 This is Cheryl Matsuoka, the Executive Director of the Hawaii Restaurant Association and the Hawaii Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. Thank you for joining me here on Restaurants of Hawaii on the ThinkTech platform. Today, we're going to be talking all about the newest campaign of the Hawaii Restaurant Association, Kokua for Maui Restaurant Day. And I'm so blessed that I have three gentlemen who are all participating in this campaign to get more funds over to the Maui businesses and restaurants that really need it. So first, I'd like to have them introduce themselves. May I first start off with Don Murphy. Hey, Don. Hi, Cheryl. How are you? Great. Don, could you please introduce... Don Murphy is born real. Yes. Yes. And Don, you want to also share a little bit about how many years you've been a restaurant tour, sir? It will be 36 in November. That is amazing. Don, amazing. Yes. Tony? Yes, me too. Tony, you want to introduce yourself and let our viewers know which restaurant, Eatery, you're with. There he is, ma'am. Hi. My name is Tony Hernandez. I'm the General Manager of Cinnamon at the Ilikai. We do have two locations, Kailua and the one over at Ilikai, but I run the one over at Ilikai right now. And it's a beautiful, beautiful venue, beautiful views and, you know, my favorite is the red velvet pancakes. I'm going to also... Yeah, that's my favorite. Steve Mizuno. Hi, Steve. Hi, Cheryl. Hi. Do you want to introduce yourself? I'm Steve Montuno. I'm the Vice President General Manager of the Sposalon Cafe and I'm here kind of on behalf of Chef Cyrus Hu and Cafe Dada. Thank you so much. When the wildfires hit, Don, it was like, it was like nothing I've ever experienced. And the day after the fires, Don Murphy calls me and he says to me, Cheryl, we have to do something. We got to support our fellow restaurateurs over there in Lahaina. As most of you know, the report that came out is we lost a little bit over 80 restaurants and eateries and I do have the list that was distributed by D-Bed and what Dr. Tian did was he did a search of all the restaurants and eateries in that zip code and the areas he mapped out, the areas that were impacted. The good news is there's a few restaurants that did reopen and they were impacted, but they were able to reopen. Many of them are still not open, of course, and they're burned to the ground. And so Don said, Cheryl, we got to do something. Don, do you remember that day you called me? Sure, yeah. Yeah. I just thought that we need to do something and that's the right thing to do. Exactly. And Don started throwing ideas at me and Don's like, Cheryl, what can we do? And Don, you want to kind of share with the viewers a little bit about the idea that you had? Well, I just thought that we need to do something that we can sustain and keep going. So just come up with a percentage of your sales for the day or your profits for the day or whatever and just pick one day a month and do it and advertise it. And it's worked for us. We've had a lot of good input from people that know about it and so it's working. It's definitely working, Don. The community on every island, they want to know how they can support Maui. So people immediately, Don, when we sent out the call to action, I got hundreds, hundreds that filled out our online form that said, I want to send over food, clothes, there was pillows and blankets, people that needed just the daily essentials, hygiene items. And yet the one thing that they do need is funds. And so I said, Don, we're going to stand up, you know, the Kokua from Maui restaurant day. And immediately we got the feedback from the community that this is a way that they can participate in supporting Maui. You know, they're going to go out and eat anyway, they're going to select a day. May it be the first Tuesday of each month, may they all gather and go and either dine in or take out. And they know that a portion of their proceeds is going back to Maui. We also stood up because I got calls from restaurant tours that lost everything, you know, and the person that I'm thinking about is he lost two restaurants and his home. And he said, Cheryl, is there a way that you could just post our crowd funding on your website as it absolutely so for members who have lost their restaurants to Lina, who want to put their crowd funding campaigns on our website, I have it listed on our website along with restaurant day, the restaurants that are participating who said, I'm going to give back a portion of that day's sales back to Maui. So the next question is for Tony. So share with us. You know, Cinnamon's was the number two restaurant that signed up immediately. And Uncle Puna called me and said, what I got to do, Cheryl, how do I do this? So tell me, you know, why is it so important for Cinnamon to participate in Kukuo for Maui? You know, I think for Cinnamon's, we've been such an established integral part of the community here in Oahu for since 1985. And one of the focuses that we've always had is giving back to the community that supports us and being part of this Oahu community. And, you know, since these recent fires happened, you know, I remember texting with my ownership just immediately, what can we do to help out? Because, you know, to support the residents over Maui and within our own restaurant or coworkers have had friends and family that are also affected by this. And so, you know, like you said, over 80 restaurants were burnt down and lost their way of doing any business. So, you know, with us being so tourist focused out here in Hawaii, it's important that we all stick together and be there for each other through these times. And so immediately afterwards, our Kailua location was able to put together a fundraiser that was able to donate over two truck holes of, you know, blankets and supplies. And, you know, doing what we can. But as reports come in, you know, they need less supplies and they need more funds. So this is huge for us to be able to support this. And, you know, Mr. Murphy, thank you so much for conceptualizing this and putting action towards such a fundraising opportunity for us to be a part of and give back to our community. And, you know, we can only imagine what would happen if it was to us. But, you know, we want to be there as much as we can for those who need it. And whatever we can do, we're there for it. Thank you so much, Tony. Yes. And Don is always that's Don. He calls me and he's like, Cheryl. And he always, right, Don, we always are talking and he's like, let's do this. Let's and he is just all heart, all heart. You know, everybody, Tony, as just you mentioned, you know, has been impacted by this fire. And that's why I think it's even more important that we do this. You know, I personally lost a loved one in the fire. And many of my restaurant members, you know, they lost their businesses. And like you said, this source of income along with their whole home. And, you know, everybody's been impacted. So we just thank, you know, sentiments for also participating in this in this wonderful campaign. I'm going to go to Steve now, Steve, I was at Dada the day before we launched restaurant day on that Monday before the first Tuesday of this month. So you give me some feedback because you were one of the ones that also signed up immediately. Well, I mean, we couldn't sign up fast enough. Again, kudos to everyone who kind of participates and especially the association and people like Don for coming up with this. Yeah, I have family. I guess affiliated with the Salvation Army and when she kind of how can I reach out? And I said, try Cheryl, but the Salvation Army couldn't say enough. Good things about the restaurant association help they think putting on like at ground zero. It's been awesome. We couldn't wait to sign up, chef. Chef Cyrus Cyrus who? Yeah, he and I have been around a long time and he had so many people in so many people in Maui and. Having a I guess a reputable group behind the help is so comforting. And again, kudos to everyone who who's been contributing on the ground. Making the stuff actually happen. It's one thing to kind of donate time and money, but to actually see it through is is a whole mother challenge and. Just hats off to everyone who's been been putting up on on that front. But as as you came to us. We already started kind of a grass roots kind of campaign with the stylists we have here. Richie, our founder Richie now got a bunch of his stylists together and they all pitched in their services for a day as well. So that along with the cafe contributions. Nothing but wholehearted enthusiasm and support for the idea. So we're going to keep this going. That is so awesome to hear you see Don from, you know, just restaurants participating now they've got the stylist participating. And I also heard from Chef Cyrus that on restaurant day, the stylist all got together and decided they were going to all order from the cafe together so that they could all support restaurant day. It's great. It's like I said, I'm hearing a lot of the credit that you guys are doing this will be going to restaurants and support them. Yes, and I'm hoping Don that more restaurants join Kukua for Maui restaurant day on all islands. You know, I've been speaking to all islands trying to get people from Kauai because everyone's trying to figure out how do we support those those people that impacted over on Maui and each of the locations, each of the restaurants that let's say it's, you know, whether it's Murphy's or Cinnamon's or Cafe Dada, you know, they get to select which non-profit, which fund, how they're going to get the monies over there. And when we were sitting there, Steven, you know, Cyrus already knew how he was going to, who he was going to support because he said that person was actually delivering. I mean, that person was paying his employees to pick up things at the dock, was paying his employees to go ahead and transport items, paying for the gas, paying for the the storage. And that company, right, is who Cyrus wanted to support because he knew the backstory. I mean, the back the back story is incredible. I mean, you just started to touch on it. But as far as the the nuts and bolts, things like getting container for the food, you know, you guys were just so instrumental in just getting that help to the people who were trying to help all the people out. And the sheer mechanics of just the help is so incredibly daunting. When it comes to just moving food, you know, food has a shelf life. And it's going to be done quickly. It's got it just so many things from soup to nuts. It's just it's just such a daunting task. And you just touched upon it just hearing the stories, the story you were relaying. It was eye opening. So when when I talk to Salvation Army about it, the I guess the mechanics is just hard to even imagine. We kind of run our operations kind of day to day. It's it's it's a very small routine that that we're very used to. But when something like this just kind of pops up, the sheer organization, the sheer execution of it, it's incredible. So any little bit just goes such a long way. And I mean, it was things like containers, you know, chopsticks, utensils, napkins, you know, the little things that's easy to take for granted that were just so so instrumental in, you know, helping people. Yes, so Steve, you're right. You know, the email came through on that Saturday at four a.m. saying we have no takeout containers. And, you know, they're trying to feed thousands of people that have been impacted. By eight a.m. we had negotiated to get a truck full of takeout containers and all the utensils to the distribution location, food distribution location. Because, as you said, all the food was just flowing in and all the people were there cooking and making the food. And then they realized there's no container. So they ran out, you know, because it had been a couple of days already, Don, so they ran out of containers. So how are they going to put all their food and now give it to all the people that were impacted and all the people that were impacted? We're all sleeping on army cots and on the floor at the Wall Memorial, at the churches, and we were trying to get them food because we are the Hawaii Restaurant Association and we can mobilize. And Don knows if anybody can mobilize, I can. Right, Don? You know, that's right. So, Don knows who to call and say, we need to do this. And so all of a sudden, you know, we were getting calls from people that say, hey, we have food that we want to donate. We have, you know, things that we can give. So and time, you know, we have chefs that now aren't cooking in in Lahaina. So now they can go and help at the different locations. The Maui Maui Community College, where we had to make thousands of meals. They were all all supporting so that we could just give the people in Maui at least a hot meal. So now, oh, my gosh, I'm so embarrassed. So now what we're going to do now is, Don, let's talk about how you feel we can get more restaurants to participate in the Kukui Kukua Maui Restaurant Day, this amazing campaign and how we can get our community to dine out that day. Any suggestions? I think that's something we've got to get a group together and this brainstorm it. And it's, you know, it's it should be easy enough to do. We just got to come up with the right ideas. We've got to get got to get more publicity on it. Kind of make them more aware of things like this will help, certainly. Thank you. Yes. Let's do that, Don, because I do need to, you know, last night we were Hall of Fame gala and we mentioned Restaurant Day. And we also mentioned the crowdfunding because restaurants, restaurant owners are saying, right, Don, they lost all their income. On top of that, they lost their homes. And so we're supporting also their crowdfunding. We'll tell a story about how this man is just amazing. I met, I'm at Murphy's and I have KITV there. And we're talking about promoting Restaurant Day. So we promoted it on all the TV stations and we've been sending out the e-blast. And I tell a story about a restaurant tour on Maui, Don. Do you remember how he and his employees all sleeping here? But his employees all sleeping on the floor of his restaurant, but he doesn't have the distribution because he's overclose to Canapally. Right, Don? Right. I told the start of how he's just saying anybody impacted, anybody, just come on in and free food. And Jesse has been just a hero out there. And I saw this man, Don Murphy, read a check and say to the newscaster, you're going over there. Can you please take this to him? That is the generosity and that is the community that we have here at the White Restaurant Association. And I just want to thank Don Murphy for doing that. You're welcome. This is Hawaii. That's what we do. So that's what we've got to get everybody involved, get more people involved and let them know that, you know, how important this is. And it's not just a quick fix. You know, this thing's going to go on for a long time. They're not going to rebuild right away and get these people back on their feet right away. So we just all got to work together and do what we can to help. Exactly. And, Don, you're so right. This restaurant day campaign is going to run to the end of 2023. And then we're going to kind of take a temperature check, whether or not we got to still run it through 2024, because, you know, I'm going to ask Tony, Tony, how long do you think it's going to take to rebuild Front Street, Lahaina? Oh, I mean, I feel like cases like this, you never know, depending on the dynamics of the rebuild, right? So but we want to make sure that we're there as long as we can to support them and what they need. So, you know, as long as restaurant day keeps going on, if you visit our Kailua location, we're going to make sure that 30 percent of every Tuesday sales goes towards the Hawaiian Restaurant Association's funds. Every Saturday in Kailua, 30 percent of those profits will be going towards the Humane Society to help with any animals that were affected by it as well. And then over at the Ilakai side, if we're going to be on Waikiki, 20 percent of our sales for that day on Tuesdays will be going towards the Hawaiian Restaurant Association as well. So, you know, once again, whatever we can do to help support forever along, we need to, we'll be there for them and for the community as well. Tony, that is just awesome. Thank you so much. And please thank Uncle Puna because Uncle Puna, he's I know that he's the man behind it. When he calls me every night, he'll call, right? And he'll he'll tell me something. And I was like, Uncle, I need to come down again and see you someday, you know, any time for breakfast because he knows, you know, the Red Velvet pancakes. Yes, absolutely. Any time, you know, Puna and his son, Alika, who have been running the show and the program over there and Teja as well, they've been phenomenal in making sure that we're doing everything we can to get there. And we'd love to have you guys all in for breakfast and just help support the cause. Thank you. Thank you so much. So, gentlemen, before we wrap up the show, I just want to give everybody an opportunity to say something because we're running out of time. So, Don, first you, you're the one who came to me and you're the one who said, Cheryl, we got to do something. Do you have anything in closing remarks that you would like to say? Oh, I just just please get involved, help somebody out. Even if you adopt a certain restaurant, you know, over there that you know, or you want out of the hat or whatever, but just get involved. Think of it. If you were to attack us, we've got to help these people now. So, Tony, any other closing statements that you would like to say before we close out the show? Absolutely. Um, kind of to go along with what Don said, you know, as much as we're doing here at Cinnamon's at the Ilakai and Cinnamon's in Kailua, it's not just Tuesdays and Saturdays, but every single day we have a way that we're giving our profits or a portion of our proceeds to a fundraiser like the Hawaiian Way Fund, you know, every day you will have especially cocktail specialty food. But even so, as we grow our list of restaurants that are supporting this restaurant day, you know, you can count on myself and we'll be giving out to our staff what different restaurants they can also visit to help support this as well. And if we can kind of keep this as a community thing, keep this running, I think that would be great. So it doesn't have to be us. That can be any restaurant. Just make sure you're out there supporting. So that way we can do as much as we can to help out those Maui residents. Thank you, Tony. And see any closing remarks before we close the show? No, well, whatever you need, Cheryl, we're here to help. You're so awesome. Thank you. And please thank also Chef Cyrus Gubbe. Yes, you know, when we sat there that day, right? I just saw it in his eyes because he knew people. Also, we talked about people from Maui together because we have, right, that same common interest of the whole community. All right, gentlemen. So before I close the show, I just want to remind everyone who's watching this show that restaurant day is the first Tuesday of each month. If you're a restaurant tour and you want to sign up, the sign up link is on our website. Also to the community, this list of restaurants who are participating is also on our website, HawaiiRestaurant.org. All the restaurants will then select the percentage of their sales or the percentage of their profits that will go to a charity, a nonprofit or an organization that they have in their heart, such as Cinnamon's to the Humane Society. You know, everybody has their their special place in their heart for the nonprofits. And the other campaign is the crowdfunding that we have a list of all our members who have put their own crowdfunding campaigns together. And it's a GoFundMe or a Venmo account for the restaurants and businesses that were impacted in Maui that are HRA members. This program is going to be a way that the community can now support the Maui recovery efforts. And as again, I'm Cheryl Matsooka, the executive director of the Hawaii Restaurant Association and the Hawaii Restaurant Association Educational Foundation Foundation. The Hawaii Restaurant Association is the organization unifying, representing and supporting Hawaii's restaurant and food service industry. Everyone eat well and be well. Thank you.