 And welcome back to another thrilling episode of Hawaii Food and Farmers Series. I'm Pomai Weigert and I am your host today. I'm very excited to be back. I haven't been here in a few episodes and today I'm going to be talking to you with my guest Julia Thalman about food and beverage industry, how restaurants are impacted by local food, local agriculture, global economy, all kinds of stuff. So welcome Julia. Hi. Hi. So Julia, can you tell us what you do? I feed people. I do the food service for the Department of Commerce out on Fort Island. We feed the employees of NOAA, which are the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, and then as well as the surrounding military community come in and join us for breakfast and lunch. And what is the name of your establishment? Green Tree Cafe. Okay. And then what else, so that's like you're the owner of that restaurant. And then what else do you do? I also do restaurant consulting and contracting with the government, so helping other businesses secure other food establishments through the Navy and Army, things like that. And how did you get into that industry? I've been in food and beverage all my life since I was 15 years old. Went to culinary school, worked all over the West Coast, and then I actually had a job on Hickam working at a restaurant that was a Navy contract. So I kind of got the ins of how they operate and what they're required and what they're looking for to service the men and women of the armed forces. And would you say that there's a large market for that or like was it hard? I mean, what would you attribute yourself being able to kind of make those connections or get those kinds of deals? I think it's more of a niche market, not too many people know about it. And they do require a lot of paperwork, which a lot of people find overwhelming, especially in the food and beverage industry, you know. So I kind of just figured out what they're looking for and what they want and gave them what they wanted. Awesome. In food and farming, we talk a lot about, or we have been talking more about relationship building recently. And I mean, I do more of the farm end, but can you tell us a little bit or give us some insight on relationship building in the restaurant industry and in sort of the niche that you have? Sure. I think it is very important to like build good relationships with the vendors, being, you know, in the middle of the ocean. A lot of our stuff is imported. So trying to find the vendors that are reputable, that can source you local products, you know, trying to find that and figure out and making sure they can supply your demand and not, you know, oh, we run out today, you can't be doing that. So finding those vendors that are focusing more on local as opposed to importing from other countries or the mainland. So can you tell me a little bit about what kind of demand you have? What kind of demand for the restaurants? So just from my cafeteria, we go, we're doing about, we need, you know, 250 pounds of lettuce a week. We go through about 300 pounds of fresh ahi every week, 250 pounds of whatever white fish we can get, whatever's on the block. O and O right now is running. So we use that. We source whatever we can locally and still be able to make it like affordable, fresh, healthy meals. And do you feel like that is challenging or, I mean, once you get the system tight and running, you should be solid. Yeah, definitely in the beginning, it was definitely challenging. It's like, you don't really know where to look or who to ask. I mean, and I had connections, I knew people at pretty much every distribution company on the island, but who specialized in local lettuce or how can I get this and more challenging for me was how do I get them on base to deliver to us. So that was a really big challenge for us. You know, hey, can you meet me at the gate? So I'm driving up there with my van like throwing the lettuce in the trunk. So that was a challenge. Do you feel like, I mean, was the food being locally sourced important to you or like, was it important to your customers? Like, how big of a role does the food being local play into your business? So for me, we are servicing NOAA, which their mission is, you know, global protection of the oceans and, you know, reducing the carbon footprint. So for them, they were very adamant about us being like as green as possible, sourcing locally as much as possible, at least 25% of our products. Oh, oh, so they gave you like a rules that you have to follow. They did, but I also have, you know, I also have always tried to be as sustainable as possible, not only with food, but just every aspect of a restaurant, the footprint of restaurant leaves behind. You know, if I'm buying lettuce from Mexico, what's it taking to get here? You know, so, but yes, they did have qualifications that we had to follow to get the award. So those contracts are given out based on like what they want and what you cannot give them. I see. And then when you're when you're buying for your restaurants, what would you say is like, I feel like I get asked this a lot too, like, what is the difference in price when you buy something that is like local and not local? So it's kind of crazy because I can get spring mix from Mexico cheaper than I can get it from, you know, the Narshaur. So then as a business owner, you have to decide what's more important, you know, obviously you need to make your bottom line to stay in operation, but now that, you know, we've been there for four years, so I'm at a point that I can make the decision to go local and pay more and decrease, you know, the profit margin to support the local economy, which is at this point more important for me personally. Sounds smart. So would you say that it's like the spring mix that you get from Mexico is like 50% cheaper than Narshaur? Like what is the, you know, like, what do you think? About 30. Oh, about 30. This is a good number. I feel like this is a or this is a good number for definitely the beginning farmer community to know just and then as far as like vegetable production, like how much spring mix do you think that you buy just for your one? So my spring mix, we go through about 40 pounds a day or so. We're servicing about 400 people a day. Yeah. Well, very big solid bar, very healthy. My clientele is very on the healthy side. So always coming up with trying to source locally. And now the challenge that I'm actually having right now is now they want organic local, which that's hard. You can have local or you can have organic, but finding local organic right now is actually one of my challenges that a lot of the customers are asking for. Is the challenge because like you can't find both things in the same place or the challenge is it's too expensive to buy organic local? I would say it's a little bit of both. My main vendor that I use, they specialize more in local, but they're not as concerned with is it organic or not. So a lot of stuff coming out of California, Mexico, they're doing a lot. They're moving towards organic because that's what as a nation, people are moving towards organic, GMO free. But I think the local farmers are just still, you know, I mean, we have our own challenges here. So they're just trying to get the food grown and whether it's organic or not, it's still local. So it's a, it's, you know, you have to kind of decide what's more important, fueling the local economy and supporting that or offering your customers to do that. We're in organic products, but they're coming out of California or a lot of it's coming out of Mexico. So I think like even educating consumers has been like a big gap in I feel like how we've marketed food because like again that thing about like what is more important and what is it more important to the consumer because it takes a lot of all these additional things to get an organic product from somewhere else to here that, you know, like making sense of it. Do you feel like your customers care if it's certified organic or they just like they just want to know that it's being organically grown? Yeah, I think, I think well, all the stuff that comes in imported, it's got to be like to be labeled organic, it's certified, like, you know, they have the trace ability of where the seeds came from and all of that. But I think a lot of local farms, they will stay organically grown, but they're not certified organic. So I think, you know, you can get away with that. I feel like I see more people like kind of just being more okay with or like learning to like know where their food comes from, like knowing their farmer and how he or she grows it and that it's locally sourced. So I mean, I definitely am seeing, I mean, it's kind of a, it's good to sort of hear that that is also what consumers in a big scale are also looking for because like 500, I mean 400 people a day, that's not a small number. What would you say, I mean, because in addition to it being a restaurant, you're also like a small business owner? Yes, yes. So what would you say are like some of the benefits of being a small business owner in Hawaii, currently? I like do any benefits? Well, the benefits to me personally, at this point now that we're an established, how old are you? Four years. I have a lot more freedom with my time. You know, my, my restaurant could technically run itself, it staffed well and you know, having the enjoyment knowing that I'm employing people locally, giving them a chance to provide for their family with like decent wages and just having satisfied customers is, you know, probably the most fulfilling. People are like, oh, this is so good, you know, and like a lot of people, you know, we get the same people in every day, breakfast and lunch, five days a week. So to me, it's, I'm just thankful for them and grateful. And so that makes me feel like I'm doing something right. And then some of your bigger challenges for being a small business owner in Hawaii? Big challenges. Definitely staffing levels and food and beverage is a very high turnover industry in general. And then for me personally, having the aspect of getting on base, so now you have to go through a background clearance, you have a 10 year of checks, and it takes a while. They can take up to a month and most kitchen employees don't, aren't going to wait around a month for a job. So that's one of my biggest challenges and the whole vendor, getting vendors on base. So I mean, I, you know, the safety of the basis, their priority. So you just work around that though. Okay, we're going to take a quick break and then we're going to talk about what's coming up, what new cool things that you folks are doing. I'm Ethan Allen, your host on Pacific partnerships and education here on think tech Hawaii. Every other week, Tuesdays at 3pm, we have guests on and talk about the fascinating, interesting and unique partnerships in education that occur across the Pacific islands with Hawaii, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Guam, all these places have really rich local education programs going on. And the exchange among and between these programs is a wealth of great information helping the islands all learn how to survive and thrive in our ever changing world. I hope you'll join us on Pacific partnerships and education. To Hawaii food and farmer series, I'm Pomai Weigert and I'm here today with my guest Julia Tallman from Green Tree Cafe. And she has just been sharing insight with us about being a restaurant owner in Hawaii, how the the ups and downs of sourcing local things. And now we're kind of, you know, segueing into the future of of your business, but also how that ties into the future of Hawaii. So can you tell us a little bit about kind of what you see for the restaurant industry in Hawaii? It's such a it's food and beverage is such a huge industry here. And we're seeing a lot of restaurant owners and restaurant consultants, you know, shifting menus, shifting gears, looking at things like local organic kind of what are some things that you see on the horizon that could or are impacting the food, farmer, restaurant pipeline. So long. That was a really long explanation. But you know what I mean. So for me personally, like what I would like to see out here in Hawaii is more farmers being able to produce for restaurants in particular. And a lot of farmers they sell to the markets and things like that, which is great. But if my goal and my hopes are like to have to get a start a farm that the my farmers just grow for my restaurant and then any restaurants that I'm involved with through consulting, things like that. So, you know, as an owner, I'm making my more of my profit off of my restaurant. So in turn, I could the farm doesn't need to necessarily have such a profit margin. So we could get local possibly locally organic food sold to the restaurant at like a more affordable rate so that we don't have to pass off the costs onto the consumers. You don't have to be paying, you know, Waikiki prices to get a Waikiki meal, so to speak. So that is where I think Hawaii, we do have the ideal weather like in coming the world to grow a lot of our own produce. And then of course, we have the freshest fish available. So, you know, just I think focusing on the even like the fish markets, if they would, you know, weren't exporting as much of the locally caught fish here and like, you know, selling it to the farmers and restaurants here first. But I mean, that's a whole nother topic. But that's I mean, or having local fishermen do like so I'm partnering up with a couple local fishermen now that are just going to go catch fish for us. Oh, okay. So, so they're like, like if they're just going to do it for just you, yes, they'll be like your own fishermen. And then if they have too much, then they'll go to the auction block or other restaurants. So we're in the process of doing that. So just ensure like all of our fish is locally caught sustainably on the, you know, do you see a, is there also about a 30% price difference between or is it larger for the fish for the fish? Oh, so it, it depends because fish prices fluctuate so much out here. I mean, you can get fish fresh ahi cheaper than what it's coming in frozen from the Philippines. You can get it for triple the price. It just depends. So as a restaurant, that's why everyone I hear in Hawaii, most restaurants are going to have market price on their ahi dishes because of that reason. So when, when my prices come down, I pass it on to my consumers. So I can have a pocket bowl for $8. I can have one the next day for $14. I just base it on if, if I'm getting, you know, reasonably priced fish at the auction, I'll reduce the prices. So China go around. And I mean, I don't know if you know this, but is it that, that fluctuation? What, what affects that kind of fluctuation? A lot of it is the time of the year base will of course weather, bad weather, no boats go out, no fish, prices will skyrocket. But also the time of the year that the fish are spawning decreases the right quality of the fish. And like I said, a lot of it, a lot of our ahi, we have the largest, you know, tuna option and a lot of it gets exported. So if say only 40,000 pounds come in and 30,000 is going out, Hawaii's only got 10,000 pounds to deal with across all of our restaurants. Our micro price is going to be a little higher that week then. And would you say it's week to week? That's kind of how it, that's kind of how it's seasonally as well. So okay. And then of course on demand like New Year's everyone wants a sashimi fire. So the prices are going to, and it's not only the restaurants skyrocketing, it's, you know, we're getting, you know, our prices, yeah, everyone is all across the board. So that's why I'm hoping with my partnership with the fishermen, it's going to be flat rate across the board. Sometimes he'll have more fish for us, but and then supplementing through the auction and other vendors, if he can't supply enough. So I think, you know, a lot of local fishermen, they're doing like a lot of new co-ops and things like that, not necessarily for restaurants, but just for individuals, we should get their items out, sort of like a farmer's market, but for fish. Yeah. So that's, yeah, I think that, I mean, definitely in the, in the food systems industry, people are looking at different ways of distribution and, and how to, you know, because people can do things, but maybe on a smaller scale, and they're not intending to scale up. So they, you know, like finding, making that one connection or partnership is sometimes enough, you know. As far as just on the restaurant consulting side, or, you know, just as a business owner in food, are there any trends that you see in food and or community that, you know, are happening in Hawaii? You know, I've, I've done a couple of interviews recently, where like, you know, for example, seasonality, that's starting to like kind of light bulb on for people here. Like, hi, you know, like the freshest things are seasonal. So is there anything that you're seeing? I mean, it doesn't have to be about food, but just like things that impact Hawaii, you know, economy, travel, any thoughts? I think, yeah, definitely. People are starting to realize, you know, that maybe you can't get certain items year round. And a lot of chefs, you know, at the higher end dining restaurants, all their menus are always changing. So, you know, they'll have literal paper menus that they take on and off every day. I mean, I worked at a restaurant in Maui that did that every day. The menu changed every day. It listed who the fishermen were that brought in the fish. It listed the farms where it came from. So, and I think the consumers are now willing to pay more if they know, okay, John brought this fish in at 6 a.m. today. I don't mind paying, you know, higher rate than this fish got processed in the Philippines a month ago and had to be shipped or boated across the ocean. So as far as food and beverage trends, I mean, definitely, definitely, like, I mean, the farm to table thing has been slowly creeping up. And now everyone's doing it, like small places, big places, fork to table, farm to table, farm to spoon, like just coin up whatever slogan you can. And for me, I'll pay more if I know. Yeah, me too. You know, I'm like, it just fresh, healthy, knowing that the, you know, the carbon footprint is a lot less being that it's grown here, not flown here. And do you think that it's a matter of, like, people being more educated or it's, that's just the cool thing right now? You know what I mean? Like, what do you think has attributed to, because I agree with you, like, I want those things, you know, but also, you know, that accessibility, do you feel like that's just for a specific demographic? Or do you think there's enough kind of creeping into where, like, everybody can have those, those kinds of foods? Right. I think it is definitely a trending thing. And I think, you know, social media plays a big role, like, oh, look at their eating. And then you got all these Instagram pictures, like, oh, I want to eat that. And also a lot of products that from here are a lot healthier. A lot of people are moving towards the healthy trend. A lot of vegan, a lot of vegetarian. This is true. So I think that is definitely fueling the ability for people, like, you know what, I'll pay an extra dollar, or, you know, even when you're out grocery shopping, okay, well, buy this because this is organic or whatnot. But, yeah. And then I know that before you became, like, a restaurant consultant and then before you had your own restaurant, you were a chef, or you used to cook, or you went to culinary school. Can you share with us, like, some of your favorite things that you like to cook? Yeah, like, what do you like to cook? What do you cook for people when they come over to to your place? Like, what inspires you in food? Okay. Yeah. For me, simplicity, definitely using local products. I love to work with, like, any local vegetables. I love the Molokai sweet potatoes. You can do, you know, mashed potatoes, raviolis. You can replace pretty much any starch with that. You know, like a simple good seared steak I'll eat once in a while. My go-to is always poke, as long as it's fresh. Where did this poke come from? What boat did this come off of? What boat did this come off of? And that's what the, you know, you actually know what this came off of, such and such boat this morning. I feel like that is also, like, really not just knowing that it was locally sourced, but, like, exactly who the source is, which I feel like people in the industry have been doing for a long time. You know, I feel like there was a time when I would ask those questions and people would be like, can you please calm down? And now it's, like, almost a guarantee. They want to tell you. They want to tell you. It's added value. And that is why it's this much money. And then you're like, okay. What about desserts? Any, any favorite desserts? Do you like desserts? I don't have a sweet tooth, but I do. I'll take a bite. I'll eat my kids' desserts. I love cooking cheesecakes. All different flavors. But, yeah, I don't. Not too much, not too much desserts. And then let's, what about cocktails? I feel like as our final note, as our final thing that we're going to talk about, because it's about that time of day, as far as cocktails in Hawaii or the cocktail scene in general, I feel like that is happening. That is very alive. And what are your thoughts on that? Or what do you see coming for the cocktail industry? Yeah, I think very handcrafted cocktails are absolutely the thing right now. The infused syrups, lots, using lots of herbs, cloning herbs, like, you know, things that people wouldn't think of lavender or jalapenos or thyme. And then it just all mixes so well, like, you know, we work with several master mixologists with a different big, like, Young's Market. And they are really into that. They'll help you create your menus and they'll teach you how to make the syrups. I'm actually looking into that because, as I've witnessed, at, like, very high-volume bars that are not looking for the, you know, $15 cocktail, but they still want to have something like that, they don't have the time to maybe make it all of it. Yeah, so I'm thinking, you know, that could be a good business opportunity. Climb Bad Lavender Syrup and jalapeno syrups and, like, locally for stores made. And then, yeah, or even just selling at retail, like, you know, I mean, if I go into the store, like, what are your options? You've got, like, the syrupy mix, you know, to, so it's, I think, a big, a big part of the bar scene right now. Great. Okay. I mean, look at that. It's all done. We're wrapping it up. Quick time together talking about restaurants, food and farms. Thank you so much, Julia, for joining us today and for everyone watching. See you next time. Thanks for having me. Bye.