 got my good old buddy Andrew the security guy who's never here anymore he's always traveling you're everywhere I'm here I'm here in spirit when I'm not hearing but in the flesh yeah you're spirited all right and we have a great guest today oh yeah yeah it's JJ Nebar neighbor neighbor okay I'm gonna get it right yeah I'm gonna call you JJ Dolan all the time he's got it he can't help say that JJ Nebar and you might know some of these names JJ Dolan JJ Dolan's correct Bethel Union yes Ferguson Ferguson's Irish pub yes what do they all have in common me right now that's it I'm very happy you can get Guinness every pretty much pretty much you can get it yeah everyone anyway so JJ is an entrepreneur restaurateur entrepreneur and you've been in this business quite sometime yes and I love their money I have no idea why we're gonna find out we're gonna find out today so yeah we're spinning the show in a little different way as we're starting to evolve we're gonna get more entrepreneurs on and more people do startups and things like that so you can kind give out your words of wisdom to those that want to very few words but you know I'll give you what I got this accent is obviously from Kentucky I can tell you know that's I'm from Kentucky so he's a little further north I'm just gonna take a guess that's the bourbon so where are you actually out of the great state of New Jersey okay by way of Kailua for 26 plus years 26 plus years and yes so from New Jersey New Jersey are you a Yankee fan I'm a Yankee fan blue j-fan oh yeah Toronto yeah little further up what bright of the islands United States Marine Corps 1990 thank you for your service right on thank you appreciate our servicemen on here yeah it's it's been a while ride to get here and as soon as I got here I said why in the world would I ever go back why would you ever leave right so I had that had that Kentucky boy experience and but the Navy all right thank you for your service Navy guy no way not for Kentucky Canadian Army we had two tanks one was broken the other one didn't work Canadian Army I hope you weren't on the maintenance team so you come to why 26 plus years ago yes and I got a point on like you were one of the first to come into Chinatown when it was going through its Renaissance I mean you were one of the very first to come into that area and start going through this but why the restaurant business well I mean I was as far as to clarify a little bit more was actually I started working in Chinatown first before had any sorts of thoughts of opening up JJ dawn because as a marine he really didn't know where else to go well actually actually here's the truth I mean he's the way yeah 26 years ago there was a list of off-limits spots that young marine you're not allowed to go on that list it said Chinatown Honolulu so the first thing a young marine had to go to China I gotta go down the Chinatown so we have another co-host his name is Moppy Chulo he came here first thing he heard was don't come to Chinatown he woke up the next morning with no money yeah no wallet right it wasn't quite the $500 to Honolulu Hawaii yeah right your story but yeah but other than that it's I've always had a love affair with it and fortunate enough to when I did get out of the Marine Corps to work for a man synonymous with downtown and and and giving in a restaurant Don Murphy at Murphy's Bowl we haven't had him on though maybe you can convince him he's afraid of Gordo on the show he's afraid of Gordo I think that's right he's very frightened Don is awesome he's one of the top he is the yeah he's the guy he's yeah he's over 30 years I mean you can learn a lot from him on how to do business yeah and how to do well and with a loa really right on so it's it's it was a great pleasure to work for him a lot of the years and somebody is that you know we're partners of her Ferguson's yeah so yeah so you're a former mentor now you Danny Dolan my partner Danny Dolan yeah so you got Danny Dolan so JJ is you yes and then Danny Dolan is the other side of the way open Danny Niebuhr's that German joint yeah it would have been tough yeah Irish bar and pizza people really like yeah so even that one confused me no your audience it's been working though you guys been there a while oh man I tell you I don't want a bench over there 2008 we opened up we opened up November 2008 trying to help out with the Renaissance yeah that was exactly had to come back around full circle was really around that time frame was the worst time for anybody to get into businesses obviously there was mortgages falling out and then businesses were failing all over the mainland Hawaii obviously wasn't immune but it just that was the time and worked out around 2006 and 2007 I was working construction actually I was working for a local design build firm designer both systems on a government contract and give me a little bit of time to put together a business plan very very raw business I was gonna say some kind of business plan but I mean you obviously had some ideas on what would work what made you what was the idea that we had made you think that a Irish pub pizza place in Chinatown well the Irish pub was easy enough because I already working for Don Murphy and Marion so the other thing was to do bar pies at night which is a East Coast phenomena of a sense for for pubs and bars but they would do these mini bar pizzas that were about nine to ten inches and started doing those out of Murphy's as well to supplement a little bit of that late night he just pub feel inside the bar because you get a wonderful dinner all throughout Murphy's but this was just something and it took off and so that was the impetus to say hey maybe we're you know on to something here and and obviously it did very well and that was just sort of you know pizza in Chinatown it was very rare at the time so now was that your first ever effort into starting your own restaurant business answering into that no I actually well actually I made my first pizza in second grade and so I was sure you always want to always yes so in a roundabout way yes and that's what the love affair basically happened was that back then set the wheels in motion to where today but really in Chinatown was really my time at Murphy's your time in Murphy's to do this so and one of the things you're talking about you know I want to ask you is like like how everybody talks about Hawaii not being very small business friendly and I don't want you to get in trouble or anything like that but you know you got to work for all these government bureaucrats of which I used to be one yeah it ain't easy no it's not easy no it's not easy but as far as if you have a conviction you have a belief it really it started it starts as a dream and if you really you know look at it and in that sense you yes you got to retain this dream but there has to be a practical app side to sure and that's you know sort of so there has to be the due diligence to come up with a business plan you can have a dream you can dream all you want you could withdraw we're on the beach right now look at this we're dreaming like this is awesome but there has to be a practical app side and that's doing a due diligence finding a market finding make sure you have a core product pizza and beer not bad but all these got to be good of course you know hard to get pizzas consistent it's consistent the quality always there thank you thank you and yeah so that's you know one of the main things is how do you do that yeah why how do you get these California tomatoes and keep the costs and but even before all that is just securing a location and where your dream can then flourish from there and then we've had a lot of help from a lot of people downtown so it wasn't just steady and I decided that hey let's open up a pizza place in a bar or just have hasn't that magic money did our dues in Chinatown still paying dues still paying dues I mean you put a lot of money goes into putting into restaurants and you get here you get hit from all sides you go you've got product you've got people people right you got leakage you've got things it broke in from every angle you're going to get when you have to cook when you have to cook right that's a that's a there's other regulations right around yeah you have to you know you have to you have to pay all your taxes number one which we do liquor license is a whole is that a one-time thing or is it an ongoing you renew you renew every year I just got my I was wondering about anybody in trouble so that's but that's true no look at him as you get the letters of liquor commission the letters to remind everybody that you guys are doing and then they really they they actually are are the ones that really want you to succeed the most sure so they'll give you all the tools it's just how you then build after that so we've had nothing but great relationship with the liquor commission with our vendors our bank Hawaii National Bank as well which is the Chinatown Chinatown Bank believe it you're right down the street the Luke family so they believed in us again getting branding and design for this concept wall wall studios out of Pittsburgh but now Honolulu a couple years back so you know we put we were very lucky to have a lot of Akamai and really people believed in it help us along the way and it was during that time what I mean there was a lot of focus on re-energizing revitalizing this area so oh eight oh age is when we opened was a movie back then yeah was at the end of his yes yeah I was there I think he got a lot of that started Adam and saw this vision of Chinatown John I mean there was a lot of discussion whether we're trying to bring Wi-Fi down there I remember some of those programs right there's a lot of stuff going on from you know from the city and County side did there's been a lot of help down there I mean early on a Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as well right pioneer of downtown there's plenty of names but really it's what it really is it's the people of Chinatown the residents the entrepreneurs that come in there the immigrants that the it's always been cyclical and so it hasn't really changed too much it's just where you are now and it's it's a great time to be in business in this part of yes in this part of town wonderful everywhere else I couldn't speak for but in Chinatown it's really it's a great time and I it's funny I was talking to some people last night and they said we don't go to Chinatown and I said then they're old people like myself and I said why I mean you haven't been there in 10 15 years you have no idea what it is like in Chinatown now it is a cool spot sure I mean it's it's going through this this metamorphosis it is actually like it's everything being cyclical eventually you know it everything comes around again so what's what's been one of the best things about Chinatown that's been a constant has been food drink libations yeah as we have on the table in front of us here at the beautiful beach and also it switched over to art gallery's retail so there's a new doors new sense of entrepreneurs new people coming in to the neighborhood as well just like when it was first settled you know so families like that too so it's still people are coming here they're not setting up shop in Waikiki as far as small business goes but they're looking for these little spots of Chinatown coca-cocoa these smaller communities and so it's it's we've had our trials and tribulations out of Chinatown it's not it's not Camelot that's true that's true okay we're gonna come up on a break but before we go to break like we do this thing we have still say we have thing called potholes and paradise and and so one of our friends was here and she was on our show as a traveling nurse and so on and so simply try to be thematic and keep it around food she doctored up one of the potholes she found here in Hawaii and she put some food in it and put some food in it so potholes and paradise that's a celebration of potholes like we haven't seen often. I'm not sure if it's a zucchini hat. Coconut no I'm pretty sure that's a coconut anyway that's potholes there's always the upside of Hawaii so anyway we're gonna take a break pay some bills we got JJ, not Dolan, Neaver, just call me JJ. JJ is here from JJ Dolan and we'll be back in a minute after we take a couple bills. Aloha this is Kaley Akina with the weekly Ehana Kako let's work together program on the Think Takawaii broadcast network Mondays at 2 o'clock p.m. movers and chakers and great ideas join us we'll see you then Aloha. Aloha my name is Justine Espiritu this is my co-host Matthew Johnson every Thursday at 4 p.m. on Think Tak we host the Hawaii food and farmers series we like to bring in folks from the whole realm of the local food supply and agriculture anyone working on these issues any organization or individual that has plans or projects what kind of people have we had on us we've had farmers we've had chefs we've had people from government larger institutions everyone who's working to help make Hawaii's local food system that much better so you can see us every Thursday and join the conversation on Twitter and we hope to see you there Aloha I am Reg Baker and I am the host of business in Hawaii with Reg Baker we broadcast live every Thursday from 2 to 2 30 in the Think Tak studios in downtown Alululu we highlight successful stories about businesses and individuals and learn their secrets to success I hope you can join us on our next show on Thursday at 2 o'clock until then Aloha. Hello I'm Marianne Sasaki welcome to Think Tak Hawaii where some of the most interesting conversations in Honolulu go on I have a show on Wednesdays from 1 to 2 called Life in the Law where we discuss legal issues politics governmental topics and a whole host of issues I hope you'll join me. I'm Andrew the security guy here I got a security get your life back there's some government organizations there's some very high-tech organizations have gotten together to help you deal with ransomware the good news is you know you can kind of prevent that if you're doing good backups the bad news is if you haven't done it and you may really have a problem the other good news with the folks at no ransomware.org is they're publishing the decryption keys for a lot of this malware okay so crisis wildfire Chimera Tesla Crypt a bunch of them no ransomware.org go check these guys out if you get ransom do not pay the ransom call the FBI these guys may have keys to fix some of your problems okay definitely let the FBI know and do not pay the ransom it just helps all right there's help available and it's free so help yourself I got Angus here we found him you know on the beach like we always do Angus what's up buddy good to see you man see you back yeah right on yeah he is the establishment a few times you know you were down there drinking the other night yeah I think so we Guinness we have a week Guinness and I'm checking out your wee lassies over there you know you know I'm always looking for gadgets so that I am picture of me that was after I got dumped by one of the wee lassies so I was you look a little lonely look a little lonely but your staff were really helpful and they really perked me up oh good in a lot of ways anyway JJ welcome you know my job is to find really cool gadgets so I found one you might find interested in okay it's a pizza cutter it's a pizza cutter yeah it's called a pizza boss so just in case your wrist gets too sore you can just turn on the motor and don't cut the pizza for it oh thank you I just appreciate it are you getting a percentage of the sale he's a rep for everything you bring I never miss it what is it you said you're so you're so broke you can't pay attention anyway anyway having you on the show and I enjoy your pizza I'll probably go up and have a wee drum later on today any time for you is always welcome all right and remember everybody later we gang free where are you be alone so for those of you who don't have a pizza boss you know and do it manually like I do you know if you need some tips go down to see JJ you know these guys know how to cut a pizza without a pizza boss I'm just saying but Angus brings it's good it's a cool gadget I gotta try one just like as a Christmas I think it'll be spitting like the sauce everywhere I don't even know logo where you could put JJ job don't know about pizza that's a million dollar there it is you can show right now we got a million dollars right here it's done we're already go CBS to NBC going national nice so you you talked about Don Murphy and he does a lot in the community and so do you you've done a lot in the community since you've been in here you you do the Dan van Lieutenant Dan tell people who the Lieutenant Dan band oh this is really cool it's probably one and you know I'm a little biased on it is a Gary Sinise from a forest car lieutenant and the man himself was actually he actually is a musician a bassist and he travels around with the USO and he plays for troops all over the world and and we're fortunate enough to meet him when we had the Medal of Honor convention come into town and yeah so basically the Medal of Honor convention was held in Honolulu a few years back a little cloudy on the year now what what happened was we were fortunate enough to actually go to see this show from the Marine Corps base my old stomping grounds and at the same time met two Medal of Honor recipients who were in town Lieutenant Colonel Jay Vargas and Drew Dix from the United States Army and for me that sort of you know being former Marine and and meeting these these were like rock stars with the Marine by the way we know and so yeah so basically had the chance to go see this great show that he put on and he wound up coming for lunch the next morning so the JJ JJ dawns and came in and so they find him in the show last night and we started talking he had a day and he wanted to go make a pizza and really what happened was I got him in the back and he started making a pizza showing them little bits of things what he wanted on his pizza and we created the Lieutenant Dan pizza in his honor where when we do make it we do a portion of proceeds go to the Garrison East Foundation however like before we got all into that came back later that evening for a second round JJ that's what I met him late late night and a couple of Guinness in us Guinness in us have this thing that now and we had this crazy idea that if he did a performance on the Marine base and he does performance for all the troops how come the public is so unaware of all his gift-giving and and his talent I mean because it's a great show I mean the band is incredible so came up with a crazy idea to say hey if we can secure a street permit to do an event would you consider doing it in conjunction with the Medal of Honor convention and we agreed to it shook her hands and said all right let's get it together nobody said no and we had a great concert right there in the parking lot outside of Murphy's and all the present Medal of Honor recipients as well came out on the stage and it was one of those moments where only because of the business would you be able to organize something over a couple pints and say hey and give a such a wonderful show and that's you know pull it off that's yeah and yeah and in the work it was it was it was one of those ones in a lifetime yes but you you're always coming up with new because I just actually see I think I see them there a second time he came on yeah on another tour he's come through and you know and we we try and take care because I also have a motto that if you are a starving artist and you're coming to Chinatown there are no starving artists in Chinatown how I'll make sure of that so get the arts district and everything it's it's it's wonderful to have you know artist of that stature and also just young beautiful people doing some great stuff locally you know starting out from early ages of you know even the Grammyschool kids you know and they come in and go to the white theater really opens up their eyes that performing arts just you know retail arts culinary arts everything that's happening down it's happening down inside now so go ahead I was gonna say even the technology sector too with a lot of there's an incubator downtown in Chinatown now and there's you know so box jelly I think moved over to there and did some stuff with those guys yeah yeah so so how important is you know your the success by being involved in the community I gotta believe it's got to be key oh it's it's it's probably one of the if not the the number one the number one driving force behind what we do at JJ Dolan's about the Union Ferguson's and just learning by giving back to the community that you're in you will see and reap so much more down the line it may not be that apparently you may not be able to always help everybody but as much as you can you have to give back to that community and that's that's something you learn here in Hawaii that is more prevalent than anywhere else I've ever been mainland or anywhere else sense of community I'm gonna say it's amazing to have the different operations going on right and you got the newest one so how and how and you J.D. Jones was first for you then you and Don partnered on first so you have Danny Danny and I opened up JJ Dolan's 2008 we had a dear friend of ours John Ferguson who used to work for Don Murphy as well own Ferguson's Irish pub over the Dillingham transportation right not a beautiful spot location just historic and then you again you've staffed it with excellent people just we've been a very every one of your locations you I don't know what you do to select who you select but they're tremendous we're very lucky we're very lucky to have people come in we also to get the bones of it too is also we also do offer a compensation package that I think is sort of unprecedented on a number of levels for those you know to get down to numbers for those who qualify we do offer a 401k profit sharing in a restaurant in a restaurant restaurant day one right on from when you're when you qualify so we've done that Danny and I that was one of the first things we did we offer obviously the medical but we also like to offer the best medical that everybody can get as well it just puts people at ease that they know that their families are taking care of they're taking care of and then they can focus on the job at hand and that's they basically taking care of you know the customer experience is so important I mean I love it when you know the one of the sweetest sounding things you ever hear in your life is your own name that's what you hear when you walk into a restaurant and they say Gordo so you think of cheers with Norm walked into there when you hear your name people like to hear the sound of their own name that's reality in the world and so when I walk in there and they go Gordo I go hey you may have a Guinness already waiting oh it's already started it's already started they know the order we only pour them to order you know Bethel Union was sort of a look at trying to do classic Italian but not really classic Italian but taking a lot of the catering stuff I was doing at JJ Dolan's and then transforming it into a restaurant because hey you made this pasta the other day how come I can't get it in JJ Dolan's JJ Dolan's pizza and beer trying to keep it very simple it's a very good business plan for those out there keep it simple you can't overstate that you got to have that keep it very simple so it was just sort of grew out of that right and then realizing I can't be in two places at once and Danny and I are going back and forth look for a chef who believed in that and we found a chef Lucy out of New York but made a way to Hawaii and she was working out the Outrigger Club Holly Kalani and really got the idea of putting together a great menu as soon as I saw it I said I can't wait to eat it and about a year and three months later we finally opened up a couple weeks ago and we've been we've been we've been cranking ever since so far so good okay speaking of cranking down to Bethel Union the same straight as JJ Dolan's anyway you're not gonna believe us we just burned through 30 minutes you're welcome back though all right anytime and no guest goes unrewarded you're getting number 99 in the auto graft solo cups yeah those are those are becoming but I think there were three maybe four cents yeah I'm gonna put this up behind the bar JJ Dolan's yeah it'll be there at least for the week a public did a publicly displayed one might really be worth something there we go I gotta get you out of here because Zuri's yelling at me and so on so as we say at the end of every show oh yeah and thanks Zuri and Nick and Robert and everybody at the end of every show one two three how you doing