Some 50 years ago, a plain bowl of saimin was sold everywhere as a snack or side dish. It was Franz Shiro Matsuo who “dared to glorify and glamorize saimin as it has never been done before,” and came up with more than 60 winning combinations.

These are his own words, written on a menu that reflects the flamboyant, playful personality of the late owner of Shiro’s Saimin Haven, said his daughter Linda Matsuo. He dubbed himself “Mistah Saimin” after elevating a humble dish into a meal with dazzling possibilities.

“That was his call to greatness,” she said.

But beneath all the glittery self-promotion was just a man who worked tenaciously to realize his dream of having his own business. He was so proud of accomplishing this, on the menu he described the family restaurant as “the only one of its kind in this whole wide world,” and “the place with a song in its heart.”

Shiro, personal chef to the late Gov. John Burns in the 1960s, embarked on his dream from a hole in the wall at the Aiea Bowling Alley in 1969, under the name Shiro’s Huli Huli Drive In. He expanded in 1975 to the Waimalu Shopping Center, renaming it Shiro’s Saimin Haven, where it stands today in addition to an Ewa Beach location.

The company is celebrating its 50th anniversary later this year with special events to be announced.

“We’re one of the few places that survived so long,” Linda said. Its staying power has to do with more than the made-from-scratch food served. “I like to think my employees are the key to our success,” she said. “I think we give more than just our food, it’s the warmth and kindness.”

Shiro’s has many regulars, Linda added, some who come daily or for all three meals, and chit chat. They’ve become friends and brought their kids, and now their grandchildren.

The restaurant kindles memories, she said.

“It’s like saimin … Our saimin is made from the memory of the immigrants who came here.”

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Despite the current rage for Japanese ramen, Linda said, locals remain fond of Shiro’s saimin, which is a blend of homestyle cooking that Chinese and Japanese brought to Hawaii.

Shiro, who died in 2012 at 93, was also known for hundreds of little poems that came to him while he was cooking, usually offering homespun advice, or an appreciation of the precious things in life.

A different poem was published each week in his newspaper ads for 29 years, with the salutation always “Dear Hearts.” The best are hung in frames on the walls of his restaurant.

In his 1999 memoir, “Dear Hearts: Common Sense & Realistic Thinking,” Shiro said his restaurant drew customers because he injected an element of entertaintment: “I put pizzazz into my saimin,” he said, and, “My kitchen is my stage.”

He extended the pizzazz by producing several CDs, which he sold at his restaurant. With the help of Rendez-Vous Recording, Shiro sang Hawaiian and Japanese songs, and his favorite oldies, accompanying himself on ukulele, his daughter said.

He started wearing bright, glitzy ensembles as he grew older and the restaurant garnered awards and other earmarks of success.

“He was the craziest guy you ever met,” Linda said with a smile.

WHEN LINDA started working at the restaurant full time in 1983, she began modernizing the mom-and-pop operation. Things had been very casually run, with waitresses calling out their orders to cooks, who had to be geniuses to keep track of them all, she said.

“I forced them to convert to computers. I had to fight the old ladies; they just hated me. They thought I was a hotshot coming in from nowhere, and they were so afraid to touch the computers.”

In 1990, Linda took over the four branches open at the time — including outlets in Waipahu (closed in 2014 after 29 years), and the Dillingham area (closed in 2005 after eight).

“I got to love doing this,” she said.

In the end, her parents used to say “they always had the guts, but I put in the brains.”

Linda’s three sons are carrying Shiro’s into a third generation. Her eldest, Bryce Fujimoto, has been general manager and head of the catering branch since 2008. Her youngest, Gavan Lee, manages the Ewa Beach restaurant, opened in 1996.

Middle son Joshua Lee runs the noodle factory in the Waipio Business Center that produces all of Shiro’s saimin, udon noodles and wonton wrappers.

Shiro bought so many noodles from the Sato family’s Five Star Noodle Factory in Kalihi, that when the owners retired in 1982, he bought the noodle recipe and the factory. He continued the old-school way of rolling out noodles by hand with an iron rod until he bought a machine from Japan in 1988; it is still in use, even though the factory was moved to Waipio three years ago.

Fujimoto has been working for Shiro’s since age 8.

“All I did was deliver water, and I got showered with tips from the servers.”

He learned every job, acquired business experience elsewhere, then returned as a manager in 2008.

“My grandpa always used to say: ‘Keep it simple, stupid.’

“I think it’s very important to carry places like these on because they’re dying, they’re a rarity. One by one all of the family and mom-and-pop restaurants are closing down. And pretty soon we’re just going to have only mainland chains all over the place. I’ve grown to care and really appreciate this crazy group of employees that we have here. And I tell people all the time I don’t think we’d know what we’d do with ourselves if we weren’t working.”

FUJIMOTO IS even carrying on the tradition of writing weekly poems, at his grandpa’s request. Here’s one from March 3, 2016:

“Dear Hearts,

A big mahalo to everyone continuing to support us. We know that the rail traffic is crazy and the roads are ‘all buss.’

We will continue to try and offer good service and food. And maybe even a joke or two to keep you in a good mood.

Everyone has a job to do and we accept ours. Come get some laulau and poi before the bugga sours.

Sincerely, Bryce Saimin Jr.”