Kimo’s Restaurant to celebrate 35 years

Kimo’s Restaurant was founded by Rob Thibaut (left) and the now retired Sandy Saxten.
LAHAINA – The Front Street seawall has withstood several hurricanes and a tsunami over the last 35 years, and the merchants and residents of Lahaina have weathered the recent Great Recession and the economic fallout of 9/11 with similar character strength as well.
Throughout those 35 years, Kimo’s Restaurant has stood tall as the flagship enterprise of T S Restaurants of Hawaii and California and for the business integrity of Lahaina and the State of Hawaii, in general.
Despite the crippling effects of those natural disasters and the economic calamity, Kimo’s Restaurant has stayed the course in maintaining the quality business performance, including consistent production at reasonable prices, while at the same time continuing to employ hundreds of the local workforce at times when neighboring restaurants were shutting down and service industry laborers lined up at the unemployment offices.
Kimo’s was founded over three decades ago by the late Rob Thibaut and the now retired Sandy Saxten, two fresh-faced business entrepreneurs venturing out following college graduation and an introduction to the restaurant field in California.
Since then, the ocean front eatery has forged its way through those tough times and now will celebrate 35 years of unmitigated success with an anniversary celebration later this month.
With eight locations across the state, T S Restaurants features premium seafood and steaks served with carefully selected wines and spirits, along with a signature dessert called “Kimo’s Original Hula Pie” – all presented in a casual ambience of Hawaiian elegance and aloha.
Additionally, prior to opening Duke’s Restaurants on Kauai and in Waikiki, Thibaut and Saxten conferred with representatives of surfing’s legendary icon, Duke Kahanamoku.
Their dedication to genuinely honoring Duke Kahanamoku in the paying forward of the aloha spirit of the Kahanamoku family and of Hawaiian culture in general, which propagates the success of their business to expanding good fortune.
Today, as always, patrons to Kimo’s and to all T S Restaurants are indeed greeted and served with sincere aloha.
At these establishments, the mission is to treat everyone with aloha – training of the staff emphasizes this – and not to be given only the lip service of the philosophy which so often happens in this busy world we live in.
And thus the beauty of this anniversary celebration of 35 years, not only for Kimo’s, but for the character of Old Lahaina Town.