In 2023 the James Beard Foundation named the Manago Hotel one of six America's Classics. Its citation described a place with no air conditioning or televisions in the rooms, a restaurant largely unchanged since the 1940s, and pork chops fried in a cast-iron pan said to be as old as the hotel. The lobby still has the same front desk it has had for decades.
On August 5, the building sold. Big Island Now reported the sale on October 13, citing County of Hawaiʻi Real Property Tax Office records. The buyer is MTZ, a limited liability company, and the price was $3.145 million. Since then, every public filing has kept the Manago name, and the dining room still lists its usual hours. The next point where the record could show something new is a liquor license hearing on December 3.
What actually sold on August 5
The property at 82-6151 Māmalahoa Highway is more than a restaurant with rooms upstairs. It covers about 2.4 acres at 1,350 feet, with a view down the South Kona coast that takes in Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau. It includes the 64-room hotel, commercial spaces, a residential apartment, two residential studio units and a two-story home.
It took about two years to sell, and the asking price moved along the way:
| Date | Event | Price |
|---|---|---|
| About early 2024 | Listed for sale, per Big Island Now's July 2025 account | $6.5 million asking |
| January 2024 | A Honolulu nonprofit, Mental Health Kokua, pursued it for workforce housing with $5.5 million in Hawaiʻi County funding; the deal fell through | No sale |
| 2024 | Asking price at its peak | $7.5 million asking |
| July 2025 | Asking price reduced after the nonprofit talks and a later deal with an unidentified buyer both fell through | $5.75 million asking |
| August 5, 2026 | Sold to MTZ LLC | $3.145 million |
The final price was less than half the $7.5 million peak and about $2.6 million below the July 2025 figure. Big Island Now reported that the Manago stopped renting rooms about two years ago, and that the restaurant kept running, famous pork chops included. The new owner hasn't said publicly what will happen to the restaurant now that the sale has closed.
The name on the liquor application
So far, the best public clue about the new owner's plans is a liquor license filing.
A Liquor Commission notice published in West Hawaii Today on September 19 lists application T26-04. MTZ LLC applied for the sale and transfer of the Dispenser General liquor license, Category A, held by Manago Hotel, Inc. The listed trade name is "Manago Hotel," and the place of business is the same Captain Cook address. The application asks to take over the existing license under the existing name. It doesn't ask for a new license or a new identity.
The application went to the commission's October 1 meeting in the Kona Meeting Room at Hanama Place on Kuakini Highway, listed under "Preliminary Hearings." Under Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes §281-57, the commission may deny an application at a preliminary hearing. If it doesn't, it sets a date for a public hearing. The statute requires notice in each of two consecutive weeks and a hearing at least 45 days after the first notice.
The commission set a public hearing. A notice dated October 2 and published October 10 and 17 schedules T26-04 for Thursday, December 3, 2026, at 10 a.m., again in the Kona Meeting Room at 75-5706 Kuakini Highway. The notice also explains who may file a protest. That includes registered voters for the area within 500 feet of the premises and owners or lessees of record of real estate within 500 feet. A protest must be signed, dated, name the application and be filed with the commission at or before the final public hearing. This is general information drawn from the public notice and the statute, not legal advice. Anyone weighing participation should check the official notice and confirm their own standing with the commission or an attorney.
The same notice lists one other Kona-side application for the same hearing. Greenwell Farms, Inc. has applied for an original Retail General liquor license at 81-6551 Hawaiʻi Belt Road in Kealakekua. The commission will take up both coffee-belt institutions at 10 a.m. that morning.
The dining room keeps its own week
Old hands already know the Manago's dining room keeps a schedule of its own, and many guides skip over it. According to the restaurant page on the Manago Hotel website, dine-in service runs:
- Wednesday through Saturday
- Lunch: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Dinner: 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
- Closed: Sunday, Monday and Tuesday
This post goes up on a Thursday, which falls inside that window, with dinner seating ending at 7:30. The website doesn't mention the sale, so call before driving down from Kealakekua or up from Hōnaunau in case anything has changed.
The menu on the site reads like the Beard citation. Entrées are New York steak, butterfish, shrimp sauté, ahi, ono, mahi mahi, pork chops, teri chicken, beef teriyaki, liver and hamburger steak. Opelu is served when it's available. Every entrée comes with three side dishes and steamed rice. Sandwiches include mahi mahi, BLT, cheeseburger, hamburger and tuna, with a choice of potato salad or chips. The web menu doesn't list prices. The site's banner calls the place "Hawaii's Oldest Restaurant."
Four generations, and what the last one asked for
Japanese immigrants Kinzo Manago and his "picture bride," Osame Manago, founded the hotel in 1917. In 1942 it passed to Harold and Nancy Manago, who ran it for 42 years. In 1984 their youngest son, Dwight, and his wife, Cheryl, took over. By 2025 their daughter, Britney Manago, was general manager.
When the price dropped in July 2025, she told Big Island Now what the family hoped for in a buyer:
"I'd prefer to get someone willing to run it as is. We just want it to be maintained."
The same story said the family was still cooking from the same recipes. She described the restaurant's nostalgic, home-like quality as part of why it mattered to the people who eat there. The story also reported that several experienced hotel management companies had shown interest in operating the property. In 2023, when the Beard award was announced, she told Big Island Now that the restaurant was the only thing she had known and loved, and the thing she had always wanted to be part of.
What the family asked for in 2025 and what the record shows in 2026 line up as far as they go. The name on the license application is unchanged, and the dining room lists the same week it always has. They also leave a lot unanswered. In its October 13 story, Big Island Now reported that it wasn't immediately clear who was running the hotel when it sold, and that attempts to reach the family for comment had been unsuccessful. The listing broker said both parties had asked that the sale stay confidential. MTZ hasn't said publicly what it plans for the 64 rooms, the commercial spaces or the kitchen staff.
The next date on the calendar
Here is the timeline in order. The sale closed August 5, the preliminary hearing was October 1, and Big Island Now broke the news October 13. The next event is the public hearing on application T26-04 at 10 a.m. on Thursday, December 3, at the Department of Liquor Control's Kona Meeting Room, 75-5706 Kuakini Highway, Suite 107, in Kailua-Kona. Until then, the dining room's website lists lunch from 11 to 2 and dinner from 5 to 7:30, Wednesday through Saturday.
The Manago is one of several Captain Cook landmarks along Māmalahoa Highway, and a change of ownership at one of them affects the whole stretch around it. If you'd like to talk about what a sale like this could mean for the properties nearby, Brian Axelrod follows this part of South Kona closely and is glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.
