PO‘IPU — It’s no surprise that a guy who comes from a family of 12 knows how to run a restaurant. Imagine the childhood dinners: a bustling kitchen filled with brimming pots of food, assigned table setters, servers, and dishwashers.
PO‘IPU — It’s no surprise that a guy who comes from a family of 12 knows how to run a restaurant. Imagine the childhood dinners: a bustling kitchen filled with brimming pots of food, assigned table setters, servers, and dishwashers. Joe Batteiger, the seventh of 10 siblings from an Irish Catholic family in Cleveland, Ohio, has taken the lessons from his childhood and applied them to business.
“That’s what I try to instill with my employees — it’s about ‘ohana — I’m just another runt, you do what you gotta do,” Batteiger said. His method works, as his restaurant, Joe’s on the Green, is in its 11th year and has “never really even advertised,” Batteiger said. Job experience helps too.
“I’ve been in the restaurant business most of my life,” Batteiger said. Venturing out of Cleveland, he worked in Napa Valley before coming to Kaua‘i in 1989 to help open Dondero’s and manage Tidepools at the Hyatt Regency Kaua‘i. He then opened Joe’s Courtside Café at the Kiahuna Tennis Club in 1994.
“We outgrew it,” Batteiger said of why in 1998 he moved from the courtside location to the spacious spot they are now in, overlooking the rolling, manicured grass of Kiahuna Golf course with a distant vista of the Pacific. The venue’s centerpiece is a sprawling, dark wood bar, surrounded by a stage for musicians, an open-air restaurant, and an outside lanai where you can watch clubs swinging at the driving range a putt’s worth away.
“We took over the Kiahuna Golf course restaurant, which was still sitting dormant after ‘Iniki,” Batteiger said, the “we” meaning him and Caroline Federicksen, co-owner until early this year when she moved on to open Kalaheo Steak and Ribs. Batteiger has had long successful relationships with his staff at Joe’s. One of those is head chef Michael Stauber.
“He has been with me since Day 1,” Batteiger said. “He makes my job easy.”
Stauber is known for his “bad bone ribs,” which he slow cooks for long hours to easily fall off the bone, doused in a gooey, sweet Hawaiian barbecue sauce. The ribs are served at lunch, and also offered from 3 to 7 p.m. Sunday through Thursday on the “small plates” menu.
Accompanied by a happy hour and live, local music, the “small plates” menu also includes mini manapua, seared ahi tacos, and the lamb loin chops served over creamy polenta.
Breakfast and lunch specials range from the Tofu Scramble to the Super Joe Loco Moco, embellished with sautéed mushrooms, onions, and shredded cheese, a dish Batteiger calls “a mountain of love.”
Although he has been on Kaua‘i for over two decades, Batteiger brought some of the Midwest with him, like the Cleveland stadium mustard he has his brother ship over by the case, which is topped on the “Braddah Reuben” sandwich, hamburgers, hot dogs, “any flavorful meats,” he said. It will be around next week for the corned beef and cabbage at Joe’s annual St. Patrick’s Day party.
“We have traditional Irish music on CD’s, and live rock and roll from 6-10 with The Goats, a band from Po‘ipu who started out jamming at Kukui‘ula Harbor,” Batteiger said. “They’re not too baaaaaad,” he said, a wide grin sneaking across his face.
Many holidays sprinkled on the calendar throughout the year are celebrated at Joe’s. Musicians Makana and Sashamon have rocked Halloween in past years; tables are booked months in advance for the Super Bowl party, and wedding receptions and other events are scheduled regularly.
Batteiger can’t walk past his restaurant to his office without slipping in to talk story with almost every table, laughing and joking. His humble, laid back and jovial attitude sets the mood for his restaurant, surely a large reason for his steady stream of business.
“It sounds kind of corny, but we just try to fit into the energy, the mana, of Po‘ipu,” he said, but adding that his childhood wisdom he adheres to applies anywhere: “listen first, talk second.”
