Uncle Clay’s taking shave ice, aloha to Ala Moana

A small Aina Haina institution soon will hit the big time as Uncle Clay’s House of Pure Aloha expands to Ala Moana Center.

Uncle Clay’s gets raves for its shave ice with syrups made in-house using as many local ingredients as possible, including luxurious ice cream from Waimea, on Hawaii island.

Those same refreshing treats and an expanded menu of offerings, some a secret for now, will be available at The Lanai @ Ala Moana as early as November when the shave-ice shop opens as a stand-alone kiosk.

“Pretty much from the first year on, people have been asking us when we were going to grow outside Aina Haina,” said Bronson Chang, nephew and partner of the business’ namesake, Clay Chang.

Clay purchased the space, a longtime crack-seed shop, in 1996. Bronson, a University of Southern California graduate with a business degree, joined the business and the shop switched from seeds to shave ice in 2011.

But before they could grow, the two needed to be certain of the shop’s sustainability. Then came the invitation to become a tenant at Ala Moana Center.

“I’m extremely humbled, and extremely, extremely grateful,” Clay said. He had previously entertained such a thought, but confessed that he is a “huge dreamer.”

“We really saw this as an opportunity to bring that same Pure Aloha vision and intention to this world stage,” Bronson said.

The kitchen will be twice as big as in Aina Haina, “big enough to serve the 1,000-plus people a day who may be enjoying our treats,” Bronson said. In the recent summer heat, the flagship store has been serving about 400 customers a day.

However, the mission of Uncle Clay’s is not all about bowl counts and making money.

“At this location we’ll be debuting a really fun, creative giving platform called Pure Aloha Coins,” Bronson said. Uncle Clay’s will partner with nonprofits to raise awareness about what they are doing, Bronson said, “but also to rally support financially from the community, via the company.”

Customers will receive the branded coins by purchasing certain items, then will be able to drop them down a ramp incorporated into the kiosk’s design. The company will redeem the coins for cash for the nonprofits. “Truly great things can only happen with the hands and hearts of many coming together,” Bronson said.

The shop is working with its ice cream purveyor, Big Island-based Tropical Dreams, to bring additional flavors of super-premium ice cream to the Ala Moana location. The kiosk’s “dip case” will be three or more times larger than the original.

“We’re working together to create some new, custom Uncle Clay’s flavors that will be exclusive to the company,” Bronson said. An ulu ice cream is being developed by Touch a Heart Hawaii, a nonprofit that provides job training and other services for the homeless. Sales of the breadfruit flavor will go to Touch a Heart.

“It’s all Bronson,” Clay says of the progress his crack-seed-shop-turned-shave-ice-destination has made. “I have all the fun, I get to love on everybody, make sure they’re part of the ohana.”

Clay Chang is a hugger and a talker who embodies the aloha spirit. Not the fake kind thrown at tourists along with a faux kukui nut lei made in a foreign factory, but in the looking-in-your-eyes-while-gently-uplifting-your-spirit-with-aloha kind of way.

“My kupunas always taught that, when you have something so valuable, so valuable that you can’t put a dollar value on it, it would be not pono to hoard, or keep it to yourself,” Clay said.

He makes it his mission to share aloha “the best I can, the purest I can, from the heart.”

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