Building Industry Magazine - July 2012 - (Page 106)

Top Eats: A Different Perspective BY JASON SOEDA AND JOCELYN NYSTROM La Tour Café’s team includes (from left): Trung Lam, managing member; Travis Inouye, executive chef/general manager; Brandon Lam, managing member; and Rodney Weddle, managing member. Popular items include (clockwise from top): margharita pizza ($10), macaroons ($1.50 each), liège waffles ($3.50), meatball banh mi ($7.90), crispy goat cheese and beet salad ($7.50) and croque monsieur ($8.90). Photo by Jocelyn Nystrom Building Industry’s annual lunch report is back! Every July, we profile the island’s top eateries, including mom-and-pop restaurants, lunch trucks and a few diamonds in the rough. This year, we focus on several lunchtime hotspots putting a whole new spin on the term “local kine grindz.” Cool Café We begin this report with a visit to La Tour Café, a casual-upscale eatery located in the renovated and revitalized Weyerhauser building on the corner of Alakawa Street and Nimitz Highway. The atmosphere inside is crisp, clean and refreshingly simple. Opened by Brandon Lam and his business partners, his brother Trung Lam and Rodney Weddle, La Tour Café offers hungry builders a decidedly different experience from the prototypical plate lunch shops and lunch trucks. Instead of overflowing plate lunches heavy on protein and carbs, patrons come for items such as the croquet monsieur ($8.90), quiche Lorraine ($6.90) and the meatball banh mi ($7.90). Managing member Brandon 106 | BUILDING INDUSTRY | JULY 2012 Lam says since La Tour Café’s grand opening, builders come in daily, seemingly in the mood for something different, prepared with fresh and local ingredients, which is also affordable. “We’ve been open a little over a year and a half and during that time, we’ve noticed that the construction industry customers have been steady

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Building Industry Magazine - July 2012

Contents July 2012
Hawaii’s Top 25 Contractors
Educating for the Industry
Surviving a Tough Economy
Top Eats
News Beat
Forest City Completes $312M Neighborhood
2012 CAK Home Show Streams Live
Keokea Beach Park Renovation Completed
La Tour Bakehouse Partners with RevoluSun
Pier 29 Construction Complete
NAIOP Awards Honor Commercial Development
NAVFAC Awards $46.6M Contract
Departments
Datebook
Best Practices
Contracts Awarded
Concept to Completion: Marriott’s Ko Olina Beach Club, Phase 5
Low Bids
Spotlight on Success: BEQ, MCBH
News Makers
New Products
July's Features

Building Industry Magazine - July 2012