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KAHULUI - As of Wednesday afternoon, a traveler can buy a Wabo 'Rita between flights at Kahului Airport at Sammy's Beach Bar & Grill, and a percentage of the tab will go to help a local child with life-threatening medical problems.

Rock 'n' roll Hall of Famer and part-time Huelo resident Sammy Hagar's name is on the restaurant. All the money he gets from operator HMSHost will go through the new Hagar Family Foundation to a Maui organization.

Every penny.

"I am the overhead," Hagar said at dedication ceremonies.

He's talked to his neighbors in Huelo, and he understands what some of them are up against.

"Half of them don't have health insurance," he said. "My heart just won't let me get over the children. I can't deal with that."

The newly named bar and grill is attached to the cafeteria on the center concourse of the Kahului terminal, replacing the Tropical Landing bar.

Exactly how the money from Sammy's will be administered is still being worked out through Maui Memorial Medical Center. The board of directors of the Hagar foundation comprises Hagar, his wife, Kari, his two older sisters, his lawyer and his physician in San Francisco, Dr. Jane Hightower.

There's a saying in the music business: Always go for a percentage of the gross, because there ain't no net. Hagar laughs about it.

He said he expects to reap "a couple of hundred thousand a year" from lending his name and culinary opinion to the restaurant, but by insisting on a percentage of the entire take, he's certain there will be something.

"If it's only five dollars to help somebody buy gas to get to the hospital, then we'll do that."

But he has much bigger aspirations, because he sees a big need.

"Everybody sits around and waits for the government to do everything," he said, but the government can do "less and less."

His thought was, rather than spread the money around piecemeal, not really helping anybody, he will focus on helping one child, one family. If there's more money after that, then more will get help.

"Think globally, act locally, I love that idea," he said.

For Maui, he also would like to attract other wealthy residents to contribute through the foundation. That could raise millions, he said.

Adding to the program, he wants to reproduce the same project every place that HMSHost opens a Sammy's Beach Bar & Grill. Each restaurant would contribute his percentage to the Hagar Family Foundation for a program for children with serious and life-threatening illnesses in that community.

The next one will be Las Vegas, said Joe Lutz, vice president of HMSHost. After that, HMSHost will see how the market develops.

Hagar says he wants to see a hundred branches of his foundation bloom through his relationship with HMSHost. The company's vice president for concept development, Stan Novack, says that's possible. HMSHost has contracts at 100 airports. It operates only in airports.

Whether Sammy's Beach Bar & Grill ever expands into the rest of the world would be up to Hagar, he said. HMSHost usually gives new concepts four to six months to show an impact, but Sammy's is off to an excellent start with locations in two busy airports.

Kahului is Hawaii's second busiest airport, with 6.5 million passengers passing through in 2007. McCarran International in Las Vegas is the nation's sixth busiest, with 47.6 million passengers in 2007.

It will be a bit different from HMSHost's other "celebrity" signature restaurants, which are linked to celebrity chefs.

At first, Hagar had the idea of expanding his Cabo Wabo restaurants in Mexico, which are part of his Cabo Wabo tequila business. However, there was a branding conflict, so Novack and Hagar sat down to think of another approach.

Hagar established his rock 'n' roll credentials as lead singer and guitarist with Montrose and then Van Halen. After leaving Van Halen in 1996, he established his solo career with "Marching to Mars," backed by his own band, the Waborita's. His most recent release is "Livin' It Up."

Although Hagar is a successful businessman, he said that if he hadn't been a rocker, he would never have been a businessman. He hates the dickering and squabbling that goes with business.

What he likes, he said, is the creativity, "whether I'm writing a song or starting a business." Once the idea is in place, he is happy to let the professionals make it real.

Since he likes to eat, and experienced plenty of bad food while touring with Van Halen, a good airport restaurant was a natural.

If the goal is to generate money for the foundation, he adds: "The food's gotta be good, you can't ask people to contribute to a foundation if the food's not good."

The menu consists of stuff he likes, "kicked up classics," he calls them. The recipes include touches he's picked up for his own moves around the kitchen with hints from chef friends such as Mark Ellman and Bev Gannon.

Kicked Up Fries, for example, are seasoned with garlic and fresh sage, topped with queso blanco. Price, $6.79.

Hagar had final approval of the menu, Novack said, at a tasting arranged in Sacramento, Calif.

The menu has a Mexican flavor, with quesadillas and flan, but it's also American, from Ultimate Chocolate Blackout Cake to Paniolo's "Poppin' " Dogs.

Hagar can rhapsodize about the hot dog. It's got to pop when you bite into it, he says, and he is particular about the Chicago maker. Remember, this is a song writer. He can sing the praises of a hot dog:

"What's important is the bun. It's got to be light and airy so when you grill 'em . . ." etc.

Kari Hagar said the Hagars are still creating the foundation, aiming to help the most desperately ill children and their families. Sammy said he can see the foundation stepping in when a family has exhausted its resources, has "had to sell its home," which he's seen happen.

Or, it might act to get a critically ill child into the hospital at the beginning.

Whatever. It has to happen "right now," he said.

"We're at a crossroads."

* Harry Eagar can be reached at heagar@mauinews.com.