Kaneohe muffler shop shut; owner files for bankruptcy

QUESTION: Whatever happened to the muffler shop and barbecue restaurant owned by Bob Barr on Kahuhipa Street in Kaneohe?

ANSWER: Barr, 77, filed for bankruptcy in April. The muffler shop officially closed three weeks ago, and Barr was served eviction papers Dec. 1, his lawyer said.

Barr’s Muffler & Welding Shop, with its 18-foot-tall metal muffler-man sculpture, had been a fixture on Kahuhipa Street since 1976.

"It was really good being in Hawaii and doing all these different things and meeting all these different people," Barr said. "It was like a home base around Kaneohe."

Melodie Aduja, his lawyer, said Barr was negotiating with Kamehameha Schools in 2010 to get his rent temporarily reduced but was unsuccessful.

The adjacent restaurant he owned, Smokin’ Bob’s Barr-B-Q, first opened in 1997 and operated for about six years before Barr said he started leasing out the space to other restaurants.

During the restaurant’s prime years, he said he developed a close partnership with the WorkHawaii program, teaching Castle High School students about restaurant work and how to run the smoker.

"It’s been a great experience living (in) and serving Hawaii and the people and the kids and the parents, everybody," he said by phone on Wednesday, choking up.

Barr reopened the restaurant in 2008 because people kept asking about it, but said he closed again sometime in late 2010 — around the time his wife, Dahlia Barr, 54, was found dead in the muffler shop parking lot on Dec. 21, 2010.

Her body was discovered by firefighters after they extinguished a car fire called in by a neighbor who had reported hearing a muffled explosion.

The Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Dahlia Barr’s death a suicide, and listed the cause of death as "toxic effects of carbon monoxide due to vehicular fire," along with depression as a "significant condition."

Officers opened an unattended-death case, which meant police did not suspect foul play. But Dahlia Barr’s attorney, Mark Kawata, said at the time that he did not believe his client committed suicide.

At the time of her death, she and Barr were going through a divorce to end their 22-year marriage.

Kawata told the Star-Advertiser in 2010 that Dahlia Barr suspected her husband was being taken advantage of by business associates in control of his finances.

According to state business records, she was listed as vice president and director of the muffler shop in 2008. Kawata said Dahlia Barr was scheduled to attend a divorce hearing to discuss her business rights the day after she died.

Barr, who turns 78 years old in January, has suffered from a heart attack and had both his legs amputated in February 2010 because of diabetes-related complications.

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This update was written by Sarah Zoellick. Suggest a topic for “Whatever Happened To …” by writing Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-210, Honolulu 96813; call 529-4747; or email cityeditors@staradvertiser.com.