comscore Uncle Clayโ€™s House of Pure Aloha exits Ala Moana Center
Crave | Top News

Uncle Clayโ€™s House of Pure Aloha exits Ala Moana Center

Honolulu Star-Advertiser logo
Unlimited access to premium stories for as low as $12.95 /mo.
Get It Now
  • CRAIG T. KOJIMA / 2017
                                Clayton Chang, left, and Bronson Chang, business partners in Uncle Clay’s House of Pure Aloha, have closed the Ala Moana location of their shave-ice business.

    CRAIG T. KOJIMA / 2017

    Clayton Chang, left, and Bronson Chang, business partners in Uncle Clayโ€™s House of Pure Aloha, have closed the Ala Moana location of their shave-ice business.

Uncle Clay’s House of Pure Aloha has closed its shave-ice shop at Ala Moana Center, citing a lack of business exacerbated by coronavirus slowdowns. 

“Even prior to the pandemic, the business had only been teetering on the brink of not making it,” co-owner Bronson Chang said in an Instagram post this weekend. “After COVID-19, sales dropped precipitously, especially losing our visitor market.”

View this post on Instagram

Dear HOPA โ€˜Ohana,โฃ โฃ We have news to share: ๐‡๐Ž๐๐€ ๐€๐ฅ๐š ๐Œ๐จ๐š๐ง๐š ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ง๐จ๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ž๐ซ๐ฆ๐š๐ง๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐œ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฌ๐ž๐. We know this may come as disappointing sad news to many especially during these already challenging times, so we want to focus on the good and positive.โฃ โฃ Even prior to the pandemic, the business had only been teetering on the brink of not making it. After COVID-19, sales dropped precipitously, especially losing our visitor market. You could say COVID-19 was the last straw that broke the camelโ€™s back. Weโ€™re Ala Moana Center for working with us to amicably terminate our lease.โฃ โฃ ๐‡๐Ž๐๐€ ๐€๐ฅ๐š ๐Œ๐จ๐š๐ง๐š ๐ฐ๐š๐ฌ ๐š ๐ƒ๐‘๐„๐€๐Œ ๐‚๐Ž๐Œ๐„ ๐“๐‘๐”๐„. From the moment the vision was born in late 2016 until now, it's truly been the ride of a lifetime. We constructed a brand new shop with a dedicated team of designers, architects, and contractors. We brought together and grew a team of HOPA servers and dished out delicious treats: HOPA shave ice, shave ice drinks, ice cream, and Alohasadas. Most importantly we served Pure Aloha to hundreds of thousands of โ€˜ohanaโ€”old & new, kamaโ€™aina & visitorsโ€”at our House at the most visited place in all of Hawai'i. We shared many happy moments, lots of laughter, and as Uncle likes to say โ€œPQTโ€ (โ€˜personal quality timeโ€™) together. We gave everything we had and so with all this, we hold our heads up high with proud smiles.โฃ โฃ ๐“๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐š๐ฌ ๐จ๐ง๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ฆ๐š๐๐ž ๐ฉ๐จ๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐›๐ฅ๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐ซ๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐ก ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐œ๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐ญ๐ฅ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ก๐ž๐š๐ซ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ก๐จ ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐ฎ๐ฌ: the Ala Moana Center team, investors, consultants & advisors, vendors, media, our HOPA team, our personal family & friends and most importantly our very loyal guests. ๐’๐จ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ, ๐ฐ๐ž ๐ฌ๐š๐ฒ ๐Œ๐€๐‡๐€๐‹๐Ž ๐๐”๐ˆ ๐‹๐Ž๐€ ๐ญ๐จ ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐›๐ž๐ฅ๐ข๐ž๐Ÿ, ๐œ๐š๐ซ๐ž, ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฉ๐š๐ญ๐ซ๐จ๐ง๐š๐ ๐ž.โฃ โฃ Even though HOPA Ala Moana is no longer, weโ€™ll continue serving you at the Original HOPA โ€˜Aina Haina. ๐—ช๐ž ๐š๐ฌ๐ค ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐œ๐จ๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ฎ๐ž๐ ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ there and look forward to serving you soon. HOPA!โฃ โฃ With Pure Aloha always,โฃ Uncle Clay & Bronson

A post shared by House of Pure Aloha (HOPA) (@uncleclays) on

Uncle Clay’s original location at Aina Haina Shopping Center will remain open.

Chang, the nephew and business partner of founder Clayton Chang, helped his uncle expand his brand, opening at Ala Moana as part of The Lanai food court in 2018.

Bronson Chang said the shopping center allowed them to “amicably terminate” their lease.

Comments (24)

By participating in online discussions you acknowledge that you have agreed to the Terms of Service. An insightful discussion of ideas and viewpoints is encouraged, but comments must be civil and in good taste, with no personal attacks. If your comments are inappropriate, you may be banned from posting. Report comments if you believe they do not follow our guidelines.

Having trouble with comments? Learn more here.

Click here to see our full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak. Submit your coronavirus news tip.

Be the first to know
Get web push notifications from Star-Advertiser when the next breaking story happens — it's FREE! You just need a supported web browser.
Subscribe for this feature

See the newest food hot spots! Sign up for the CRAVE email newsletter.

Scroll Up