Hawaiian Marketplace

What “Hawaiian”? There’s nothing Hawaiian about the Hawaiian Marketplace on the Las Vegas Strip. Nothing at all, unless you want to count the statue of Kamehameha the Great beckoning to people walking and/or driving by.

I remember the first time I passed it and wondering what it was all about. I actually made a conscious decision to avoid the place as from the outside it reminded me of the International Marketplace in Waikiki. And if there’s one thing I didn’t need to do, it was to buy something Hawaiian.

Plus I remember reading horrid remarks in the newspaper from Island people who’d dropped by the place hoping to find a hint of home. They were so disappointed.

And so, I stayed away. Until a couple of weeks ago when some mainland people I was with wanted to check it out and get some key chains, souvenirs and Hawaiian shirts to take home.

Surely, we thought, a shopping area called the “Hawaiian Marketplace” would have what they wanted.

Fat chance. There a bunch of kiosks, but nothing remotely Hawaiian was being sold. Not a thing. Not even postcards of Hawaii. Nada. Not even chocolate-covered macadamia nuts. Zero. Not even tee-shirts with any saying remotely resembling pidgin. No mo’.

So I took them to ABC Drugs in downtown on Fremont. Macnuts galore. Hawaiian shirts galore, Hawaii-themed trinkets galore. Even Aloha Maid and Hawaiian Sun fruit drinks galore. I even saw some coconut bras and fake-grass hula skirts.

Let that be a lesson to you. If you want a taste of Hawaii in Las Vegas, go to the Fremont Experience and patronize ABC Drugs. Go to Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion on Flamingo Road for dinner. Go to L&L Hawaiian Barbecue on Maryland Parkway. Go to Aloha Kitchen (Maryland Parkway, Charleston or Sunset).

But whatever you do, DON’T GO to the Hawaiian Marketplace on the Las Vegas Strip.