The old-time family restaurant is a treasure anywhere, but on Kauai — a small place where the divide between then and now is felt within the soul — “treasure” isn’t a big enough word.

On a recent trip to Kauai I went on a search for some of these gems, but I am an outsider. My spirit guide was Mark Oyama, a culinary instructor at Kauai Community College and the owner of Mark’s Cafe in Lihue.

Oyama was born and raised on Kauai, as were his parents, as were his grandparents. Last year he was inducted into the Hawaii Restaurant Association’s Hall of Fame, in recognition of what he has contributed to the school and community.

He also owns Da Hawaiian Poke Co. in Kapahulu. I don’t want you to think his world view extends only as far as one island.

But the food scene on Kauai — this is his passion. Few people feel it more deeply when a longtime mom-and-pop closes. “It’s personal,” Oyama said, because these places offer something special. “It’s the comfort of going someplace where you know everyone. It’s just — home.”

He mourns Lihue Cafe, Green Garden, Wailua Marina … “I miss these locations, all these places that are lost and closed down.”

Oyama’s first job, in 1980, when he was in the eighth grade, was at Matsuura Store, making the store’s famous manju. “It was summer and my dad said, ‘Go paint the house.’ But I didn’t want to do that, so he said, ‘Go get a job, then.’”

So making manju became his job, all the way through high school.

Matsuura eventually downsized to become the Lawai Menehune Food Mart, which closed in 2015. The location became a 7-Eleven, which still sells a version of the Matsuura family manju (also known as Lawai manju, a favorite interisland omiyage).

Oyama’s point is that we’re talking stores that began in the plantation camps, with deep roots in their communities. They’d support the local baseball teams, cash checks for people who couldn’t make the drive to the bank, and if you couldn’t pay your tab, Oyama said, “They’d take the receipt, put your name on it and stick it on the wall.” You paid when you could.

One of the folks Oyama took me to visit was Clyde Nada, the second-generation owner of Aloha Sweet Delites in Kaumakani. Nada’s father, Jack, founded the original Olokele Sugar Plantation store in 1966.

Nada remembers his dad extending credit to those who couldn’t pay: “At the end of the month we’d tally it up. … Everybody was honorable and paid.”

In 2000 the plantation closed and the store downsized. Six years ago Nada consolidated around the shop’s bakery products — doughnuts, ensemada, pan de sal, black bean manju, apple squares and more.

He carries on the family business, but he knows it ends with him. His two daughters, Nada said, live out of state and aren’t interested in the store.

And that’s kind of the point, said Jonathan Ota, the fourth-generation owner of Tip Top Cafe in Lihue. Most of the founders of these old-time businesses were doing what they could to support their families. Some hoped their children would carry on, but many others wanted a better, easier life for them. And there’s nothing easy about restaurant ownership.

“Most businesses, the second or third generation is where the business ends,” Ota said. “It’s very rare to reach the third. By then, the kids are doctors.”

And my friend, Oyama, a first-generation business owner, has no illusions about his own kids: “No. They’re not going to take over. I know my kids.”

That does nothing to diminish his respect for the restaurants that came before. “They were there for the community. I want to make sure to support them and perpetuate them. I want to make sure the community remembers them.”

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2 GENERATIONS

Wong’s Restaurant & Omoide Bakery | 13543 Kaumualii Highway, Hanapepe; 335-5066

Gen 1: Jackson and Jo-Ann Wong went into business in 1982 with Conrad Nonaka (now director of the Culinary Institute of the Pacific) on a property operated by the Nonaka family. They opened Conrad’s Restaurant (Japanese and American food), Wong’s Restaurant (Cantonese) and Omoide Delicatessen & Bakery, all on the same site. In 1994 the Wongs bought Nonaka’s shares and the restaurant went all-Cantonese.

Gen 2: Of the four Wong children, only daughter Jackie stayed on Kauai, entering culinary school at Kauai Community College (Mark Oyama was one of her instructors). She admits she didn’t take it seriously, skating through to graduation. “Then for one year I just played around and drove my mom nuts.”

Then her father, just 51 years old, died, followed by the restaurant’s cook. “I had no choice, I had to learn,” Jackie said. “I found that it became a passion. … I finally started to buckle down and get serious. I couldn’t see the legacy ending.”

Three years ago the Wongs purchased the property beneath the restaurant from the Nonaka family. “I wanted to carry out my dad’s dream.”

Jackie, 38, now runs the business. Her mother keeps the books.

Claim to fame: The bakery’s lilikoi chiffon pie.

Baker Suneko Tanigawa taught Jackie’s mother. The chiffon pies are mixed with bare hands directly in the batter, so Jackie said the first thing Tanigawa did was feel their hands. “She told my mom, ‘You going make beautiful pies.’ And she took my hands and said, ‘You cannot.’”

The pies must be baked three or four times daily, 13 pies per batch, so Jackie found a way. “I learned to use a machine and spatula.”

Next gen: Jackie’s sister Julia‚ who, by the way, does have the hands for pie making, has a 9-year-old who already wants to bake with her auntie. Jackie says her hope is that the business grows successful enough that her niece’s generation can take over with a staff in place to make the work less of a grind.

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3 GENERATIONS

Dani’s Restaurant | 4201 Rice St., Lihue, 245-4991

Gen 1: Akiyo Honjo took over what had been a malasada bakery in 1965, calling it Ma’s Place. Her husband, Masao, a carpenter, helped convert the space. In the beginning, daughter Harriet Morioka says, her mother worked off of two electric grills, making eggs, hotcakes and breakfast meats.

She opened at 5 a.m. to cater to construction workers, closing at 2 p.m., but on Fridays and Saturdays she’d reopen at midnight “for the bowlers and the drinkers,” her grandson, Danny Morioka, says. Honjo retired at age 93; she turns 103 this year.

Gen 2: Harriet and her husband, Tsutao Morioka, opened Dani’s Restaurant in 1982, when son Danny was 8. They named the restaurant for him, sort of. (The name Danny was too close to that of the Denny’s chain. Fun fact: Friends who’ve known him for years as Danny now spell his name Dani. “So I go by Dan to eliminate the confusion,” he says.)

The Moriokas built the restaurant strong enough to withstand Hurricane Iwa, which hit in November of their first year. They were open from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m., same as Ma’s Place, serving substantial Hawaiian, Japanese and American plates.

Gen 3: Danny Morioka started out at age 8 washing dishes, and spent enough time in the restaurants to catch the bug. He went to culinary school, then became a chef at A Pacific Cafe locations on Oahu and Maui, then with Aaron’s Atop the Ala Moana and d.k Steak House in Waikiki.

He came home in 2006 and for eight years was his parents’ employee, focused on raising his own young family.

But he’s in charge now, and introducing elements of his Pacific Rim cuisine training. “They told me to do whatever I wanted.”

Claims to fame: Top sellers are the tripe and beef stews, recipes developed by Danny’s grandfather for Ma’s Place. Many customers order the stews as a combo, two stews in one bowl. Danny’s BCLM, a bacon-cheeseburger loco moco developed as a way to use up leftovers in the kitchen, is a more recent favorite. His Flavors of Kauai line of sauces — used in the kitchen to quickly boost flavor — is available through flavorsofkauai.com.

Next gen: “You gotta be born into it or you gotta be crazy,” Danny, 43, says of the restaurant life. He doesn’t want his children, ages 11 and 7, to continue the business. “They could succeed at something a lot easier.”

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4 GENERATIONS

Tip Top Cafe | 3173 Akahi St., Lihue; 245-2333

Gen 1: Denjiro Ota opened a coffee shop in 1916 in the Tip Top building, starting with light meals, pies and cakes. “It slowly grew and grew and grew,” great-grandson Jonathan Ota says.

Gen 2: Denjiro’s son, Mitchell, took over in 1925, expanding the bakery to the point where it was making deliveries all over the island. In 1965, he built a restaurant and a 34-room motel about a half mile away. “At the time everyone thought he was crazy because not very many people traveled to the neighbor islands,” Jonathan says. “But it turned out to be a really smart move.”

Gen 3: Mitchell’s son Owen joined the business when he was ready to retire from his military post, running the Kokee Air Force Station. Now 83, Owen still keeps the books, working seven days a week.

Gen 4: Jonathan was working at the Sheraton Waikiki as comptroller when his grandmother, Ellen, called. “You have to come back,” she told him. “Your grandfather really wanted you to take over.”

So in 1990 he moved back and put his business skills to work increasing efficiency.

His grandparents, he said, “would go through a year and we’d say, ‘How did you do?’ and they’d say, ‘We don’t know, but lots of people are coming so we must be OK.’”

He made changes in areas that weren’t profitable, for example stopping bakery deliveries and eventually getting out of baking altogether, leasing out the bakeshop. Now, he says, “We’re in a really good place.”

Tip Top celebrated its 100th year in 2016.

Claims to fame: The No. 1 and No. 2 sellers are oxtail soup and pancakes, both recipes created by Mitchell Ota.

Next gen: Jonathan, 55, is unmarried and has no children, so a fifth generation is unlikely. “This could be the end,” he says. “Hopefully we’ll be smart and not working to the very end and drop dead.”