are renovating the building, also own Go-Go, a Chinese-Japanese takeout in a strip mall across from Orange Plaza on Dunning Road.

The Wongs intend to keep Hawaii Fountain's yellow and red exterior - its deeply pitched roof, totem pole and Chinese symbol for "east" - as reminders of the famed predecessor, Louis Wong said.

"It's like trademark," Wong said, explaining his reason for not tampering with the exterior. "It's always been there, and everybody knows it," he said.

The interior, chosen by Francine Wong, will be in black and maroon. Renovations for the new restaurant, the name of which means "relaxed" in Chinese, will also include a sushi bar, about 2,500 square feet of dining space and a new bar, Wong said.

"She pick everything, including the color of the tables," Louis said, detailing the couple's division of labor. "I'm too busy to work."

Wong said he is leasing the restaurant. A Middletown company called W4 Realty Inc. purchased the property, including the adjacent parking lot, in June for $1.25 million.

Opened first in the late 1970s just off Exit 120 on Route 17, Hawaii Fountain has a storied history. Locals, such as Walter Barrett, assistant town building inspector and long-time patron, remember it as one of the first "exotic" upscale restaurants to come to the area.

He remembered the "Hawaii-Five-O" decor - lots of bamboo poles, a water fountain, and a giant chrome cash register - as much as the Polynesian-Chinese cuisine, which included stir-fried food and exotic samplers like the pu pu platter.

Johnny the waiter, who zipped from table to table, might sit down back then for a moment to tell you in broken English about the province he came from in China and the long hours he worked at the restaurant, Barrett said.

Wong said he hired the waiter, who is now 50 or 60 years old, along with several of the other old-timers, all from Canton, China, as a way to maintain professionalism.

"You don't want to jeopardize the operation (by bringing someone new in)," Wong said. Johnny the waiter was not available for an interview this week.

Town Councilman Eric Valentin, who grew up in town, remembers the restaurant as the place he and his friends aspired to take their dates in the late 1970s. It was especially popular around prom time, when teens from Goshen, Middletown and Pine Bush schools would show up for dinner in tuxedos and dresses, he said.

"That was, for lack of a better place, the 'fancy' restaurant," Valentin said, adding that one of the first drinks he had at the restaurant was served in a porcelain glass shaped like a tree trunk.

"It was the first drink I had with an umbrella in it," he said. "That was considered exotic back then."