You have to admire a business that sees the potential in setting up in the abandoned garden shop of a Kmart.

As so, props to Mike & Billz Fire Grillz, which has taken up residence just outside the Kapolei Kmart. The long, open-air, fenced-in space from which the store once sold plants is now the kitchen and dining room from which come overflowing plates of grilled steak, shrimp, fish and chicken.

The eatery also inherited the metal framework that held shade cloth over the garden shop, now strung with lights that provide a fairyland atmosphere at night.

About the business: Mike and Billie Pelen — husband and wife, business partners and parents of six — opened Mike & Billz 18 months ago as a food stand set up in the Hawaii Self Storage lot in Kapolei.

Mike had several years of hotel banquet experience, following a career as a musician in the groups Brotherhood, Faceless and Brownskin. Billie is a bartender. Mike also worked several years in construction, cashing out his retirement annuity to start the business.

He and a carpenter friend built a shed atop a trailer to serve as kitchen and takeout window. Think of it as a food truck minus the truck, and with roots.

A few months ago Mike noticed that Kmart had gotten out of the live plant business, and offered to lease the store’s empty outdoor space. The couple towed the trailer to this higher-visibility location and set up shop.

What to order: Think of the menu as Blazin’ Steaks and beyond; and, in fact, Mike’s brother Alex was one of the original franchisees for that chain. Mike had envisioned a business based on steak plates, but Billie had other ideas, putting her mixology skills to work concocting sauces that distinguish Mike & Billz’s grilled options.

Top sellers are kim chee steak with garlic- butter shrimp, and angel-hair pasta with lemon cream sauce, available with chicken, steak, fish or shrimp.

You can also get grilled chicken or fish (ono, ahi, salmon or mahimahi, depending on availability). Choose from a wide range of sauces, such as white wine or miso wasabi, or have your fish blackened or with a furikake crust. Daily vegetarian specials are also offered, and there’s breakfast, too.

Prices are $7 to $15 for plates that include white or brown rice, plus a fresh spinach salad that often includes mango, strawberries, blueberries, dragon fruit — or whatever fruit Billie can find that’s good and fresh. “That was my trick for years, getting my daughters to eat salad,” Billie says.

Menu categories play on the names of the couple’s children — Kendell’z Tender Lovin’ Steak, Angel’z Hair Pastaz, Kaya’z Surfin Fish Filletz, for example.

Coming up: A juice bar, offering fruit drinks and teas.

Off the menu: Ask for a healthy option and they’ll make you a plate lower in fat and sodium. The Pelens also cater for nearby businesses and provide prepared meals for athletes on special diets; among their clients is fighter Max Holloway.

Grab and go: The Kmart lot has an ocean of parking, so it’s easy to drop in for takeout. Or take advantage of the 30-seat dining area — tables and chairs recycled from hotel use. They look like they’d be comfortable in a 1960s-era tiki-tacky bar but are perfectly suited to this cheery outdoor space.

Grab and Go focuses on takeout food, convenience meals and other quick bites. Email ideas to crave@staradvertiser.com.