 Welcome to Beyond the Lines. I'm Rusty Kamori. We broadcast live on Mondays at 10 a.m. to 10 30 a.m. from the ThinkTek Hawaii TV studio in the Pioneer Plaza in downtown Honolulu. I'm very excited for today's guest, Miley Sengora. She is the owner of the very popular Miley's Thai restaurants in two locations, Hawaii and Ward. Today we are going beyond restaurants. Miley, thank you for joining me today. Thank you for having me, Rusty, and congratulations on your book Beyond the Lines. Oh, thank you so much. It was a great read. I read it in one day. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Thank you. It took me two and a half years to write that. Yeah, you did good. You did good. I want to know your history. Were you born in Hawaii? No, I was actually born in this little country called Laos, and it's between Vietnam and Thailand. And I came to Hawaii when I was two years old, and I've been here since. I went to the mainland after high school for about five years and then came back. Wow. Did you play any sports or play any instruments growing up? I played a little bit of volleyball, and I danced hula, played the ukulele, things that your parents put you in. Now, you have a family connection to Asajos. Can you tell me about that? Yeah, Paisanos as well. Oh, yes. So, you know, growing up, I come from a family of entrepreneurs, and so I've always been in the restaurant business. In fact, when I was about 14 years old, it was the first time I worked in a Thai restaurant, and this was in Maui. So every summer I would fly to Maui. I worked in the restaurant with my aunt. And that restaurant is still there, but it's not owned by my family. It's in Lahaina, front street, and it's called Thai Chef. And I believe it's still called Thai Chef until today. So I worked, because I was so young, I worked in the kitchen peeling shrimp and chopping vegetables, and my sister was old enough to work outside on the floor being a waitress. And I thought, well, she's got this glamorous job being a waitress. She got to dress up, and I'm in the kitchen with apron and smelly, and I'm just doing it all. And then I've always wanted to be a waitress, looking at her, I was like, wow, this is very glamorous. Today I'm a cook, a waitress, janitor, cashier, hostess, yeah, I do it all. So how did you get started in the restaurant industry? As I said, so going to Paisanos, that's where I started working when I got older, working at Paisanos in the Manoa marketplace. And then Asajos came into play, and we opened one location in the next, and then the next. And from Paisanos, I transitioned to Asajos out in Hawaii Kai, where I became the operating partner. And I worked there for about 10 years, and I learned a lot. And I finally found out that, I mean, I discovered that, OK, I'm ready to do this on my own. And that's when Miley's Thai in Hawaii Kai was born. I felt that I needed to open in Hawaii Kai because I had a lot of customers that I connected with, relationships grew. So it was the right thing for me to do was to open in Hawaii Kai. So a lot of my customers knew me from Asajos. Some of them never ate Thai food. Some of them say they hate Thai food. And I've been able to change their minds and all their regulars. I'm sure everyone's going to really love Thai food and Miley's Thai bistro after watching this episode. Well, I hope so. I mean, there's still a lot of people out there that don't understand Thai food. And the biggest misconception is it's either too spicy or there's too much coconut, two elements, which we don't even have, you know, in some of our entrees. So I would like people to come and try it. And I can help them pick out something that's not spicy, not all Thai food spicy. No, no, for sure. Yeah. Now you said that you had experience working at Asajos and Paisanos. What things did you learn about yourself by working in those restaurants? I learned to not be too afraid, you know, I was, you know, and now I speak a lot. I talk a lot. I have fun. Prior to that, it was very quiet. And but when you're at a table, you kind of want to need to express yourself with the foods that you're making and selling. And then so with that, I became a little bit more, now I talk too much. I love when you talk. Now you, you know, there came a time where you wanted to, you felt ready to open up your own restaurant, Miley's Thai Bistro in Hawaii. Why did you choose Hawaii Kai as your first location? As I said, you know, I lived in Hawaii Kai for many years and I started relationships with customers and a lot of family. So it was appropriate for me to open somewhere familiar to me where they've come from Asajos and it was when they found out while Miley's opening another restaurant or opening her own restaurant, they would come and visit me. Some of them just drank at the bar for a little bit and then I would slowly give them appetizer here and there. They're like, what? Does it taste like Thai food? I said, that's Thai food. So that's how I introduced Thai food to non-Thai eaters. Now there's obvious challenges being a business owner. What were the challenges for you as a business owner? The number one challenge is, in my opinion, as employees, to get good employees and to keep them was very, very difficult. I think a lot of business owners, I think that's probably the number one problem that we have. What do you think a second challenge would be? To make customers happy, you can't make everyone happy. There's going to be someone out there that's not in your favor and you just try your best. Now there's a few Thai restaurants on Oahu. Yes, many. Yeah. And a lot of good ones. Yes. Yours is great. You have a great Thai restaurant, not just the food, but the ambiance as well. Thank you. What do you think sets your Thai restaurant apart from other Thai restaurants? I feel, well, with my Thai restaurant, I have authentic food, but I also put local flair. Just in case, husband wants to eat local food, wife wants to eat Thai food. So we have steaks at our Hawaii Kai location, which is not Thai, but I do have a Thai flair to it. I have a little Thai taste to it. So I try to mix some local dishes with it. In fact, I have this thing called Thai Lokomoko, which I'm very proud of. Thai Lokomoko. Yeah. And it's not a traditional patty, it's kind of a deconstructive one. And then there's the egg, but it has the Thai flavors to it. I actually won a battle challenge recently at the rice festival, I came number one, and I got this little trophy that I'm so proud of. Oh, that's a big deal. Well, to the Japanese people it is. We've been featured in Japanese magazines, and the cutest thing, Rusty, is when they come to eat the Lokomoko, they point to the picture, and then they want to take a picture with the Lokomoko and my little trophy, which is the cutest thing. Well, the rice festival is such a big, popular event, and to win a Lokomoko honor like that, that's great. And it gets bigger every year. And we're paired up with celebrity newscast people, so it was fun. I'm very curious. What is the very first thing you cooked ever? Ever? Ever. Simon. What? Yeah. And it wasn't fancy, Rusty. The noodles, because I was young, and nowadays you've got spam and green onions, and that's just kind of plain still. Now you've got everything, but the kitchen sink in there. You've got wontons, you've got oxtail, you've got char siu, but when I started cooking, I just did the basic. It turned out pretty good. I didn't burn the house back. Simon. Simon, yeah. Simon. Now, you have a lot of popular dishes at Miley's restaurant. So many of your customers, they need certain dishes. What are the most popular dishes at Miley's Thai? Well, I think our most popular dish, not just at Miley's, but in any Thai restaurant is the Pad Thai. It's a staple in Thai restaurants, and a lot of people, they base your Pad Thai on, you know, if your Pad Thai is good, that means the rest of your entree will be good. So, and every restaurant makes it a little bit different, but ours is really popular. So that's the number one seller, and followed by the Lokomoko now. Wow. Yeah. What about the tom yum and the spring rolls? Yeah, well, the spring rolls is like a everyday kind of, you know, kind of appetizer. Tom yum is really popular to, tom yum shrimp to be exact, because that's in Thailand, that's what they eat. That's one of my favorite. Is it? Tom yum goong, right? Yeah, it's very good. No, I love Thai. I need Thai food every week. I am so happy you need Thai food every week. I love going to Miley's Thai. Thank you. Now, what are the, what's the most important things about cooking great Thai food? The most important is fresh ingredients, fresh lettuce, fresh, because our herbs, our specialty items like galangal, lemongrass. You can get that frozen, but we use fresh, and I think that's the key to our, you know, our recipes is fresh ingredients. That's very, very important, and we like to buy local, try to support our local vendors. Now, tell me about, you know, when prices go up. Yeah. What is it about, you know, some customers, they might not know why a restaurant might raise prices. Yeah, and that's difficult because, you know, they're so used to their items, so they know straight away if they see like the prices gone up. Well, sometimes the prices go up, and so if the prices go up, we have to raise our prices too, otherwise I won't make it. What are the specialty ingredients that you use that are expensive? Lemongrass, galangal, which is like two of the most staple, you know, ingredients that we use in Thai cooking, kaffir lime leaf, that goes all into our tom yum. There's fresh chilies. The chili peppers are so expensive, and now, before, not a lot of people would use like bird's eye chili pepper. Now, it's in everything, so it's become, you know, the more it's in need, right? Yeah. The more expensive it gets, so. How challenging is it for you when customers come in that are vegetarian or vegan? It's so difficult because nowadays we got vegetarian, pescatarian, vegan, gluten-free and all this, and I have to tell you, Rusty, my cooks in there are Thai. In Thailand here, I mean, they just know how to cook Thai, Thai way, so when you tell them gluten-free, they're like, you kind of mess them up, you know, so it's very challenging, and I have to go back there and I try to train them. I try to show them the right way to do it, and sometimes I get confused, so I have got a list of what is gluten-free, what's, you know, pescatarians, I mean, I know what vegetarian is, but vegan, you know, and everybody's so health-conscious now, and Thai food is very healthy for you if you eat it the right way, but it's really difficult because you just, you got to make sure you're cooking it the right way. There's whole foods here now, I mean, right around the corner from us, and we've seen a lot of food traffic actually. And it affects, I mean, when you adjust certain ingredients, it affects the taste. And I often tell them this, I said, you know, if you change the recipe, it's not going to taste how it's supposed to taste, and they're okay with that. Now I want to ask you what, you know, you have your Miley's Thai restaurant in Hawaii Kai, it is very successful. How many years now has that been open? It's been open 10 years now in that location. And then you wanted to open up a second location with a different concept? Yes. Bellini. Yes. Can you tell me about that? Yeah, so with Bellini, I partner up with a longtime friend, a family friend, and I felt that I just wanted to give him some exposure because he's worked so hard for my family for so many years. So he worked with me at Asajos and Paisanos, and he's worked in the kitchen, he's worked on the floor, he's done everything he could possibly do in our restaurants. And so I said to myself, okay, well, it's time for him to shine. Someone gave me an opportunity, I'd like to give him an opportunity. Well it didn't work out so well, and there were so many different elements to it. One being Bellini, and then there's a Bernini right around the corner, so it was very difficult. Some people would show up at Bellini's thinking they're at Bernini's, and some people would show up at Bernini's thinking it's Bellini's, so that was one element. And a second was, you know, as much as he tried and as much as I tried, it just didn't go off really well. And so I made that decision to change it over to Miley's, and as soon as I did, we saw a huge difference. Now why did you choose Ward as a location for your second restaurant? Well I actually didn't choose Ward, a Ward, you know, it became available, and we had some people that, you know, approached me to get into that spot many times, and I just declined because I wasn't ready. And I just saw it, it was being heavily developed, and I thought to myself I could never afford this spot here. And Hart Hughes worked with me, and it was a good fit, and now I see all these new buildings coming up and high-rises, and it's kind of exciting, it's like a little city, a new little city. Yeah, it's very exciting. I mean how things are just blowing up all around you right there. How big is your restaurant in the Ward location? It's about 3,000, kind of like the same size, 3,000 square feet, it's like at Miley's, but Miley's looks bigger because it's just one open space where it's Ward location, it's kind of split into two. We have a little private dining room area, we have the outside seating, and then we have the inside. Outside seating, we do welcome pets, so we have a lot of people, you know, in that area, they have a lot of pets, they walk, you know. Oh that's great. Pet friendly, vegan friendly, gluten-free friendly. Well, we are, we'll be back with Miley Sengura. You're watching Beyond the Lines, we'll be back in 60 seconds. I have this crazy thing going on today, I was just walking by, and all these DJs and producers are set up all around the city. I just walked by and I said, what's happening guys? They told me they were making music. So we'll do it. Welcome back to Beyond the Lines with Rusty Komori on Think Tech Hawaii. In case you are just tuning in, my awesome guest today is Miley Sengura, owner of the very popular Miley's Thai restaurants. Miley, we're talking about you opening your second location as Bellini, and it takes courage for an owner to know when a concept isn't working out. Can you tell me about what happened there and then your transition from Bellini into opening up your second restaurant in that same location at Ward? Yeah, you know Rusty, the first question everybody asked me, why? Why did I open Bellini's and not Miley's Thai too? And as I said previously, I wanted to give this family friend a chance to shine. Things didn't work out and so I quickly turned it into Miley's Thai ward and we saw great reviews and it's a little bit different. Everyone's going to compare the one in Hawaii to Ward, just like with the soldiers, everybody compares every location and that's because we can't be at two places at once. It was difficult for me. The transition was not easy. Failures and losses are things that are here to wake us up Rusty and I think a lot of times people don't take risk because they're in fear of failure. And I'm the type of person that I'm going to fight. I get down, I get right back up and I do it until I to the end. That's what I was taught to do. That's why I think my family's business has been successful because we don't give up. Well, you're definitely very successful. You've achieved success. I don't know about very successful but I'm working towards being successful. Well, I think you're successful. I think you're not just successful but you're sustaining success. You actually had a TV cooking show for a few years. Can you share about that experience? Well, let me tell you this Rusty. I have newfound respect for these actors, these producers, these directors, the editing people. I was so horrible at this cooking show when I first started. My manager, Janelle, sent me to an acting school and I thought it was going to get better and I didn't. But after a year, then I started getting better. But I went on camera and the lights came on me and it was so hot, my makeup just melted out of my face. And I'm like, I was being the one that was being cooked. I wasn't doing the cooking. But it was so hard. Cooking and talking at the same time is so difficult. This is still hard, but it's a lot easier. When you're cooking, you're trying to think about what you're trying to say, how to describe what you're cooking. But then at the same time, you want to make sure that your doodles are not on fire. So it was really, really hard. And Cutmaster Spaz and his show on OC16, they have helped us so much. We've gotten busier. And until today, people ask me, well, when you're going to do it again, Miley, we love watching you cook. And I'm like, wow, that means a lot to me because I was horrible at it. But I stopped because when we opened Bellini's or when we were about to open Bellini's, I got really, really busy. So soon, soon enough, people are still asking me, people stopped me at the market and the wives are like, my husband likes watching your show. And I try to cook. I said, you don't have to cook, just come to Miley's. Don't cook it for you. Now, I don't know how you do this, but you're a mom of four kids. Yes. And you're a business owner of a restaurant, not just one restaurant, but two restaurants. How do you do it? How do you do it all? A lot of wine and prosecco. Family, family helps out a lot. I have two older boys and I have two younger children. And they all, we all help each other. The two older boys are really, really helpful. They took care of the younger ones while we were trying to open the restaurants up. And my mom is so incredible. She's just, she's, she's this superwoman that I look up to and she's helped out a lot with the kids, even though she doesn't want to. Now, in addition to the two restaurants, you're very busy with catering. Yes. And that's a big business for you, a very popular business. And in addition to catering, you also do a lot of good for the community with a lot of nonprofits. And you always say yes to them. Why? OK, so I always thought, you know, Miley, just when you get into this business and you grow, say yes to everything, say yes to everything, because one of these days they're going to stop asking. Big mistake. If I could get anybody any advice, I would say not to say yes to everything. You don't want to overextend yourself, because at the end of the day, you say yes and you can't, you know, commit. They get disappointed, you know. So you want to over promise. Under promise, how do you say that? Under promise and over deliver. I got you, I got you. Now, what do you think are the keys to a successful restaurant? Well, anything you do, I feel like you have to put your heart in your soul. When I cook, I cook with my heart. And you can tell if I'm having a rough day and I'm cooking something, I can see straight away that it's not coming out the way it should be. So I have to reset myself, you know. To have a successful restaurant is to have a good team that's behind you, that is supportive of you, good ingredients, fresh ingredients, and a good staff. How do you feel the staff and your situation is right now with both sides, with both restaurants? It's nice and it's hard, but it's nice because I can bounce the two restaurants. If I'm short on one end, I can pull somebody from that end, and vice versa. And this is what we have been doing lately, because people are going on vacations, people are ill, and so it's nice that I can do that. And I've been waitressing the past few days because we've been so short, so... Tell me what happened over the weekend with just how you have to adapt with certain situations. You know, Janelle gives my manager, Janelle gives me a call, and I don't know where I'm going to be. I could be at Ward one day, or Hawaii depending on, and everybody checks in with her because she does the scheduling. I've been focusing on Ward because it's the baby, it's new, and Hawaii kind of runs itself, you know. But this past weekend, I had to waitress, and when I was on the floor just last night, Rusty, this older couple, they saw me and they're like, oh, you're cute, I haven't seen you here, are you new? Are you new here? I'm like, yeah, I didn't see you, I'm new. I just said, oh, I just smiled, and they said, so how long have you, what's your name? How long have you been working here? I'm like, I've been working here a long time. So what happened? So I try not to tell them why, I just want to give them a good experience, and you know, and all that, but then with good experience, they're like, you're really good, we want to let the manager know that you're a good server, now what is your name? And I said Miley, they're like, no, I'm like, no, no, really, by name. It's fun playing around with the customers. So did they know right then and there, or did they believe you? Not really, not really, not right away, I say I walked away and then they were talking amongst themselves and so the other server goes, no, she's really Miley, you know. And then the old, the returning customers were so happy to see me, I was happy to see them. Haven't seen some of my regulars in a while because I'm always, you know, in warden, they're like, you don't love us anymore, you're never here, I'm like, no, I do, I just have to concentrate on ward for now. And then didn't you have an employee that had a cut, I mean that had a slice, and what happened? Well, it wasn't at our restaurant, he was at his other job and so he required stitches and so that's why I had to, and he was the server, so I had to take his place, which was fun, last night was fun. Lucky thing you can do it all, you adapt. Now, how do you outdo what you've done with your restaurants getting into this level? What do you do to outdo what you've done? This is such a hard question and it's so hard because you can be on the top of your game but there's always something after that. And then with all these other restaurants popping up and they're all good, they're trendy, you just have to be innovative and come up with different ideas, different recipes. I think all chefs, what we do is we do homework, we study, we see what people are coming up with and sometimes we borrow ideas and that's what we do, we take it and we make it our own. Now, what advice would you give to other business owners? I mean, obviously if you could go back 10 years and had some of this advice, what would your advice be right now to other business owners? Well, as I said, it's exciting to have your own business but at the same time, it's a lot of work and if you're not ready and you don't have everything and you just want it, you can't just want it, you have to be ready. You have to have a good support team and don't say yes to everything. That's the one lesson that I learned is not to say yes to everything, they'll still like you. But yes, yet you still say yes to a ton. I do, I try to, yeah, especially with nonprofits and the community, kids, schools and things like that. So whenever I can help out, I do. Sometimes I can't physically be there so I will send my staff or send food or whatever gift certificates, whatever I can, I do it. And a lot of these different events that I go to that they feature different restaurants. I always see Miley's tie. It's amazing what you do. What's in the future for you, Miley? Well, right now I'm just trying to concentrate on ward. Everybody asked me, are you gonna branch out? Kapolei really would like a Miley's tie out there and it's difficult when you don't have, I am running out of family members. So you don't have, it's hard to trust. You need someone that you can really trust to run your restaurant the way you do. And that's difficult. Sometimes the saying goes, if you want it done, you gotta do it yourself, but then it's too much, it becomes too much. And so for now, Rusty, I'm just concentrating on ward and maybe perhaps in the future, do a little, one more maybe or a Miley's tie express or something like that, something less invasive. Well, I think this was such a great, in-depth look at you because a lot of people, they see you at your restaurant, but they might not know how you became you and why you opened up the restaurants at the Hawaii Kai and the Ward location and the Thai food is amazing. So I want to thank you for joining me today. I mean, it's awesome having you as a guest. Thank you, Rusty, for inviting me. I mean, you are, we have been friends for a long time. Thank you Miley. It's nice to spend some time with you. And thank you for tuning in and watching Beyond the Lines with Rusty Kamori on Think Tech Hawaii. Until next time, aloha.