 Welcome to Restaurants Hawaii on Think Tech Hawaii. I'm your host, Cheryl Matsuoka, the Executive Director of Hawaii Restaurant Association. I'd like to introduce Hawaii Restaurant Association's Executive Assistant, Siobhan Garcia. Hey, Siobhan. Hi, Cheryl. Hi, could you please introduce our guest today? Sure. So our guest today is Aaron Plakorakis. He is the President and CEO of AMP Restaurants Limited. Hi, welcome, Aaron. How are you doing? Thanks so much for having me. Looking forward to chit-chatting with you both. Yes, thank you. Yeah, thank you for taking the time, Aaron. So Hawaii Restaurant Association's 14th annual Hall of Fame Gala is quickly approaching, Monday, February 28th. And we are grateful for our event sponsor, Waihata Company Limited, who is this year's Hall of Fame presenting sponsor. Today, we'll be discussing what it means to receive the honor of being inducted into the Hall of Fame for the Restaurant Association. And this year, it's a little different, Aaron. This year, we're paying tribute to our pandemic champions and industry advocates. And these honorees this year, the 10, have demonstrated sacrifice, dedication, and unlimited time that they've dedicated during the pandemic in various capacities. So we also will be featuring, as Aaron knows, 14 chefs of aloha. So join us in celebrating our pandemic champions and industry advocates. We invite you to celebrate with us. And for more information, you can just check our website at hawaiuresstron.org. So Aaron, please share with our members and our viewers as a past Hawaii Restaurant Association chairman and a very well-deserved induction into Hawaii Restaurant Association as Hall of Fame. What did the honor mean to you? Well, it means so much. And I gotta say that in all other industries, whether it be basketball or volleyball, there's always a Hall of Fame. But it seems like the restaurants, we were just kinda 30, 40 years ago, it was kinda different. It was everyone's job before they got a real job. Well, now all of a sudden you realize the fact that more people are employed by our industry than probably any other industry in America. And guys like me that have been doing this since I was 18, I'm gonna be 65 and three months, by the way. We grew up in the industry looking up to the Trader Vicks and the Peter Kanlis and the Jeff Harmon and all those guys that we would look and try to emulate and look up to. Well, nowadays, you know, you got a bunch of colonarians, you got people traveling all over the world. And so you got a lot of motivating young people that wanna get involved. So I think it's great to be recognized and it's great to give this new wave of talent people that they can look to and look up to and see that, hey, I can do it too if somebody like this did or that did. And I think it's really important that, and it's a big honor to be able to do that and to do what you love. And you know, our business as it evolves, let's not forget. It's pretty basic, it's hospitality, it's welcoming people, it's thanking people. It's an extension of yourself, you're living it, breathing it, tasting it, smelling it. This is what draws people like me and a lot of us into this business. It's not really money making right away. It's all about what vibe feels natural to your particular disposition. And I think that's why our industry is so wonderful. That's why I still like going in my places every night and walking through and mentoring my young people and thanking my guests. And I think it's really important that ownership is represented in our restaurants right now. So anyway, it's a great honor and I'm glad you guys are back after the two year hiatus. Actually, hey, Erin, you wanna mention your restaurants over there in Maui? As I mentioned, I was at the Sorrento's over on the beach. Yeah, well, I have the first restaurant that I opened here 24 years ago. Now at the Fairmont, Kailani was a Nick's Fish Market that just recently extended another 15 years. So this is gonna be a long haul and it's been 24 already. That's a wonderful property and very proud to be there and beautiful place, open air and very, very proud of it. Then I have a steakhouse called Sun Steakhouse at the Hyatt Regency, the old swan court that Chris Hemeter developed, the first real resort spa and resort property that kind of started them all way back 40 years ago. Anyway, I've been there 15 years almost and we got a beautiful steakhouse there. Then I have a small little place called Manolis Pizza Company and that's on a golf course in Wailia, open air, big, beautiful bar, walking distance to all the hotels here in Wailia. And then a place, it's been open 35 years in the Capo Mono Mall called Cobos. Bar and Grill, a local kind of greasy spoon type of place with employees have been there over 30 years, it's kind of a fun. So to me, I've got a variety and that's what makes it so interesting and so exciting still after all these years where you're able to be creative and you're able to be part of the community and you're able to redesign and you're able to remodel and you're able to renegotiate and you're able to mentor all these young people and be part of the community. So to me, that's why this business is so great. And right now, I think I'm having more fun in this industry than I've ever had before. And there was a time when I thought, you get to the point where you're almost at the point in no return. You're in, there's no way out and you're grinding. And especially now with all the things that we've had to go through. And let's face it, I think the restaurant industry has been the whipping boy for this pandemic. Churches go on, Walmart's packed, Costco's packed, but all of a sudden the restaurant, oh no, you can't get everyone there. We got to cut to 50%, got to have 60 bucks, got to have a mask. You have to prove this, you got to prove that. Oh, employees cooks, everyone's got to wear masks. To me, that's dangerous. It's crazy, but we have still persevered and that's the beauty of our people in our industry where grinders, we do what it takes and we do it with a smile and we're proud to do it. We work together with each other and the harder it is, the more we get motivated. And I think that's the beauty of our industry and it's great that you're able to actually acknowledge to the people that are dedicated to this. Thank you, Aaron. Spoken like a true restaurateur. I just knew that that's, this is Aaron that I remember back in the 80s when I first met him and look at him today. I'm so just amazing. I'm a little weathered, but loving it, loving life and just feel so fortunate and thankful that I've been able to keep going in this industry and be able to just enjoy it like I have and I continue to do. Because that's what it is. It's all about life is short. If you're lucky enough to find your passion and your vocation and something that really gets your attention, then you're going to be successful and you're going to be able to. And to me, if my goal was already always, if I can make a living in the place I want to live then that's the only lottery I ever want to win. And I feel like I've done that. This to me, the Hawaiian islands always, I was born and raised in California, went to UCLA but I've been here a number of times and in 1985 I moved over here and never, but all my life I had a romantic feeling about Hawaii, the smell, everything about it. So that was my goal to chisel my way to get here and to do that and now be able to continue to operate and raise my kids here and raise a family and be part of this community. It's just, there's nothing like it. The people that, everybody's a little of everything. So there's no judging. There's no this section and that section. It's all together. We're all, I think we're all related by now probably. So that's what makes it so cool. I'm not sure what the question was, but I hope that was the answer. Your question. Your zest for life, your enthusiasm as a restaurateur, Aaron, is just, everybody just admires that. When I mentioned that you were gonna be on this show, everybody so fondly remembers your enthusiasm and your zest for the association and for the industry. So, Siobhan, do you have any questions or? Yeah, I do and I actually wanna say too that's a breath of fresh air given what we've been going through. You feel like so many people are beaten down and just so tired and to hear the excitement is really exciting, I think for the industry to realize, like you said, you persevere and you move on and to see it in action is amazing. So thank you. But I really, we wanna kind of talk about for those viewers who don't know and some of our members even who don't know what the hall of fame is, can you explain a little bit to them about past events, a little more on what your experience was with the hall of fame? Well, me personally, well, I mean, it's relatively new and I mean, the gala is fantastic. It's a good way for us to all get together and especially now that we're gonna start breaking the ice and getting together to be able to acknowledge the soldiers of the industry, the forgotten people. And it comes to everyone else, everyone's being acknowledged and there's a hall of fame for everything else but to have one for the restaurant business where in our industry where everything in these islands revolve around the hospitality industry in so many ways. So to be able to have a function that talks about and shows and highlights the people that are dedicated to this, I think it's really important and I think it's great that we're continuing it now because we got a lot of people now looking up to us and we got a lot of young people that are still not sure what they wanna do. And you know how it is when you're younger, you kind of decide what you don't want but everyone, I don't know what I wanna do. So to me, we have a responsibility to have our industry recruit. We're recruiting by how we act, our body language, how we treat each other, how we treat our employees, how we interact with customers. That's how we're recruiting other people to say, hey, I wanna do that. I'd like to be that instead of the old days where it's everyone wants to have a restaurant because it sounds like it'd be fun. Yeah, it's fun when you make it fun. It's like, the harder you work, the luckier you get. Well, same thing with our business. It's just a little unique because every once in a while someone can get their mom's recipe for chili and open a place and open 10 and goes public. Every once in a while there's this grand slam so that keeps a lot of people jumping in the business. And I think we get a bad rep for having a high mortality rate for our industry. Yeah, restaurants are the toughest. Oh, I don't know how people make it. Well, we don't have to be accredited to be in the restaurant business. You don't have to have any real qualification. So I find that we get a lot of people that really aren't versed in the industry and don't treat it like a business. Maybe they like one part of it, the social aspect, or maybe they're culinarians, or maybe they're designers and they think this would be fun to have a restaurant and they don't realize that it's a complete picture that you have to kind of have a little of everything and that kind of makes it that much more exciting but makes it that much more difficult. So I think that as we have great culinary schools and we have hotel management courses in Russia, you get more qualified people that are ready, that are educated, that are working, and that now they plot their course and they have people to follow and they can now say have a legitimate chance to really not only survive but flourish. And I think that's really our responsibility as the old guys now. I still can't believe I'm a young guy stuck in this old body, but just I can't get out. I've tried to get out of it, but it just, I'm stuck. And we've got to a great point because Maui High School is one of our Hawaii Restaurant Association educational foundation pro-start school. So we have culinary students there and the instructor, it's a junior-senior program and those students are our future workforce, Erin, you're totally right, a portion of the proceeds from the Hall of Fame is gonna be given back to the educational foundation. So we can really cultivate that next generation of restaurateurs and that's so important, right? I mean, Erin, everyone looks up to you. So yes, that's so true. We need to cultivate. Well, I think it's great. And I think that the other thing about our industry is that it's so culinary-based and the base of our business is the kitchen. That's the engine that runs it. But it's also, you know, you could be the best chef ever but if you're not able to execute and you don't have the proper equipment and you don't have the venue that's getting, you don't have the parking, you don't have the right permits, you don't have the right people, you don't have the right plan, you don't have all that. You know, it's good that we can become well-versed. So just because you're a chef doesn't mean you're not interested in every part of that aspect as you see a lot of our successful chefs are. And just because you're not a chef doesn't mean that you, oh no, I can't get in the restaurant business. You can still work within a culinary team and bring what your focus or your expertise is and become well-rounded by having that experience and working with it. So I mean, I think that, you know, there's all these culinary schools but there's not really any front of the house schools other than Cornell or these where they're actually teaching, you know. So it's kind of our responsibility to do that. Because I mean, 50 years ago, unless you went to Paris, you know, there weren't a lot of culinary school options but look how that's evolved now where there's great ones all over the place including the ones we have here. So I mean, it's great to see how it's evolved. And like I said, at the beginning, I mean, our workforce used to be people that I don't really know what my real job is. I'll work in a restaurant until I figure out what I really want to do. So you had that. We had kind of the backwash and that's why we had a bad rep. People in the restaurant, the restaurant business, you don't go home and tell your, if you're a woman or anyone, oh my boyfriend works in a restaurant and he goes, really, I hope you're not serious, you know. Because you automatically think, oh geez, the hours and oh my, the drinking and the partying and all this and that, which could be a legitimate part of it. In fact, that's one of the things that part of mentoring was for me where when I saw these Trader Vicks and Cannellists and all these guys that were in this business, I saw a lot of real impressive guys that were super talented, they got wrapped up in the business. And if it becomes your personal place to party and if it becomes something that is more than a business, a lot of really talented guys went down. So I learned young. I'm like, ooh, I like this, but I'm not gonna do that. I'm one of those guys where I don't have to exactly do it myself to learn a lesson. I mean, certain things I think you do, but when it comes to our business, it's up to us. Look, I mean, I don't just, I try to go into every restaurant I can think of. And I learn more from the restaurants I don't like sometimes than the ones I do like because always I'm looking at something that, oh, I wanna do that or I look at another place and I wanna make sure I never do that. So it's so multifaceted that you're able to, and especially now with so many different venues and so many different restaurants out there and food trucks and now that grabbing goes and delivery, that's not going away anytime soon, where people are eating at home more and taking out. And that's a whole nother ball game of, other than pizza, everything's traveling now. And food doesn't travel that well. I mean, a couple of my venues, I kind of cringe when people want it to go, the pizza place in the bus, no problem. But you feel bad charging someone a $50 entree and put in a box and put in a bag and put in a car and drives. It doesn't really travel well to me, but that's part of the industry now that's changing. And that's the beauty of this industry. I remember when there was POS systems come out, I mean, back in the day, we had a cashier in the kitchen sitting there and every food, the food that walked out, she'd stop checking in, up, up, up, up, sign the check, okay, you can go. And I remember thinking POS said, that'll never catch up. No one will ever do that. We're never gonna go to POS, no, no, yeah, you gotta have a cashier in the kitchen. I remember thinking that. And I think I probably was the last guy to POS get one because of my stubbornness, but sometimes as the technology grows, my fear is that the beauty of the business disappears. And it's the most primitive, rawest thing is our business is just about welcoming someone in our home and taking care of them and anticipating their needs. And being somebody that's orchestrating their party, whether it be romance or business or family, all these things, and they're paying for it. My God, I mean, how much better can that be? Naturally, you get some frustrations and pick someone drops a spoon, you pick it up, they drop it again, you pick it up, now you're gonna say, don't drop it again, pick it up, you do it. That's all part of how we were raised. That's all part of the work ethic. And I tell my kids, I'm a servant. I like to serve people, yeah, no, this sounds bad, what do you think a doctor is? A doctor goes to medical school, he goes in residency, nine years later, he's finally a doctor, and what happens? He goes and looks at somebody's gangrene on their foot, you think that's not service? We're all servants, we serve. And for us to be able to be in this industry and serve people, guests that are paying for it, it's an honor. And for those that get frustrated, there's frustrations in all walks of life. But if you're doing this and you're in here, then you gotta put your game face on. And I remember Yule Brenner did the King and I, when nobody knows, heard of him, but you probably, he did the King and I for, I wanna say, two years straight, every night. And these people were paying, big money to go see, Yule Brenner and the King and I. And for sure he felt shitty one day, for sure he was hungover, for sure he wasn't in the mood. But every night he put his game face on, he knew all those people were out there that paid money to see him and he sucked it up or did whatever it did with enthusiasm, boom. So that's what we do. And we're not feeling great clicking our heels every single night when we go in. And there's times in the last thing I really wanna do is go take a lap through that place in this place. But these people are coming and paying money. And when they're paying money and it's big money nowadays, the value received has to be there. And the only way to do that is, and I tell people all the time, beautiful location, there's a great location, the food is, it's all about the people. The people are what steer the boat. You can have the best food in the world and the bad waiter will ruin a good meal. But a good waiter can kind of help a bad meal. And so it's that staff with the actual attitude and the positivity. And it starts with leadership because that's you can talk it, but you gotta show it. And you show it with that passion. And I think that it just filters down and then everybody wants a piece of it. And I think that's the beauty of this. That's why this industry to me came natural because I'm one of those. I like different things to excite me. It's not just cooking. It's not just serving. It's not just building. It's not just community. It's all those things rolled into one. I'm one of those kind of people that I like different things going on. So when you find that industry that fits your disposition, go for it. And I was lucky enough to do that at a young age. Ladies and gentlemen, this is why he was inducted into the Hawaii Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. That's exactly the reason. Well, I mean, it's wonderful. And you got 10 inductees this year. Is that what you said? Yes. Oh, that's perfect. Well, are we any Maui or Kauai or Big Island representation in the Hall of Fame? You know, actually not this year. Yeah, no, you know, we got restaurants on the neighbor islands too, you know? Did you guys order? Yeah. It's some pretty good ones. A lot of good ones. Right, last year was Kauai. I'm 2019, there was Kauai. And 2018, I know there was Maui. And this year, it's all about who turns in the candidates, you know, the ballot. So they have to be nominated. So please, Erin, you know, if you can. I think we better spread the word. Could you? Yeah, could you? Sometimes these neighbor islands, we get lost in the shuffle out here. And I'll tell you, Maui is just a wonderful place to live. I mean, I love the Wahu. I lived in Kailua and I loved it there. And I thought that was the best place ever. And I still like it, of course. But Maui, for some reason, there's just got a great vibe here and to be able to live here. And I only have the four places here now. I'm kind of lazy boy now. No more Honolulu. Did that for years and years and years, you know, top of the Alamoana 25 years, top of the EliKai 25 years. I did my job, but now I'm over here. And this is the chapter that, and it's fun, this stage in the career, where now you're mentoring the next stage of people. And you know, there used to be a point in time where you want to make sure you do it all. But now you want to do it all by having them do more. And that's kind of actually the most rewarding of all. So just take a look there. Nice, nice. So this year, our Hawaii Restaurant Association's Hall of Fame is paying tribute to our pandemic champions and our industry advocates. And these honorees have demonstrated sacrifice and dedication during this pandemic. And that's the difference this year, Erin. And on top of that, the 14 chefs of Aloha. And Erin, you remember the chefs of Aloha where all the chefs will come out? Yes, and provide all of the amazing food that night. So I just wanted to, I only have a few minutes left. Siobhan, you want to read the list of all the inductees? Yes, I absolutely do. But I also wanted to touch on real fast how Erin was asking on, you know, Outer Island support. That's where we rely on. Neighbor, neighbor, neighbor islands. Outer, that's illegal. You get sort of jail for that, politically incorrect. Yeah, but we want to make sure, you know, it's people like yourself, you know, that we want to really make sure you guys bring the representation, you know, and show the representation. And, you know, we have like a selection committee and we would love for you to be on that committee, you know, to really make sure that we showcase everybody. This year, the 10 inductees that we're saying are all Oahu, but we do have what we call industry advocates this year, which is not the typical. So these are maybe not people who are in the restaurant industry, but really did a lot for the industry during COVID. But I'm going to go ahead and recognize, we do have Denise Yamaguchi, Victor Lim, Greg Maples, Mark and Amanda Noguchi, Ryan Tanaka, Gwen Yamamoto-Lao, Sherri Minore McNamara, Cheryl Matsuoka herself, and representative Sylvia Luke. So, you know, as I was saying, some of them are industry advocates like Cheryl and representative Luke. And, you know, they really did a lot for the industry, such as the 75 million in the CARES funds, you know, and that money was not just for the industry, it was, you know, it was for the whole community. And that was for Maui, Kauai, Big Island, everywhere that those cards were accepted. So that's why you see names on there that you might not associate with. Well, I got to say this for Cheryl, who has been an advocate and probably a thankless job, you know, sometimes when you're behind the scenes and putting it all together, trust me, we do appreciate what you guys do. And during this pandemic, we were communicating and helping each other out. And it was kind of fun. I remember my years in Chicago, the restaurants were always had a brotherhood and sisterhood of people together. Well, the pandemic kind of did that to us in Maui when I was here. You know, there were over 100 restaurants we got together. Hey, if we would get together, probably 40, 50 people and say, okay, what should we do here? Oh, I'm gonna do that. Someone got the masks that were good. Okay, let's all use those. I mean, it was kind of fun. And next thing you know, there was that closeness and brotherhood now that things are hopefully getting closer to get back to normal, that closeness stage. And I'm still getting calls from other people, asking me, what do you think we should do here? And vice versa, and I'll call. And I think that is the beauty of this industry where we're all in it together, helping each other out. And you know, it's just an amazing time for all of us right now. Thank you so much, Erin, you are so right. So we need to close the show. I'm getting my messages here from the technicians. So again, everyone, the Hall of Fame is coming on up, February 28th, information on our website, HawaiiRestaurant.org and Hawaii Restaurant Association is the voice of Hawaii's restaurants and food service industry. Mahalo for joining us today, Erin. And we hope to see you for the Hall of Fame. No, thank you very much. We hope to see you at the Hall of Fame and we wanna thank our presenting sponsor, Waihata Company Limited. And we see everybody at Hall of Fame. Thanks, Erin. Mahalo, take care.