Yamaguchi trades in tradition with new Valley Isle restaurant

Roy Yamaguchi opened his fourth new restaurant of 2016 Monday.

Humble Market Kitchin in the Wailea Beach Resort Marriott on Maui is another concept inspired by Yamaguchi’s grandfather Rokuro, as were his three Eating House 1849 restaurants.

“Back in the ’40s and ’50s, he was in the restaurant business. In the ’50s he opened Yamaguchi General Store,” the chef said.

“As a kid, when I used to visit my grandparents on Maui, I used to help stock the shelves. I have a lot of memories helping out, hanging out in the market in the summers. So when we decided to take this project on, since my grandfather was a humble man and he had a market, (the restaurant was named) Humble Market Kitchin.”

The market was one of many isle mom-and-pop general stores that served prepared food, sort of an old-Hawaii forerunner to today’s grocerants, eating places inside of grocery stores that are serving increasingly sophisticated, grab-and-go fare.

The restaurant will have a cold section, a raw bar offering shellfish platters sourced with as much local seafood as possible. Some of the oysters will be local, for instance, while others will be imported. Shrimp cocktails and lobster cocktails likely also will be part of the mix.

The menu offers a variety of appetizers and salads, Yamaguchi said, “and we’ll have some comfort items such as noodles and rice (dishes) and then, you know (dishes) from the land and sea, and so it’s pretty extensive.”

That said, “we want to make it approachable to the locals and for tourists that come to the Wailea area.”

Yamaguchi named Roy’s veteran Russell Chu as executive chef for Humble Market Kitchin.

The restaurant initially will be open for breakfast from 6:30 until 9:30 or 10 a.m., offering a buffet and a la carte items, then reopen for dinner service at 5 p.m.

“As we continue to move along, hours will change, only because we have a pretty nice lounge that we’d like to get going,” Yamaguchi said.

Humble Market Kitchin has seating for 150, “but we have a lot of different areas within the restaurant that make it unique,” he said. Four private dining rooms can accommodate parties large and small, from as little as eight up to 200 — with the largest rooms having oceanfront views.

Shep Gordon, a semiretired show business manager and friend of Yamaguchi’s at least since Gordon helped launch the Hawaii Regional Cuisine movement in the early 1990s, also was involved in the development of Humble Market Kitchin.

Gordon also helped develop Mala and MiGrant restaurants, opened by chefs Mark Ellman and Sheldon Simeon, respectively, Yamaguchi said of the longtime Maui resident.

“It’s in his blood,” he added.

Yamaguchi had quite a bit on his plate for 2016 — Humble Market Kitchin was his fourth opening of the year. The summer brought Beach House at the Turtle Bay Resort on Oahu’s North Shore and Eating House 1849 in the International Market Place in Waikiki. He opened his newest Eating House last month in Kapolei. (The other one is on Kauai.)

Yamaguchi said he wasn’t looking to develop Humble Market Kitchin, but the opportunity came to him. “Sometimes the greatest things in life are things you don’t expect.”

Now, about the spelling of “Kitchin.”

It’s sort of a play on words, as in, “come ‘in’ to my kitchen,” he said. “I wanted people to come in and experience it. It makes sense in a quirky way.”

He has no current plans to expand Humble Market Kitchin to other locations. Yamaguchi turned 60 this year and given this year’s rash of openings, he has earned some down time. “I’m getting to an age where expansion, it can go both ways,” said “I can expand on the beach or expand in the business.”