Gaylord's History
Gaylord's restaurant was established in 1986 when the Wilcox home was restored to a historic site accessible to the public for the first time. The owners spent six months adapting the old kitchen and garage areas to a working commercial kitchen without destroying the historic value of the location. June 16th, 1986 saw the first lunch service, and dinner was added several weeks later.

Gaylord's serves breakfast, lunch and dinner daily and is an especially popular choice for the holidays. Gaylord's menu includes foods and preparations to interest the traditional diner, or the more adventuresome. Gaylord's is well known for venison, lamb, seafood, pastas and desserts that are worth saving room for.

Enhancing the menu is the tasty fresh herbs and vegetables grown in the Kilohana gardens. Much time and attention is given to development of recipes that are unique or reminiscent of old favorites.

Gaylord's Restaurant is named after Gaylord Parke Wilcox, who built the house in 1935. We have no connection to the Gaylord Restaurants of mainland USA. Gaylord was the second president of Grove Farm Company - an early and very successful sugar plantation on the island owned by the Wilcox family. The 16,000 square foot home he built on 35 acres set the standard for building design - even to this day.

In 1986, Roberta and Wally Wallace moved to Kauai from Alaska to develop Gaylord's Restaurant in the historic home known as Kilohana. Their family has all worked with them in the past 19 years and since 1999, their daughter Paige and her husband Russ Talvi have become partners and have taken leadership roles. Although Wally lost his battle with cancer in April of 2000, the family continues to live up to the reputation established by Wally in providing excellent food and friendly, attentive service. Roberta married again in 2004 - she is now a Cable, and her wonderful grandchildren have begun to carry on the tradition by working in the restaurant and luau after school and on holidays.

We recommend that you make a reservation to eliminate any waiting at the door.