Maybe it was the vision I’d seen earlier in the art gallery of the paniolos (cowboys) riding the upcountry Parker Ranch, the largest working cattle ranch in the country. Perhaps it was simply the fetching storefront in the King’s Shops mall in Waikoloa that drew me in. Or, it could be I was just plain hungry for a darn good steak. Whatever the reason, once I’d gotten the Big Island Cattle Company in my sights, I couldn’t let it go.
My husband made a vain attempt to distract me with view-rich restaurants at the Hilton Wailoloa Village next door, the mega-resort with a staggering Asian art collection where guests swim with the dolphins and laze away the day in man-made lagoons. But no, I wanted a regular old mall restaurant, the Big Island Steak company or nothing.
By the time we’d finished browsing the Hilton waiting for my digital downloads at Rex’s photo finishing nearby, lunch service at the BISC was wrapping up, leaving us the sole customers.
It wasn’t quite as I’d envisioned it from the outside. Rather than the swinging door, hardwood floor ambiance I’d imagined, the tidy little ranch-style establishment was whitewashed and strewn with Hawai`iana and kitsch. We took a table by the windows where adequate views over a small lake set me to thinking I just may have been upcountry after all. Glancing at the menu I gasped.
"What’s wrong?" Sweetie asked.
Eyeing up the selection of pasta, chicken salads, fish sandwiches, nachos and pupus -- the usual lunchtime favorites -- I grew downhearted.
"No steak! There’s no steak on the lunch menu." I admit I was whining and ready to concede the stir fry at the Hilton wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
"It’s a steak house. They have steak."
"Not on this menu."
Sweetie, always the hero, summoned the waitress.
"This is a steak house, right?"
"Best on the island!" the well-trained employee intoned.
"So you won’t mind bringing my wife a rib-eye medium rare? Want fries with that, honey?"
"Fries. Sure." I agreed. "It‘s my birthday!"
"Well then," the waitress said, "you’ll get steak and the house special."
I shrugged but moments later the lady returned with a lovely glass of vegetables swimming in a stout, red-hot, horseradish ripe Bloody Mary.
"This is fabulous!" I assured her (since it was).
Sweetie went with the low maintenance version of the Big Island’s lunchtime menu and ordered a giant hamburger with cheese and bacon which he seemed to heartily enjoy. I wish I could say my hard-won steak was the best I’d ever had but in truth I’ve had slightly better steaks in larger cattle-producing States (such as Texas and Colorado).
That said, the food was good, real good, and the Bloody Mary even better.
Best of all was receiving ultimate, attentive service by people willing to stay open late for lunch and borrow from the dinner menu for a birthday girl.