Vasi Zaferis recently opened Pan: A Mediterranean Bistro in Haiku Town Center. It’s open for lunch and dinner and for Mother’s Day brunch. The Maui News / CARLA TRACY photo

SHOCKING, BUT TRUE . . . Sunday marked my 27th anniversary here at the paper. Scary business. I told beloved former Maui News lifer and retiree Rose Alcomindras about it the other day, when I ran into her at Tiffany’s, the island’s most extensive pupu house.

“We both must have been 12 when we started working there,” teased Rose. Well, maybe we were a little older. But I must say, the restaurant scene continues to get juicier and juicier with each passing year.

Take for instance, the new Vasi’s Pan: A Mediterranean Bistro in Haiku. The walls are soothing sage and sport the art of Piero Resta. At the soft opening, Piero invited a toga- wearing model and positioned her atop the appetizer table amidst fig leaves, brie, crackers and grapes scattered about. There were belly dancers, too.

As for the food, Vasi nails it in a big way with tapas such as zucchini carpaccio, grilled white anchovies in garlic olive oil, wild mushroom tart and Pan’s Greek pla