Our First Date

My wife and I enjoyed a very long, if complicated, courtship before getting married.   We were the classic high school sweethearts.   But more than that, we were friends long before we were a couple.  Other couples have great stories about how they met.   Being classmates, we really have no idea when we first saw each other, or when we first spoke to each ohter, or when we first got to like each other.   We just were just casual acquaintances who said hi to each other in the hall. Then we were casual friends who spoke to each other during breaks between classes.  Then we were really good friends who sought out each other's company at friends' parties.  Until finally, after a span of several years, we started to realize how attracted we were to each other.  In the Summer before our senior year, when our friends from the class above us were all having graduation parties, we found ourselves finding each other at every party and flirting.  When school started again, we found each other, for instance, in front of the campfire at senior camp together.   We found ourselves holding hands in the halls between classes.   We found ourselves calling each other on the phone.   Until finally, at my 17th birthday party, I found myself paying more attention to her than to any of my other friends, and I got the nerve to ask her if she wanted to be more than just friends.   A good 2 weeks later, she finally gave me an answer, one that I wasn't expecting.   She said yes.

It was such an interesting relationship to me.   Because in the past, whenever I wanted to call up a girl and ask her out, I was always overwhelmingly nervous.   I would need to rehearse everything I would say in my mind, and work up the nerve, before calling.  Yet with her, I felt different.   It felt, easier.   It was really exciting seeing our relationship grow, from friendship to something much more intimate.   But at the same time, it wasn't nerve racking the way it was with other girls, because we were friends first.   It was also, at the beginning, just an easy casual relationship.   We were together, we were attracted to each other, we were flirting all the time, but we really weren't posessive or obsessive.  We didn't hog up each other's time.  Whenever we had time to be together we would, and we would enjoy it thoroughly.  But when we had to do work (and I was studying really hard in my senior year, being in both the full International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement programs), we would give each other space without any strings.   It was because of this, that I found myself in the predicament of being in a relationship with someone, without having yet taken her out on a real date.   In fact, we were together one month, one week, and a day, before we actually went out on a date.

With all of this build up, I wanted to take her out somewhere really special.   I wanted to take her someplace really fancy.  Someplace elegant, and romantic, and kind of more "grown up".   I wanted to really sweep her off her feet.   I didn't just want to do the standard dinner and a movie.   I didn't want to take her to someplace like Zippy's or McDonald's.   I didn't want to take her on any high school type of date.   I wanted to take her on a real date.   The kind you see in the movies.   The kind that you hear music playing in the background the whole night through.  The kind that you never forget.   There was only one problem.   I was a poor little high school kid with no money, no car, and no real means to create this awesome extravaganza.   So what was I to do?

It was kind of serendipidous that it also happened to be Christmas time, and you just can't ask for more magical than Christmas.   So I decided, for our first ever date, that I would ask her to see the Christmas lights downtown.   It's kind of funny.  We live on a little island in the Pacific, where there isn't any chance of snow whatsoever.   It's chilly to us, but no one on the mainland would consider it cold.   It's nothing like the snow covered wintery scenes that you find on all the Christmas cards.  There are no snowmen.  There are no sleigh rides.  But our little city gets dressed up for Christmas like no other city I've ever seen.  I've even been to New York at Christmas, and seen the tree at the Rockafeller Center.   But the coordinated effort and decorations put up all around downtown Honolulu, as part of the Honolulu City Lights program, just seems to outshine all the other places.  Best of all, it was free.  So we walked.   We walked all over downtown.  Walking hand in hand under a starlight sky.  We snuggled against each other in the cool night breeze.   The Christmas lights glowed like the light of a million fairies, but they paled compared to the sparkle in her eyes.  It was magical.  It was romantic.  It was perfect.

But besides a leisurely walk around every block downtown, where was I going to take her to eat?   Well, when we were in high school, it just so happened that they had just finished a construction project that combined business offices, apartments, and restaurants, right near the Honolulu waterfront.  It was, of course, Restaurant Row, when it was shiny, exciting, and new.  So we walked around all of Restaurant Row, looking at the menus at each restaurant to find something that we both would like, something that didn't looke packed or reservations only, as well as something that I could afford on my meager high school budget.   We finally settled on a casual looking little Italian place, right in the middle, called Trattoria Manzo's.

Manzo's (or Mango's as my wife affectionately likes to call it), was small little place, kind of embedded in by the stairwell next to the parking garage.   It wasn't fancy looking.   In fact the seating was more like a little outdoor cafe, with tables in the open courtyard of Restaurant Row, a little thigh high wall separating them from the outside.  But it was still candlelit and intimate.   As an Italian restaurant, it was perfect, because ever since that iconic scene from Lady and the Tramp, no other cuisine evokes the same feeling of romance.   I can't say that I remember their menu precisely.   But I do remember talking her into having the lobster ravioli.  After all, how great, how impressive, how memorable would it be, to be able to say I took her for lobster on our very first date.  And their raviolis were really affordable too.  As for myself, I remember having the linguini with clam sauce.   Linguini with clams was always one of my dad's favorite dishes, at the finer Italian restaurants, like Andrew's.   So to me, it had a certain sense of sophistication to it, that I was really trying to convey and impress her with.  But besides that, I really do love the dish.  The sauce garlic butter sauce that it is traditionally made with, rivals the rich buter sauce that they use for escargot.  It is a buttery, yet not overpowering, perfect pasta.  The food and the ambiance were exactly what I was looking for.

Sadly, Trattoria Manzo's closed many, many years ago.   In the years since then, Restaurant Row has lost some of its glamour.  Going from a collection of the most exclusive restaurants, to housing a $1 second run movie theater (that was patronized by less savory, somewhat unwashed characters), to seeing that theater closed down and many of its other stalls lie vacant.   But while some places, like Ocean's, Ruth's Chris' Steakhouse, and Hiroshi's, continue to thrive there, Trattoria Manzo's was among the long lost bygones to its original glory.  Trattoria Manzo's was such a small little place to begin with, I wonder how few people even remember the place.  It was not a beloved Hawaii icon, the way that Andrew's was.  But,it was the perfect little place, on what was easily the most romantic night of my life.   No one else may even remember that it existed, but to my wife and I, it was someplace special that will never be forgotten.

My wife and I have now spent almost 2 decades together, and our life has been a wonderful rollercoaster of highs and lows, one that will hopefully continue for a lifetime more to come.   But every single year since that first one, it has been our tradition to visit the Honolulu City Lights at Christmas.   Of course, these days it has been transmuted from a night of romance for just us two, to a night of wonder with our two little boys in tow.  But every year we go to see the twinkling, colorful lights, what I really see is the sparkle in her eyes.

Romance on a Dime

When it comes to romance, Italian food pretty much corners the market.    I think that the lynchpin was the scene from Lady and the Tramp, where slurping on two ends of the same noodle inevitably leads to an unwitting kiss.   It is probably one of the most romantic scenes in film history.   Stars twinkling overhead.  Candlelit dinner for two.   Italian serenade from a beautiful tenor voice, Bella Notte.   That little animated scene set the standard for all romantic scenes to come in our lives, especially since we were so young when viewing it.     And it cemented the role of Italian food as the cuisine of romance.

So you've got a burning date.  You're clean shaven, all dressed up with all the buttons actually buttoned, you've bothered to comb and spray your hair.   Where do you take your date?    Well, probably the most dominant Italian restaurant in Hawaii would have to be Assaggio.   Admittedly, they are gorgeous.   There is nothing like going there, and ordering a real caesar salad.   I'm not talking about anything like a bed of lettuce, a few pieces of grilled chicken and croutons with so called "creamy caesar" dressing on top, like you would get at Costco.   I'm talking about the waiter rolling out a cart and doing the table side mixing of egg, anchovies, garlic and lemon.  A real caesar, with that little bit of bite, and the strong pungent flavor that a real caesar has.  All of their pastas are wonderful.   I particularly like their Fresh Clams Casino.   But the thing is, you have to pay for all of that ambiance.    The well dressed waiters and fine linens.   The shiny glassware and the the ambient lighting.   The whole experience is added to your bill.   So, what happens if you're a little high school kid trying to take your girlfriend out on a date, and simply can't afford the bill at Assagio?    You go to my favorite Italian restaurant, Verbano Ristorante Italiano.

Ironically, neither Italian restaurant comes from strictly Italian heritage.    Both of these restaurants also claim some Vietnamese heritage.  It never shows on their menu, the way that Angelo Pietro is actually a fusion of Japanese and Italian flavors.   But the very slight influence of the Vietnamese tradition makes the style of Italian in these restaurants distinct.  Because of the popularity of these two restaurants, Italian food in Hawaii in general has evolved into this style.   So whenever eating at an Italian restaurant, say in New York, whose roots are strictly old country Italian, I am always slightly thrown off by the difference.

Verbano has 3 different locations, each one with a slightly different menu.   The location I first fell in love with was on the restaurant strip on Waialae Ave in Kaimuki (next to Big City Diner).   I was really heartbroken when I drove past recently, and their location was being renovated for another restaurant.   But driving around the neighborhood, I was suddenly relieved to find that they had simply moved around the corner to Koko Head Ave.   I also really like the location on the corner of King and Keeaumoku (next to Bank of Hawaii).   The menu at that location is a little nicer, in that they openly state how you can mix and match whichever type of pasta you want with whichever type of sauce.  You can make that substitution in Kaimuki as well, but it is more of a special request and not written on the menu.   The Kaimuki location is however, slightly prettier, with shinier glasses and crisper linens.   The Keaaumoku location features some interesting artwork (one painting there always scares my wife as she thinks it looks like a dead body floating in a pond).  They're also a little more dimly lit, but then everything by candlelight is pretty anyway.   The last time I was there, they were also playing a beautiful Diana Krall CD, that just perfectly finished the atmosphere for them.   But the two best things about going to Verbano, are that they are much less crowded than Assaggio (meaning you're much more likely to get a walk-in table, especially on a special occasion), and they are about half the price (around the $10 - $12 per person price range).

Carbonara with Angel Hair Pasta at Verbano Ristorante Italiano

(Sorry.  It's almost impossible to take a photo with a cell phone by candlelight.)

To me though, atmosphere and price aside, I simply like Verbano's Italian food the best.   It may not be entirely authentic to what you would find in Rome, or Sicily, or Sardinia, but it is our own style of Italian food, and it tastes fantastic.   Verbano makes a really mean pesto sauce.   The herbs they use are perfectly balanced with the olive oil.    They also make a yummy anchovie olio  (I've got a real thing for anchovies and they're so hard to find around here).    But my single favorite dish at Verbano is their carbonara sauce.  They usually serve it with fettucini, but I prefer it with the more delicate angel hair pasta.   The angel hair seems to trap more of the sauce than the fettucini does.   Their carbonara re-defines the word rich.   It's incredibly creamy and thoroughly buttery.   In fact, about half way through, you can almost imagine your arteries constricting, but it just tastes so good, you can't stop.    Add to that incredible rich, creaminess, a large portion of smokey bacon and diced onions, and you've got an incredible dish that will blissfully kill you when you're through.  

Even though I'm no longer in high school, and I do enjoy going to Assaggio once in a while, it is Verbano that will always remain my favorite Italian restaurant in Hawaii.  Being able to afford to take a date there, has given me a chest full of romantic memories and bella nottes of my own.  The best legacy an Italian restaurant can bestow. 

97 Seconds

Everybody has a special place that they used to hang out at in high school.    It's like Arnold's Drive-In on Happy Days, or The Peach Pit on Beverly Hills 90210.  Given the budget, and eating habits, of teenagers, it's usually a fast food place like McDonald's or Zippy's.   But whenever my friends and I would get together in high school for dinner, there is one place that would inevitably be our destination.   We went there just about every other weekend.  All that we would have to say is, "you guys free for dinner next Friday night?", and we wouldn't ever have to ask where.   It was always the Old Spaghetti Factory in Ward Warehouse.

Now while Spaghetti Fac's food is decent, it never ever compared with my mom's spaghetti.  My mom's spaghetti is probably my favorite thing that she cooks, and no other spaghetti in the world can compare with it.   So it wasn't exactly the the spaghetti that I would ever long for at Spaghetti Fac, but the company.    When you're in high school, and you've got a night out on the town, Spaghetti Fac is one of the few places where you could get a nice meal for a very decent price (usually under $10/person).  It became our place.   Our collective dining room.

The evening would always inevitably start out the same.   Jeff would be late, of course.   Something we dubbed the "Jeff Factor".  Usually on a Friday night, it gets pretty crowded, and Spaghetti Fac would have a 40 minute wait or so.   So we would wander off to the comic store, Other Realms, check things out and wander back.  When we would return, we'd probably sit down and play a few games on their vintage Ms. Pac-Man tabletop while we waited.   Ms. Pac-Man, debuted when we were in elementary school, so even in high school, playing it was something of nostalgia.   For the life of me, I could never get past the "pretzel" level.  We would always make sure to put in some witty name, so that when they finally called it out over the loudspeaker it would really catch everyone's attention, like "Wise Men, Party of 3!  Wise Men, Party of 3!"

Once seated, we would almost dispense with the formality of looking at the menu, but we would usually let the waiter do his shpeal first.   I could practically order for everyone strictly off of memory.   Erich, would have the marinara, and no dressing on his salad.   James would have the rich meat sauce, with blue cheese dressing.   Jeff would have the manager's favorite, a mix of their rich meat sauce and their mizithra cheese & brown butter (as he claimed the mizithra was better than sprinkling parmesean on your spaghetti), with creamy pesto for a dressing.   Nerida would have white clam sauce with blue cheese on her salad.   And Polly.... well, Polly is one of the only ones who would actually look at the menu. 

Once the orders were placed, we would let the waiter tell us about the butter (garlic butter in the blue dish, regular butter in the white).   I think that they started to realize that no one ever ate the regular butter (certainly we didn't), because they stopped including it.   Then Polly and Erich would get into some heated debate about the bread.   Erich, would want his bread sliced of course.   Whereas, Polly would insist that the bread should be torn (or broken), as that was the proper Christian etiquitte.   And we would settle in to our normal discussions.

Bread at Old Spaghetti Factory

Then the spectacle would start.    Everyone does some pretty stupid things in high school.   I had done quite a number of them actually.   But probably my most visible (and it was highly visible) display of stupidity came in the form of my speed eating spaghetti.   It started innocently enough.   One day we noticed that Erich would slice is spaghetti into smaller, bite sized segements.   When asked why, he stated that it was for efficiency sake, as it aided in the ease and speed of consumption.  James counter argued that the most expedient way of eating spaghetti was with the pasta spoon, as he demonstrated by twirling his noodles.  I, being slightly more versed in the Japanese manner of slurping their noodles, had to outdo them both using this technique.   When none of them could possibly match the speed at which I inhaled my noodles, and everyone utterly revolted yet unable to turn away, I began trying to beat my time.   For over two years, I began slurping faster and faster, incorporating a two handed/two fork technique.  Until I ultimately degenerated into a Cookie Monster like frenzy of gobbling, slurping, and smacking.   I am told it was one of the most truly hilarious and completely ridiculous things any of them had ever seen.   Finally, after two years, I retired at a speed of 97 seconds for a plate of white clam sauce.    Now honestly, I really don't recommend that anyone try this, not just for the obvious choking potential, but that you really don't get to taste your spaghetti as you inhale it down.

It never really occurred to me then, but our initial different approaches to eating spaghetti were really culturally based.   Erich's slicing of his spaghetti was clearly an Western habit, as no Asian would ever slice their noodles (long noodles being a symbol of longevity).   James' pasta spoon technique was obviously an influence of his European origin.   As for my voracious slurping, while it would never pass Miss Manner's inspection, it is perfectly appropriate etiquitte for a bowl of soba or ramen.   Of course no school of etiquitte probably endorses the Cookie Monster frenzy of 97 seconds, but when you're in high school comedy far outweighs propriety.

Following our pasta consumption, as per our ritual, those who finished their meal could engage in a rousing game of 20 questions.   Naturally, as my meal would be completed in 97 seconds, I would usually go first.    Afterwards, it was usually back to one of our houses with a movie rental, or a game of Golden Axe on the Sega Genesis and a bag of French Onion Sun Chips.   Those were the days.  Cherished memories of growing up, of camraderie and companionship, of youth and dreams.  

Today whenever one of my friends comes back into town, a visit to Spaghetti Fac is an imperative necessity.    Erich and James even went on a cross country road trip, visiting all of the Spaghetti Facs on the entire route.   But none of them compare to our own.   This was OUR Spaghetti Fac.  But things are slightly different for me.    I don't usually go to Spaghetti Fac on my own.   It just doesn't feel right without the rest of the gang with me.  And when I go, I don't usually order the white clam sauce, since I don't really feel the need to try to inhale it in 97 seconds anymore.

Salad with Blue Cheese at Old Spaghetti Factory

I still like to get my salad with blue cheese.    Their simple little salad is one of the best side salads I've eaten anywhere.   It's just a simple mix of lettuce, shredded carrot, and croutons.   But everything is always served perfectly chilled.   Even the plate is chilled.   The coldness makes the lettuce supremely crisp and refreshing.   That coupled with the fact they have have the creamiest, most perfectly blended, not overpowering, blue cheese anywhere, makes for a perfect salad.   Actually, what really makes their salad so great, is the fact that it automatically comes with every meal, something that really appeals to high school kids who wouldn't usually have the cash to buy a starter of any kind.

Meat Lover's Trio at Old Spaghetti Factory

Since my high school days though, Spaghetti Fac has introduced a dish that I really love on its own.  It is their meat lover's trio, which includes rich meat sauce, a meatball, and a full Portuguese sausage (or linguica).  While other Spaghetti Fac's around the country may feature this dish with an Italian sausage, the inclusion of local style Portuguese sausage makes this is a true Hawaii only treat.  As I've said before, no spaghetti in the world can match my mom's for flavor, but if I'm going out to eat spaghetti for whatever reason, this is definitely the one I would order.   Having a whole Portuguese sausage is what really makes it, rather than the few medallions you normally get on a breakfast platter.   Maybe it's the fact that I'm not tryiing to eat it in 97 seconds, but I like it a lot better than the white clam.

Mizithra Cheese & Brown Butter (with Garlic, Mushrooms & Bacon) at Old Spaghetti Factory

My wife's favorite has always been the mizithra cheese and brown butter.   It's probably Spaghetti Fac's most unique dishes, and I have never seen it anywhere else.   We even found a block of mizithra cheese at Safeway once, and tried to make it at home, but didn't have the slightest clue as to how to recreate their classic dish.    The last time they went, they had a special which made it even more deluxe, by adding garlic, mushrooms, and bacon (3 things which my wife really adores).  It was as if they had reached into her mind, figured out what her favorite things were, and put them on a plate for her.  I really love my wife.   Most women wouldn't really be attracted to a guy who can put away a plate in 97 seconds, but she humors me (and has even witness the spectacle once or twice herself), and she lets me keep my treasured memories.

Where are my friends now?   West Virginia, Massachusetts, California, and Australia.  I really miss the gang, and our times there.   But whenever one of them comes home for a visit, you can bet that a trip to Spaghetti Fac will be in order.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye

In my mind, there is one and only one truly good pizza.    It is the one true pizza.   The pizza tha defines pizza.    The one pizza to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them.   It has to be Lombardi's Pizza in New York's Little Italy.  Nothing we have in Hawaii can even compare.   For that matter, no other pizza in the world can compare.   Period.   End of story. 

So what makes that particular pizza so good?    I could sound like a pizza delivery commercial and talk about how fresh and real their ingredients are.  But while their mozzarella and other toppings are really great, that's not what makes this pizza so spectacular.    Just like how it is really the bread, that makes or breaks a sandwich, it is the crust that defines the pizza.  Well Lombardi's has something no one else has.  They've got a bloody 900 degree oven!   900 degrees!!  Think about that for a moment.   Go run to your own oven and see how high it goes.   So what does a 900 degree pizza do to crust?   Well, it practically scorches the outside.  The thing is done in like 4 minutes.   But what comes out is incomparable.   The outside of the crust has charred, smokiness to it, and it is supremely crunchy.   Meanwhile the inside is still chewy and has some doughiness to it (like eating cookie dough).  The texture is unmatched.    No one can compare. 

If you believe them, Lombardi's also invented pizza.   As we all know pizza is Italian American, not Italian.  The predecessor to pizza in Italy is almost unrecognizable to us as pizza.   The same is true of chop suey and fortune cookines not existing in China.  Given New York's Italian American population, it's entirely conceivable that pizza was invented there, and Lombardi's has the first business license in history for a pizza restaurant.   So they very well may have invented pizza as we know it.  Most everyone in the country loves pizza, except for my sister.  Even my little boy, who is only 4 and has a somewhat undeveloped palate, loves pizza.   But I think my sister overdosed on it a bit in high school, and now the very thought of it repulses her.   But even she will go to Lombardi's.   That's how good it is.

So if we've got nothing like Lombardi's in Hawaii, what do we have?   Well, there's always the fast food pizza.   There's the ubiquitous red roofed Pizza Hut.  I do love getting a pan pizza from them as much as the next guy, but seriously, they are just fast food.  Being super oily and fatty is what makes them taste so good, it isn't about being truly authentic pizza.   We've also got Boston's Pizza.  They come the closest to being like a traditional New York style pizza, with big floppy slices that you're supposed to fold in half while eating.   Ironically, while it's the uber fatty meat lover's pizza that I like best at Pizza Hut, it's the veggie pizza that I like best at Boston's.   They've got some really big beautiful pieces of tomato, broccoli, olive and spinach on their pizza.    But again, they're baked down til they're like vegetable crisps rather than fresh plump vegetables.  The big drawback to Boston's is that if you don't eat the pizza right there and then, the crust gets all soggy and droopy, even after just a 10 minute ride home.  

Veggie Pizza from Boston's Pizza

So we've got fast food pizza, but what about a really nice sit down pizza restaurant?   In New York they have classy Italian restaurants that specialize in pizza.   What about us?   Well, if you're on Kauai, there's Brick Oven Pizza.   They're not bad, but their ovens don't get nearly as hot as Lombardi's does.   Also, their toppings just aren't as good.   If you're a UH student, then going down to Magoo's Pizza at Puck's Alley is practically a college requirement.  But, if you are willing to forego the supreme crust that Lombardi's has, there is one place where the toppings are almost as good.  My favorite pizza place here would have to be Rosarina Pizza in Chinatown or La Pizza Rina on Keeaumoku and King.  

I'm not exactly sure of the relationship between Rosarina and La Pizza Rina.   It think one's the mother's and the other is the daughter's, or they're sisters, or something like that.   In any case, they're pretty similar, but I think that La Pizza Rina (the daughter's?) is slightly better.   La Pizza Rina is a small little place, so you're lucky if you can get a table.  But it perfectly fits the bill of a sit down, date worthy, pizza restaurant (ie. not fast food).

Antipasto Salad at La Pizza Rina

To start off, I absolutely love their antipasto salad.   For one thing, they may have the greatest oil and vinegar I have ever tasted.   The oil is true olive oil and the taste comes through.  It is nothing like the oil and vinegar you buy in bottles at the store.   Secondly, they have these beautiful thick slices of salami and pepperoni on their salad that really taste like the real thing.   We're not talking about the cheap round red circles that hardly taste like anything you find on most pizza.   We're talking about true pepperoni, sliced thickly from a real pepperoni stick.  With a beautifully salty cured, slightly peppery, meaty taste.    The thick fresh pieces of cucumber, carrot, celery, and cherry tomatoes, and you've got a truly mighty salad.

Spaghetti with Meatballs at La Pizza Rina

If you're looking for another side dish, their spaghetti is pretty good as well.   They've got a kinda sweet spaghetti sauce, which also has a kind of peppery, herby kick to it.  

Combo Pizza at La Pizza Rina

 However, this is a pizza place, so really the only thing that matters is how good the pizza is.   You must be willing to gloss over the lack of Lombardi's crust (which is like saying you're looking at the Mona Lisa but ignoring her face), but here is one place which really has the best, freshest, ingredients.   Really!   Look at the peperoni.  We're not talking about skimpy thin little red dots the size of a quarter.  We're talking about a thick, beautiful slice of real pepperoni that is the size of an olympic medal.  The cheese on this thing isn't some lame shreeded chesse flavored product (ever notice how the more words they add the farther from the real thing it gets?).  This is real deli quality mozzarella, that has all the flavor and the thick gooeyness of real mozzarella.  The same goes for everything else on the pizza, from thick whole rounds of olives, to inch long pieces of Italian sausage (not little crumbled bits), to thick lines (not slivers) of still crunchy, still plump, still sweet, and still green and fresh green peppers.   We're not talking about a "chunky" pizza, we're talking about pizza with real whole slices of genuine ingredients.    The one surprising thing though is that their pizza sauce, like their spaghetti sauce, again has a sweetness to it.   I think this is one of their (and Rosarina's) signatures.   It may be the slight Asian influence of the family that created the place.   Some people may not like that sweetness, but I do.  It's unique.  It reminds you that though this is an Italian American dish, it's been touched by the local hands that made it.  

The one thing I really hate about pizza on the mainland is the so-called "Hawaiian" pizza.   As if adding a bit of ham and pineapple has anything to do with our real local cuisine.  You want a real Hawaiian pizza, add a little portuguese sausage or kalua pig to it.   Or better yet, find a real local family, and taste their interpretation of the classic dish.