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JAMM AQUINO / JAQUNO@STARADVERTISER.COM
After six years on Queen Street and almost a year and a half in Chinatown, both Fresh Cafe Kakaako and Fresh Cafe Downtown will shut down at the close of business today.
After six years on Queen Street and almost a year and a half in Chinatown, both Fresh Cafe Kakaako and Fresh Cafe Downtown will shut down at the close of business today.
According to owner Tiffany Tanaka, she and partners Ryan Tanaka (no relation) and Gary Oda decided to part ways this week after failing to find common ground over day-to-day business operations.
“I’m actually really relieved,” she said by phone Monday evening. “Even though it’s kind of hard, I’ve accepted it. I’m excited to move forward.”
Tanaka, 35, graduated from Punahou and studied at Parsons New School of Design in New York and Paris before earning degrees in fashion and fine arts from the University of San Francisco. She opened Fresh Cafe Kakaako in 2009 and helped grow the art and music scene by hosting events like HawaiiSlam’s First Thursdays poetry slam, Art + Flea, POW! WOW! Hawaii and TEDxHonolulu.
In order to expand into the former Indigo space on Nuuanu Avenue, Tanaka enlisted Ryan Tanaka and Oda as partners in the overall business in 2014.
While she was confident Fresh Cafe could resurface again in the relatively near future, Tanaka would not confirm or deny plans to reopen in either original location. She did say both the Hawaii Theatre Center, which is the landlord of the Chinatown restaurant, and the new owner of the Queen Street building that houses Fresh Cafe Kakaako were both aware of the situation and working with her to explore various options.
“Everything is up in the air,” said Tanaka. “Whatever doesn’t break you, makes you. … I’m looking forward to fresh changes in 2016. To offer a better cafe, more art and live music and (serve) my community.”
Fresh Cafe Kakaako is located at 831 Queen Street and will be open from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. Tuesday, according to the company’s website. Fresh Cafe Downtown, 1111 Nuuanu Avenue, will be open from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m.
Sounds like her partners were the problem.
Sounds like this Kaka’ako entertainment plan is not going so well?
Partners rarely ever fight when the business is making money…..Hard to compete with the “star”!
Not true. A lot of successful businesses fall apart because of management differences, including one of my own. I just could not deal with his abrasive manner toward employees and he wouldn’t consider the idea of selling the practice. So I shut it down. I always counsel clients to go it alone, unless the business cannot launch without an equity partner.
I think Marcus’s explanation is more accurate. With the Oahu train to nowhere, DOE, UH and other govenment entities demanding more and more money from taxpayers, craz py business climate in Hawaii, Train and other road and construction projects creating traffic nightmares on Oahu and residents and visitors less likely to drive to eat or shop, many small businesses realize it is a losing proposition to run a business in Hawaii. As Marcus pointed out making money soothes a lot of difficult relationships but Hawaii is headed for a dark times amd wil follow the footsteps of Detroit or some City where there is out of control spending and ZERO fiscal responsiblity. To prevent Oahu from losing almost all small businesses the Oahu rail project needs to be SHUT DOWN permanenty. Just read Aiona might run for mayor and make it his campaign pledge to shut down rail. If he can get it through his thick sku ll to run a campaign based on being an elected official that can separate his strong religious beliefs from running a city or State government based on fiscal prudence he has a good chance of getting elected. He runs his same old, same old religious bent campaign and obsessing with same sex marriage, abortion and immunizations he will LOSE, again.
PS: I forgot to mention this cafe in on Queen street which is where the Oahu train to nowhere is supposed to run through to Ala Mo Center. I do NOT think this is just coincidence that the small businesses all along the train route are going to close their business sooner than later as they will no longer have any customers once rail construction completely, shuts down vehicular traffic. AND in the town section, such as Queen Street, there is much less space to build the train then Pearl City where Sams Club, Home Depot, etc., so the traffic due to in town rail construction will almost grid lock ALL of Honolulu by the domino effect. This was shown to be true with the baby thrown over the freeway overpass where one shutdown at one section of a major thoroughfare in Honolulu had the effect of backing up almost all of Honolulu
inverse, really? You had to make this about rail? This is not about rail, this is about disagreement between business partners. Half of the business isn’t even in Kakaako.
Larry01, to ‘inverse,’ EVERYTHING is about rail, absolutely everything. “The sun came up today!” “Yeah, well, if we didn’t have rail, it would have come up sooner!”
Doubt it klastri, no one throws away good money! I’m not talking about breaking even, if they were making really good money they would not close the shops, period! One partner might sell his/her interest to the other or to a third party because of management styles but you don’t just walk away from good money. Your business was not making great money, I guaranty it.
Always the case. She picked the wrong partners. Probably got to their heads. It got bigger. And they wanted to flex their weight more. Hope she does okay in the future.
That’s the problem, never heard of it. Locations have no parking, Parking for Indigo is expensive and hard to get to.
Is Indigo still around? Horrible location.
It closed a while back. It was a nice restaurant.
Indigo was too pake. You couldn’t take food from the buffet they had to serve you so you don’t take too much. They could keep their food good they closed.
Fresh Cafe on Queen we went there once. Had a salad and a sandwich and two ice teas and was $30 something bucks ridiculously expensive. We never went back not surprised they closed.
Restaurants in that location are filled with huge roaches from the broken, aged pipes of the sewer underground.
Indigo closed due to rent increases. Not due to terrible parking.
True. That place was usually crowded.
The streets and sidewalks around the old indigo smell like piss. It was nauseating to eat there (because of the smells) so no wonder they went out of business. No restaurant will make it in that environment. Thank Caldwell and his lack of anything positive regarding the homeless (just blah, blah, blah). https://www.facebook.com/HIRA808/videos/984458481615909/
You are 100% correct. If you look at my post when the downtown location was announced I said it was sure to fail if they did not remove the mainland chronics urinating in the back. Sure enough, NOTHING was done to remove the mainland chronics. The cops do NOTHING to enforce laws and even worse – they have cameras all over the place but do not use them.
Exactly. The last time I went to Indigo it smelled worse than a well-used bathroom and there were flies everywhere. No business can survive that. You called it.
The major problem with business partners is after a while, everyone has a different opinion in operating a business. Sometimes its their other half getting involved and then its a chain reaction who’s in charge. Operate a business yourself.
I agree.
Good luck Tiffany. As a Kakaako resident, I appreciate all the things you did for our community. You will come back stronger and smarter from your experiences. Looking forward to the next venture!
The government prefers Wall Street companies such as the upcoming, Whole Foods Market, as opposed to a small and dinky shop. It’s all about the amount of total taxes that a business can earn per square foot of retail space.
Or maybe it was really a problem between three partners in that business. Guess some people always have to make it a big conspiracy.
Just look at all the big time stores listed on the stock exchange at the new Ala Moana SC. No more small shops like PetLand anymore.
I’m not saying big companies aren’t pushing small things out. But geez, can’t you admit in this case it could simply be something among the partners. Get some air dude.
Sorry kimchee, I always start from the top when it comes to blaming.
I walked into the Queen St. location about a month ago it was such a weird set up. Couldn’t figure out how to order, who to give my order to, or what they served. Nobody behind a bar or bakery type set up and certainly nobody asking if I had any questions or needed help. After a couple of minutes I left without trying to make an order. Really I couldn’t tell if they were closed or closing or if that’s just the way they roll. Was about 7:30PM so I don’t think they were closed. Only a couple of people sitting at a table. Strange and uninviting.
Business around that area of town is meant for the repeat customer who doesn’t need to ask any questions.
too overpriced imo.