Hawaii’s first Applebee’s to open in Ewa Beach

Hawaii’s first Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill and Bar will open Oct. 3 in Ewa Beach.

The 3,700- square-foot restaurant at Ewa Town Center on Fort Weaver Road is geared toward serving area residents, said Vince Espino, president and owner of Union MAK Corp., franchisee of Applebee’s. He described the area as a “real neighborhood.”

The restaurant was slated to open Sunday, but company officials said more time was needed to train employees. The company plans to open a second location at Ka Makana Ali‘i, a mixed-use center in Kapolei, in February.

Espino said the 5,500- square-foot Kapolei restaurant will likely serve a regional market, including tourists from nearby Ko Olina. He said Union MAK also plans to open a third location in Kakaako at a later date.

The company has hired nearly 140 employees at the Ewa Beach location, more than 90 percent of whom live in Ewa, Ewa Beach or Waipahu, said Nathan Hughes, Applebee’s Hawaii brand manager. Company officials said they plan to recruit in West Oahu for the estimated 150 workers needed for the Ka Makana Ali‘i restaurant.

Thalia Aguinaldo, a server at the Ewa Beach location who lives nearby, said she used to commute to Waikiki for work, facing hours of rush-hour traffic. The 23-year-old said she is now able to eat dinner with her husband.

“It’s like a peace of mind,” she said. “To know you’ll be there (work) in two minutes instead of two hours, that’s such a blessing.”

Applebee’s has more than 2,000 locations in all 50 states, Guam, Puerto Rico and 15 countries.