Muddy Waters Cafe has returned to Aikahi Park Shopping Center under new ownership.
Jerry Brown, owner of Utopia Landscaping & Tree Service, of which the shopping center is a client, bought the business from Mark Flathau and bought the rights to use the Muddy Waters Cafe name from longtime owner Julie Loo.
He formed Muddy Waters Cup of Joe LLC for the new business.
Long a popular gathering place at the center, the original Muddy Waters, or "Muddy’s," as many area residents called it, closed in November 2009, following the cafe’s expansion to Bellows Air Force Station and Schofield Barracks. Those have since closed as well, and Loo could not be reached.
In the interim, Flathau turned the 360-square-foot space into the Drop In Cafe. It was a grab-and-go breakfast and coffee place and hot dog stand that also sold spicy Italian beef sandwiches, other food items and specialty drinks. He and his wife also co-own Ono Dogs LLC, which operates hot dog stands that also sell other food items outside Home Depot stores.
Brown and Flathau got to talking about the business one day in December, "and 10 minutes later we went to the bank" to arrange for the purchase, Brown said.
The interior is a work in progress.
For instance, tiles purchased from Shangri-La, the estate of the late Doris Duke, are stacked neatly, awaiting mounting alongside their former brethren. There are additional plans to build a deck out front.
Friend and customer Dave Goebert, owner of satellite truck business NOA Productions LLC, has been helping with the interior little by little and will pitch in for the deck project initially planned by Loo, he said.
Back are the early gatherings of gentlemen of a certain age, who sit outside and talk story over freshly brewed coffee.
Back are the daily music trivia questions for which correct answers are rewarded with a free cuppa joe — though the methodology has changed.
Dr. Mark "Doc Roc" Stitham, a former deejay with a headful of knowledge that made him the serial winner of the old Muddy’s music trivia contests, now serves as the originator of the trivia questions. He can never win again — not that your columnist was jealous or anything.
Questions used to be posted daily on a whiteboard, with the previous day’s answer displayed underneath. That the question was posted gave java-jivers who lacked encyclopedic knowledge of rock and blues trivia the time to Google, Yahoo! or Bing their way to free cups of coffee via mobile devices.
Now "you’ve got to draw your question," Goebert said.
If the answer’s in your head, you win a hot (or iced) brew. If not, you pay for the coffee you were going to order anyway.
Brewed coffee is $1.91 for a 16-ounce cup and $2.25 for a 20-ounce cup, while other drinks — cappuccinos, mochas and more — also are available starting at $3.50, $4 and so on.
For breakfast, choices include various baked goods. A toasted cheese-and-jalapeño bagel with a schmear costs less than $2. Other choices are offered later in the day.
Muddy Waters is open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and until about 10 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On weekends, musicians including "Boogie," previously a Muddy’s regular, start playing between 5:30 and 6 p.m.
On the first Saturday of the month, Brown will bring in bands that play oldies from the 1950s and 1960s, to coincide with the monthly car show. It draws about 250 cars, he said. A group of swing dancers brings its own portable dance floor and puts on a show as well.
With only two employees in addition to himself, Brown is hiring.
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Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.
