Haute Dogs in Hawaii, From A Chicago Visionary

Henry Adaniya has seen it all in fine-dining. From his days at the legendary Ambria in Chicago, to his launch of Trio in Evanston, he’s worked with some of the country’s best chefs. At Trio alone, he found and nurtured chefs like Gale Gand, Rick Tramonto (the other two prongs of the original Trio); then Shawn McClain, Grant Achatz and finally, Dale Levitski. Not a bad lineup when you consider the odds against most chefs breaking out into success on their own. Adaniya’s last act in Chicago was more puzzling. He decided to hang up the fancy threads and move back to Hawaii, opening up a hot dog joint.

It made sense, of course, since he has family there. But when you consider the success the guy had as a spotter of talent, you would have thought consultants and other would-be restaurateurs from around the country would have been clamoring for him to at least come sit in on their chef tasting/try-out/interviews, and see if he could discern something they could not.

I caught up with Henry in Honolulu a few weeks ago, to grab a dog, and see what he was up to.