 I'm Rusty Komori and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou Boys varsity tennis team for 22 years and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. This show is based on my books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game and it's about leadership, character and creating a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today is the owner and managing partner of Cahuillo Avenue Food Hall at the International Marketplace in Waikiki. He is Mike Palmer and today we are going beyond dining. Hey, Mike, welcome to Beyond the Lines. Hello, Han Rusty, thank you for having me. Mike, you've been doing such an incredible job with your concepts there at Cahuillo Avenue Food Hall. I absolutely love it. But before we get into all of that, can you tell me a bit about your background? Yeah, sure. So I grew up in California, Santa Barbara to be exact and spent a lot of my life growing up there in a beautiful place and it's similar to Hawaii in California. And then I'm the youngest of eight kids. I went to college at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, California where I got my business degree with the concentration in management marketing. And after that, right out of college, I got a job with Jamba Juice and worked with Jamba Juice in California. They were just a fairly young company at the time starting to open locations throughout California. And for a couple of years, I traveled all over California opening new locations from San Diego to San Francisco. And then I heard through the grapevine that there was a franchise partner looking to open in Hawaii. And I said, okay, I don't wanna put my name in the hat. I wanna go talk to these guys directly. So I came to Hawaii on a vacation and I heard it was the guys that brought Starbucks to Hawaii. And I reached out to them, left them a message at their office. Unfortunately, they didn't call me back until I was already back in California for my vacation. But they called me and said, we'd love to meet you. And I basically said, hey, I have a lot of knowledge about Jamba. I'd love to help you guys launch the brand in Hawaii. And to make a long story short, they brought me on board but it was supposed to be a one year contract and agreement with corporate. And after a few months, they asked if I'd stay permanently in Hawaii. And it was probably one of the best decisions I ever made to work with those guys. It was Dean and Scott McPhail and Greg Meyer and the McNaughton group. And I learned so much from those guys. I mean, we had a great run in Hawaii. We ended up opening 36 Jambas. I think they opened over 70 Starbucks here in Hawaii but amazing group of individuals that I learned. I developed a lot of my leadership skills working with those guys as well. So Mike, tell me about how you got involved in the restaurant industry. And then when did you take ownership over Cuyahia Avenue food hall? So I pretty much my, well, it wasn't my first job but my second job was in a fast food Wendy's in the mainland when I was 16 years old. I got a job flipping burgers and doing everything at a Wendy's. And then I worked at a pizza place and ever since in college I waited tables at a very busy restaurant and that's how I paid for my college working in a restaurant for four years. And I learned a lot. I love hospitality business restaurants, love food of course. And so it's just, I guess it's been in my blood so to speak ever since a very young age and working with a lot of entrepreneurs and people in the same food and beverage industry. And then what happened with Cuyahia food hall is after John by I worked at worked a stint with Wingstop another franchise. And then Ruth Chris Steakhouse worked with Randy Shock and his team, operating the Ruth Chris restaurants here in Hawaii on three different islands. But then the Mina group reached out to me and Michael Mina had the Cuyahia, well it was called the street food hall back then. And that was in 2018. And they were looking for a local leadership because they had already been through, I think it was, I was the fifth manager in less than a year and a half at that location. And so yeah, it wasn't, I was used to doing multi-unit management but this was one location with multiple units in it. So I thought I'd take a stab at it. And it was a wild ride. Wow. And Mike, you, okay, so let's talk about, you have around 10 concepts and three bars. Can you tell me more about that? Yeah, so it shut down during the pandemic and then my business partner, John Fried and I had an opportunity to reopen it under our own ownership. And so that happened in January, 2021. And we gradually opened one concept at a time and now we're up to eight. And so yeah, we've got Ponsai burger, Aloha pizzeria. We've got Greek grotto, a Greek concept. We've got our La Pina Cantina Mexican concept. We've got Chihu barbeque and we also have a taqueria. We have a tiki bar, a beer bar. And coming soon we have a sub sandwich place and a health bar as well, opening up. And it's absolutely amazing how you've improved that whole space. I mean, it's so great. There's so much positive energy. The music, it's so lively. Now you mentioned, I mean, I would say that running any restaurant like one restaurant is gonna be challenging. What are the challenges in running 10 concepts within a dining area? Yeah, I mean, one restaurant is challenging. You're absolutely right. Just running a restaurant in front of house, back of house and a huge staff. And this thing, I call it the beast. That's my nickname for it. We call it the beast because it is really, it does present a lot of different unique challenges having multiple concepts, multiple menus to manage. And a lot of people think like a typical food court that we have, you know, we suddenly see spaces out. But in reality, we own every concept in there with the exception of our friend, Derrick at Il Gelato. We thought we'd invite him in because he has the best gelato on the island. And so it does present different challenges because, you know, when somebody calls out at a restaurant you just have to make little adjustments and use the team you got. But here we've got these individual places with specialized menus and it's a lot harder to slide people around if you're shorthand. So every concept needs to have its own staff even though we do cross train people. Well, you have incredible food dishes there. I mean, you literally have something for everybody, right? I like to think so. We do, I mean, I tell people if you can't find something you like there then you must be a really picky person. But, you know, probably the only cuisines we don't have are Chinese food and Indian food. But I mean, we've got the Mediterranean, the Greek, we just opened our Hashi and Spoon, our ramen concept. I think it's the best Mexican food on the island. I grew up with Mexican food in California. So, and our executive chef Mario Lopez is from Mexico City, went to culinary school there and he does amazing Mexican food. Our burgers, not to brag, but I'll put them up against any burger in the state. And there's, yeah, it's a, you've tried it yourself. So, I don't know if you've eaten everything but there's a lot to try. Well, Mike, I mean, I had the honor of having lunch with you, Banzai Burger, right there at your place. And I also love La Peña as well. I mean, it's tough choices, but your location is fantastic and the parking is really convenient too. Yeah, I tell everybody, you know, a lot of locals don't like coming to Waikiki because whether it's the crowds or just the challenges of finding parking because, you know, I can relate, you know, parking was challenging, but when they opened international marketplace, when after the remodel, they really had the foresight to make a huge parking garage that's got high ceilings for SUVs and trucks and surfboards on top. And it's great. I mean, you get validated parking first hours free and it's $2 an hour for the next three hours. So you can park for four hours or six bucks in the heart of Waikiki, which I think is a bargain. So parking is not an issue. I completely agree with you, but you know, I went there to your place or when it was before your place at, like you said, the street. And when I come there now, I mean, it's such a big difference. Like you have the music is going, I mean, it just feels like there's just positive energy. I mean, it just feels great. I mean, is that something that you really pay really close attention to when you're watching the type of customers that you have? Yes, absolutely. I think, and I love the fact that you notice that when you come in, because we want it to be a fun, a vibe, right? And again, I learned this with working with so many great companies in the past and, you know, visionary leaders that people are looking for a place not just to eat, but they want an environment that they enjoy. And yes, it's hard to find music that everybody enjoys. Sometimes people have, you know, polar tastes on that. Some people want a quiet place. I do tell people it's not necessarily a place to come on Valentine's Day with a date for a romantic night out. It's lively, it's energetic, it's noisy. You know, we've got a lot of TVs. Football is huge now. I don't consider us a sports bar, but it is an amazing place to watch the games. We've got, you know, 12 big TVs to watch them on. I just signed up for the NFL Sunday ticket. So now we've got, you know, nine games on Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon. So, and again, the beauty of it is people can come with their entire family. They don't have to fight over what to eat. They come there, they can all branch out, order whatever they want, then sit at the same table and enjoy it. And that's really what it's about. People coming together to eat and converse and enjoy entertainment. And yeah, I think it's not for everybody, but I think we've got a lot of locals that come enjoy it and they tell tourists about it, which is great. I mean, the word about there's nothing better than that, right? Well, I'm one of those locals that come there too. And Mike, let's talk about Bratahood Grimes. You were among the first restaurants to step up to support Bratahood Grimes. Why did you feel compelled to help Hawaii football and coach Timmy Chang? So my business partner and I, when we had this vision of our company, which is Ho'okipa Partners, we said we want it to be of Hawaii for Hawaii. I mean, Ho'okipa, the Hawaiian name is hospitality. And everything we do, we wanted to have Hawaii be part of that. And then when you're thinking of ways to get involved in the community, there's so many different great organizations, nonprofits, ways to give back. And we hadn't really dialed in and nailed down exactly what groups we would support. But when Ryan Tanaka from the Hawaii Restaurant Association brought it up at a board meeting, that coach Timmy Chang reached out to him and said, we need to feed our players in the off season because the NCAA doesn't allow for that or the university doesn't have that budget. And first of all, I was like, what? And then of course it's like, how can we help? And Ryan Giovanni Pestrami was on board. I told him right then and there I said, count us in, count Ho'okipa and the food haul in. Not really knowing what it was gonna entail, but we thought, hey, UH sports is like, it's not just UH, it's the entire state, right? If there's a way to support Hawaii UH Athletics is a great way to do it. And it's so neat, and you know this because you were right there all along as well. And that's where I met you was at our first event at the food haul with the UH men's football team. And we had the offensive line one day at 50 some players and the defense the next day. And the great thing to hear from coach Timmy was that it is a recruiting tool for them to have all these restaurants. And initially I think there was just four of us and now it's growing. Every day there's more restaurants jumping on board, which is great because it's become this huge effort of Ohana community getting behind the support UH men's football who just won their first game in the homecoming this weekend. That's awesome. Congrats coach Timmy and the rest of you. But it's just snowballed into this huge thing. So now as you know, it's not just UH men's football, it's men's basketball, it's men's volleyball, it's women's volleyball, women's basketball, the golf team soccer, they all got involved. And of course now we're like, okay, we need more restaurants to help with this. And as so many restaurants that are part of the Hawaii Restaurant Association have stepped up, which is it's just neat because it's really the community coming together to support our men and women in athletics. And there was a real need there. So I can't tell you how exciting it has been to be part of that. And it wasn't anything like, oh, what's in it for us? You know, if that comes great, it's just one of those things that, hey, this is a great cause, let's get behind it. Well, I want everybody to come and support you because you support our community. And Brotherhood Grimes also evolved into Sisterhood Grimes which is absolutely amazing too. And Mike, you have both of my books and you're such a great leader that I wanna ask, what are some things that stood out to you in the books? Well, I mean, there's so much, Rusty, like your books, I mean, it's short and sweet, which I love, but the knowledge and your experience of 22 years of champions, right? And then it translates, right? We always know sports and business and home life. There's so many things that translate, but it's hard to pick one thing that stood out in your books, but a lot of it just resonated. It's my own personal philosophies and what I've learned as a leader and working with people. But first of all, people, right? So I tell everybody when I went to Cal Poly, which is a great college, and I would guess this is a case of any university where people are studying business. They don't talk so much about people. Yet 80% of my conversations, my meetings, the day-to-day interactions I have are about my team or vendors. It's all people, you know? And I think any business leader you talk to, you don't achieve success alone, right? There's a lot of people. And that to me, and I love because that's what your book speaks to and with your players. And developing these other leaders is really what it is because if you've got a vision and big goals, you need a big team to do that or a lot of people that share in that vision, right? So I love that, you know, that, you know, the people aspect. I didn't count how many times people's mentioned in the book, but it's a lot. And that's the advice I give to anybody. You better learn about people and what motivates them and how to interact with them. And if not, you need to find yourself with somebody that you work with that has those skills. And I've noticed that too, a lot of business partnerships, there's the people person and then maybe the visionary or the technical person, right? And I think there's a lot of successful partnerships and teams and organizations that have that chemistry. You know, it's not necessarily one person. It's a, you know, group of them. I love what you talk about character. I try to find people that have that because you can't teach it. You know, one of my launches, my entire career has been when I hire people, I, you know, I hire for personality and I train for skill. Now, if you're a rocket scientist at NASA, that might not work, but in the hospitality, food and beverage industry, that is something that has really worked well. You know, I say, I don't care what your resume says, how much, you know, just technical skills you have, although it's helpful. But I used to think I could teach people how to smile and be hospitable, but it really is actually something that is just people are born with, I think. And then all you can do is try to enhance that and give them a culture and environment that they can feel free to be themselves. But, you know, I was wrong too many times and I said, oh, this person's kind of quiet and subdued. Maybe I can bring it out of them and I've been proven wrong. So I think that character is key. You talk about culture and I'm huge on that. I've been very blessed to work with companies that had amazing cultures, including the Starbucks, Jamba guys, I talked about amazing. We're like a family. We still have get-togethers every year because we love working with each other so much, even though they sold the companies and we still have reunions because we're like this huge family. And so that creating that culture is something I was tasked with doing when I came in to the street, the food hall. And, you know, I noticed that I had to make some changes and, you know, just improve the culture because that's the other thing. It's a retention tool. If you have people that love coming to work every day and enjoy who they work with and enjoy their bosses, that's an amazing culture that helps you not only retain people, it helps you recruit new people which as we know is very challenging these days for a lot of industries, not just food and beverage. So, yeah, in your book, I mean, there's so many great things and I love it because it just, your book is great. I recommend it to anybody because there's so much great knowledge in there and your personal experiences and then you share other experiences and your individual players. I love everybody's story is different, right? So a lot of good stuff. Well, Mike, what's amazing is you've created this culture of excellence at Cuyahua Avenue Food Hall now and how would you describe your leadership style? That's a good question. I always try to lead by example which again, you talk about in your book. I don't ask anybody to do anything. I want to do myself. And I've always considered myself a coach, you know? I say, I'm a coach, I'm here to support. Not necessarily point my finger and tell you what to do although that delegation is a huge part of leadership but I believe that one of the most important things I tell my other managers is the team needs to know you're there for them at all times. That means even if you're off, you call doesn't mean you have to answer your phone but call them back, you know? That way they know if they really need you, you're there, you're available. You know, or if you're at the restaurant, check in with everybody, it's a big place. So when I hire managers, if they're external, I make sure they come down and spend a few hours and they know what they're getting into. I say, this isn't a sit on your butt kind of management job, it's you're gonna put some miles on walking around the place, checking in with each concept, you know? And the team loves that. They know, oh, there's somebody here that if I meet them, they're available and they're checking on. So that level of support is very important. And as a leader, that's what I try to do is be supportive of my team. I try to lay out the goals and give them, you know, discipline, I think, you know, when you talk about the four P's, right? People we already talked about the purpose, the process. I think we're in the process stage, you know, with such a big operation, the restaurant being a year and a half old, we're still working on those processes to get to the end result, which is that top notch winning championship performance. And I feel like there's days we hit that, but we still, you know, go back, okay, we need to change this process or improve this process so we can have that, you know, top notch winning, you know, winning team performance. And that's a daily struggle to do that. But again, you trace that back to the people, right? Having the right people that share the vision and want to be a winning team, because that's important. If they don't care, it's just a job, then, you know, you're not doing yourself any favors. They got to have that passion as well. No, I'm glad you brought up the four P's and yeah, I can see how you guys are in the process stage. And Mike, during the pandemic, what did you do to help the nurses at Kaiser Permanente? Well, the Honolulu Magazine reached out to me, Christy Davis, a dear friend of mine, works there and they said they had a program that partnered with restaurants to feed the nurses or the heroes, right? On the front lines during the pandemic. So she asked, you know, were you be willing to provide some meals? And I said, absolutely. So, you know, we packed up a bunch of meals and brought them down to Kaiser Permanente delivered them and they were super happy and gave them. And, you know, there was other restaurants doing this too. So again, it was a great thing to be part of and so easy to say yes to. And then I think three weeks later, we donated a bunch of meals to Queens Hospital and the nurses as well. So it was, it was just again, such an easy thing to say yes to. They were working crazy hours, crazy conditions. And, you know, I can't even imagine like when I think I have a hard day, I think of somebody in the medical profession's hard days. Yeah, it's incredible how long their hours are, the nurses and the doctors and how little sleep they get before they got to work again. And that's so great of you. And you mentioned earlier your business partner, John Fareed. I mean, you guys make such a, you guys have such a great partnership. Why do you guys make such a terrific team together? I mean, we really compliment each other. I think, you know, when I first met John, it was interesting, you know, he was doing consulting for the mall owners. And my first day on the job when I was with the Mina group, he basically told me, we got to turn this restaurant around and we're shutting it down in a few months. Like that was as blunt as it could be. And I was like, wow, my first day on the job, okay. But what I learned from that is he's transparent, he's gonna tell me exactly how it is. No BS, right? And that's good to work with somebody like that. Sometimes it stings, but you know what you have to do, right? There's nothing secretive or hidden agendas or anything like that. So over the time as him, the consultant, we got to know each other and really liked each other. I was same. I was very transparent with him. He liked what I was doing with the place and then throughout the pandemic, next thing you know, we shake hands, say let's become partners and open a food hall in the middle of the pandemic. And the mall owners that the Tom and company are partners and they're absolutely amazing. I can't say enough great things. I mean, a lot of people have challenging relationships with landlords and they're all about a win-win for their tenants, which is something that is rare, I feel like, in the industry. And so it's great, but yeah, going back to John, we have a lot in common. There's a lot of things we both enjoy food, of course, people, he has an amazing, you should put him on your show. He's got an amazing background, 30 plus years and working with five-star hotels and restaurants. And I love learning from him, his knowledge and experience. And we also know we couldn't have done this without each other, right? So it's very symbiotic. I wouldn't be sitting here if it wasn't for him and vice versa. So we acknowledge that and appreciate it and let each other do their thing, you know? But yeah, he'll be here next week. So I enjoy when he's in town and we can catch up and have him at the restaurant and helping the team loves him too. That's the thing, the culture, like I said, we're a big family. And that's a big part of our success too, I think, is having that. Ohana, it's not just a place of work, but we've got 80 employees now and it's growing. Probably have another 30 more in the next couple of months because things have really ramped up. Mike, that's amazing. I wanna ask you one more question before we wrap up. When you reflect back on your life so far, what's a valuable lesson you've learned? Oh man, there's so many. And I think that is, you know, what's important. I always tell myself, you know, school's always in session. If you think you know everything, you might as well pack up and go home. But every day you're learning. I read your book and learned new things that I never thought of or even things that you're reminded of. And I always wanna be better every day. And I think that's, you know, a lot of leaders and successful and champions have that same spirit. You know, I mean, you look at world-class athletes, you know, whether it's Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods, you name it, right? They all have that where they're always trying to do better. You know, I can do better next time or in the next business or whatever it may be. So I think continual improvement. I love the Japanese word kaizen, which is the same concept and, you know, my wife's Japanese, so when we go to Japan, you see that in practice with everybody in every business, they are passionate about being the best at whatever it is they do. If they're manufacturing something, they wanna be the best, if they're making food, even if it's not their own food, if it's French or Italian, they're making it the best it can be. And that's just ingrained in the culture. So I try to have that, you know, as well. And then of course, you know, just learning, you know, your direct reflection of the five or eight people you spend the most time with. And I think that is, you know, something we all hear, but it is so true. I look at successful people on their circle, and that is something that is paramount as well, that, you know, they're surrounding themselves with other successful people or people that bring things to the table, maybe that they lack, you know? So I think that's really important as well. I love it, Mike. I thank you so much. I love hearing your insights and thank you for helping our community. And I wanna thank you for taking time to be on the show today. Thank you so much for having me, Rusty. I'm absolutely honored that you have me on your amazing show here. And I look forward to your third book. Thanks, Mike. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit rusticamory.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I hope that Mike and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechawaii.com. Mahalo.