Tiki's, Vintage Books, SinIceStir Shave Ice

Tell us a little bit about how your business started.

Before opening Tiki’s Grill & Bar, I worked for a few well-known local restaurants. Eventually, I decided I wanted to go out on my own. I had some friends from the University of Hawaii who also wanted to open a restaurant, and we started thinking about what kind of place we would want to go to ourselves.

We wanted an open-air Waikiki restaurant that was fun, reasonably priced and somewhere we could bring our families. We wanted it to appeal to local people as well as visitors, rather than be just another visitor-focused restaurant.

Tiki bars were becoming popular again, and we thought it would be a fun concept. We put together a business plan, presented it to a few people and were fortunate to find our location. We opened Tiki’s in 2002.

How have you grown from Tiki’s into your other businesses?

We wanted to create opportunities for our employees to grow. We have people who have been with us for 10, 15 and even more than 20 years. We thought opening other concepts and restaurants could give them opportunities to advance and allow family members who wanted to stay in the business to grow with us.

Today, in addition to Tiki’s Grill & Bar, we have Vintage Books in Kaimuki and SinIceStir Shave Ice in Waikiki. Vintage Books looks like a bookstore from the street, but behind the bookshelves is a lounge and restaurant inspired by the speakeasies of the Prohibition era. SinIceStir Shave Ice offers a different take on shave ice. We love the mainstays in Hawaii and we don't want to take anything away from them, but we thought there was lots of opportunity to try new flavors and really curate a shave ice experience with carefully developed flavors designed to work together. There’s also a hidden speakeasy behind that shop.

We enjoy coming up with new concepts and finding the right opportunities to bring them to life.

Why did you choose to work with Hawaii National Bank?

We weren't with Hawaii National Bank when we first opened Tiki's, but our relationship grew over time. During COVID, the restaurant industry faced enormous challenges. We had relationships with other banks, too, but HNB was the one that made us feel they were there for us and wanted to help us get through it.

Through the Paycheck Protection Program and all the other challenges businesses were facing, we felt that HNB made us a priority. That really solidified the relationship for us, and we decided to move everything over to Hawaii National Bank.

What's the biggest lesson you've learned since starting your business?

Two things stand out: listening to people and taking care of your staff.

When we learned to listen to our employees and understand what they needed. We take pride in caring for our staff, and we believe that when people feel supported, they're better able to take care of our guests.

We also had to learn how to listen to online reviews. When reviews first became common, it was easy to take criticism personally. Over time, we realized that people were giving us information we could use to improve and make customers happier. Once we embraced that feedback, it became a useful tool for our business.

What advice have you received from other business owners that you found helpful?

One important lesson was understanding the difference between profit and cash flow. The money coming in isn't always yours to keep. You still have to pay your vendors, employees and other expenses, and those payments don't always happen at the same time.

Watching your money closely and understanding when it comes in and when it needs to go out is one of the most important things you can do as a business owner. If you understand your cash flow, you're already halfway there.

What does being a local Hawaii-based business mean to you?

Especially in Waikiki, we're surrounded by businesses, competition and people from all over the world. What sets us apart is that we're owners who live in Hawaii. We've raised our families here, went to the University of Hawaii, and know the local people who support us.

We feel a responsibility to make sure our customers get value for their money. We don't want someone to leave feeling that their time or money was wasted. We take our responsibility for their experience seriously, and we want them to leave happy, feel that they had a great time and want to come back.

We also want to represent Hawaii well. We see ourselves as a local business with a higher standard and a responsibility to our community.