Page 2 - Dining Out - Oct 10, 2021

Restaurant Insider with Anne Lee
1
ANNE LEE W hen you first meet McKenna Brown, projects I was tasked with was to find conflict in MB: In regard to my personal experience in
you might mistake her for the
hostess at Eating House 1849, but this savvy general manager has experienced many different roles as Roy’s Restaurants train- ing manager. I was curious to find out more about how she got her start, as it’s rare to find female leaders in this industry. She shared what’s new, as I learned (and tasted) more
about the delicious weekly specials.
AL: How long have you been with Roy’s Restaurants?
MB: My first position was at Roy’s Beach House at Turtle Bay as a hostess about five years ago while attending BYU. My major was internation- al cultural studies with an emphasis on commu- nications and peace building. One of the senior
Dining Out is a weekly advertising supplement published by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Visit us at dining.staradvertiser.com
speaks with Eating House 1849 general manager
MCKENNA BROWN
Photos by
LAWRENCE TABUDLO
the community. Working my way through the different training positions at Roy’s, seven in total, I felt there needed to be more structure. I made this my senior project: develop a new training program for Roy’s. Upon graduation, this led to the opportunity to become the train- ing manager, and ironically segued into the restaurant industry implementing the skills I learned for peace building and communica- tion. I am also a state certified mediator, and I feel that being a manager requires its own set of mediation skills. About two weeks ago, I was promoted to general manager.
AL: It’s not as common to see women in leadership roles in the restaurant industry, why do you think that is?
hospitality, at Beach House, I was fortunate to be surrounded by some great female manag- ers and supervisors that taught me well. We do not see that too often, but the Roy’s team has many females in management. Another one in particular was my previous manager at Turtle Bay, Christine Fukada, the current GM at GOEN Dining + Bar in Kailua.
AL: Tell me about your family background?
MB: I am part Hawaiian. My grandmother was born here on Oahu, but moved to California in her early 20s. I was raised in Orange County. We would come back often to Oahu, as my grandmother has many relatives here, so I decided to come here for school and make it my home.
FOLLOW US ON
@DININGOUT_HAWAII DININGOUTHAWAII
SPECIAL SECTIONS MANAGER
Nicole Monton
Phone: 808-529-4857 diningout@staradvertiser.com
SALES MANAGER
Anne Lee
Phone: 808-347-1093 alee@staradvertiser.com
2 /
Dining Out
/ Oct. 10-16, 2021