CHEF SHELDON SIMEON OPENS LINEAGE RESTAURANT CELEBRATING THE RICH FAMILY HISTORY OF TRADITIONAL HAWAIIAN FARE AND HIS FILIPINO UPBRINGING
The full service concept, from ‘Top Chef’ personality and owner of Maui’s Tin Roof, Opens in the Shops at Wailea shopping center, in partnership with ABC Stores
October 15, 2018 (Maui, HI) – Chef Sheldon Simeon debuts his latest full-service concept, Lineage. The restaurant draws on Chef Sheldon’s experiences and memories of growing up on Hawaii’s big island and the many cultures and cuisines that comprise the ‘Hawaiian Spirit.’ Featuring Simeon family recipes as the foundation of the menu, Lineage celebrates the food of Chef Sheldon’s Filipino ancestors, as well as of a life growing up on the islands. A handful of the dishes also honor and acknowledge the family recipes of some of Sheldon’s kitchen staff. With the motto ‘Eat, Drink, Talk Story,’ Lineage celebrates the importance of keeping tradition alive and the passing down of recipes within families over the years.
The Lineage dining experience represents the feeling of dining at home alongside groups of friends and extended family. The menu is comprised of a selection of family style passed pupus, snacks, entrees, and desserts. To begin, mobile carts built by Chef Sheldon’s father (a former welder by trade) move throughout the restaurant to offer guests dim-sum style appetizers, or pupus, including pickled Hawaiian fruit, boiled peanuts, and Kim Chee Dip served with Hilo-based Maebo “one-ton” chips reminiscent of Sheldon’s childhood.
Standout snacks include Chicharon with adobo spice, served with chili pepper water backs; Poi Mochi with shio koji chicken liver pate and furikake; Maui Flying Saucer, a dish Sheldon remembers from the Maui State Fair with beef goulash and American cheese; and Cone Sushi with aburage, salmon skin rice, and ikura. Family-style entrees include land, sea, rice/noodle, and vegetarian options such as Hoppin’ Juan’s, inspired by Chef Sheldon’s time in South Carolina during “Top Chef,” with garlic rice, black eyed peas, oxtail, and marungay; Pork n Peas, a Simeon family recipe with tomato gravy and green peas; Katsu Curry, fried cauliflower with golden curry; Adobo Turkey Tails with shoyu vinegar tare, shaved onions, and tomato;
and Garden Poke with gobo kinpira, radish, brassica, inamona, and limu. Lineage also offers a number of large format dishes such as Crispy Pata with choke herbs, braddah tommy sauce, finadene, and lettuce; and Huli Huli, a whole chicken with Oprah Farms corn and kim chee.
To finish the meal with something sweet, guests can order the Guri-Guri (a cross between sherbet and ice cream popular in Maui), with toasted rice, puffed rice, and tea sherbert; and Filipino Cereal with avocado, créme cracker milk, and saloon pilot; amongst other things. Chef Sheldon and the Lineage team are sourcing ingredients and produce locally as much as possible, including items from Oprah Farms and O’koa Farms.
On the beverage front, each table starts with a palate-cleansing pot of Ryocucha, toasted brown rice green tea mixed with Hawaiian mamaki tea. After the tea has been poured, guests are encouraged to imbibe with a cocktail, a few of which include: Gimme Da Chicken Skin, with Prairie cucumber vodka, Broker’s Gin, Carpano Bianco, false lime, false ‘awa, shoyu, and habañero shrub, served with crispy chicken skins; Mai’a Tai with Banks 5 Rum, banana milk punch, walnut, pecan, Giffard Apricot De Rousillon, lime, and almond spice liqueur; Panda Xpress with Bozal Ensemble Mezcal, Rittenhouse Rye, adobo oil, lemon, grilled pineapple shrub, red wine, egg white; Keito Izakaya with Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin, Dolin Dry Vermouth, sesame shrub, served out of a soy sauce bottle with a side of edamame; and Maria Sangrenta (Lineage’s take on a Bloody Mary), with Portugese Bean Soup, tomato juice, “piri-piri” salt, celery-cilantro foam, berbere.
The beverage menu also includes a variety of local and national craft beers, available in bottle and on tap – featuring selections from Maui Brewing Co., Kohola Brewery, Lanikai Brewing Co., and Big Island Brewhaus, as well as a selection of wines, sakés and Shōchūs. A creative selection of handcrafted non-alcoholic mocktails are also on offer, including the Moon On The Sea with pineapple, coconut water, cinnamon, clover, white peppercorn and blue spirulina; Turtle Town with jabuticaba, black pepper, balsamic, basil, lemon, and tonic; and Menko Madness with housemade POG (passionfruit orange guava juice), coconut cream, lemon lime soda, and egg white. Behind the restaurant’s cocktail and mocktail menus is mixologist Aaron Alcala-Mosley, previously of Maui’s Cow Pig Bin and the Fairmont Kea Lani, and named the “Best Mixologist on Maui” in 2017.
Chef Sheldon Simeon competed on the 10th season of Bravo’s “Top Chef: Seattle,” and again on season 14: Charleston, winning Fan Favorite both seasons. Along with his wife Janice, Sheldon also owns and operates Tin Roof in Maui’s Kahului, where he serves innovative, local lunch-style dishes in take-out bowls. Helming the front of house is Sheldon’s partner and General Manager, Matt Godfrey. Sheldon first met Matt when the pair worked together at Migrant Maui as Executive Chef & General Manager duo. Matt also previously managed local spots Mala Wailea, Cool Cat Cafe, and Captain Jack’s Island Grill, as well as a number of other restaurants, nightclubs, and sports bars. Working in the kitchen alongside Chef Sheldon is Chef de Cuisine Rob Ramshur, who previously worked in kitchens at Maui’s Savage Kitchen and San Francisco’s Lazy Bear, Mourad, and Almanac Beer Co.
Partnering with the Lineage team is iconic locally owned and run ABC Stores. Founded in 1964 by the Kosasa family of first-generation Japanese immigrants, the company has become an international concept and a major staple in Hawaiian society. ABC Stores’ story, just as that of Sheldon’s, reinstates the meaning of the ‘Hawaiian spirit’ and the importance of family, or lineage, especially as it relates to food.
Developed by ADM Retail Planning and Architecture Inc., and designed by Pili Design + Build, LLC, the look and feel of Lineage are inspired by Chef Sheldon’s nostalgia of his upbringing in Hilo, on the big island of Hawaii. The space is filled with vibrant greenery and natural colors and materials, all representative of Hilo’s jungle-like landscapes, bright green foliage, and rugged coastline. The distressed concrete and wood materials are reminiscent of Hilo’s dark asphalt grounds and weathered buildings and bridges. An abstract map of the layout of Hilo is displayed on the restaurant’s wooden wall, and tiles representing Hilo’s constant pattern of rain line the wall behind the bar. The dining room seats 36 guests indoors and 36 guests on the outdoor patio, as well as 12 guests at the restaurant’s bar. A selection of the serving pieces are sourced from Maui-based ceramics brands Altar and Curtmaui.
Lineage is located at The Shops at Wailea, Maui’s premier shopping and dining destination with more than 70 distinct boutiques, shops, restaurants and galleries. The restaurant is open seven days a week, serving dinner from 5PM – 11PM. Lunch service will be added down the road. A limited number of reservations are available daily at 5PM and 9PM, and all seatings in between are first come first serve. Lineage offers a 25% kama‘āina discount for locals. For more information: www.lineagemaui.com. Instagram: @lineagemaui; Facebook: facebook.com/lineagemaui; Phone: (808) 879-8800.
