“Local first, organic when possible, with aloha always.”
That was the business plan Ed Kenney crafted in 2000 for a restaurant he hoped to open someday. In 2005, it came to fruition with Town, the Kaimuki eatery that signaled an evolution in Honolulu’s restaurant scene.
On Saturday, after 15 years, the restaurant will serve its last meals, another casualty of the economic crash brought on by the coronavirus.
“Dave (Caldiero) and Ed cultivated an environment of thought in the kitchen and in the dining room,” said chef Mark “Gooch” Noguchi, who worked at Town from 2006 to 2009. “So many policy discussions about food happened at Town.”
The time was ripe for the values-based restaurant, a partnership of chefs Caldiero and Kenney. Hawaii’s farm-to-table movement was afoot, and restaurants could build on the establishment of Hawaii Regional Cuisine from a decade earlier, when 12 revolutionary chefs presented gourmet cuisine based on local flavors and the pristine products grown on Hawaii farms and caught in Hawaii waters.
“Alan (Wong), Roy (Yamaguchi), Sam (Choy), Bev (Gannon), Peter (Merriman) and all those other guys paved the way for us,” said Kenney.
THEN TOWN pivoted the spotlight in an important way. “Roy and Alan put Hawaii on the map. Town put Hawaii ingredients on the map,” said Noguchi.
Town’s mandate for food to be considered beyond a means to fill an appetite and a preference made demands on its clientele. Customers understood that the menu could change from day to day, and that that was a good thing, because Town served what farmers — local first — had available.
Just sitting down to a meal accepting that fact — of eating what was available and local — expanded the way diners regarded food. It forced an awareness of the community of growers, ranchers and fishers behind every plate, and in learning about them, the health of the land and ocean where they grew, raised and caught their food.
It showed diners that there was relevance in what they chose to put on their forks, and that everyone had a stake in the food system.
It has also helped that the food is delicious.
“We stripped down our food with simpler flavors, letting the ingredients shine. The local palate is unique; it likes big flavors — black beans, miso, shoyu, ginger. We’d put one turnip on a plate with a little bit of seasoning, and people would look at us and say, ‘What?’” Kenney recalled of the early days.
Noguchi said the simplicity was profound.
“The food was not pretentious. It was not about the chef. The restaurant honored the farmer and the ingredients. It was the first time that was done, and I think that is what is so important about Town.”
SINCE KINNEY and Caldiero’s social media announcement Nov. 1 of the closure, the restaurant has been overwhelmed with customers.
“Within hours, our (reservation) book filled out,” said Kenney.
Operating under COVID-19 restrictions has made it especially challenging to meet the demand. At half-capacity, the restaurant can accommodate 40 diners indoors and about 20 outside. “It’s an issue coupled with laying people off,” he said. “Now, we’re doing big numbers with a fraction of the staff.”
Kenney said it took “eight months of pondering” to make the decision to close.
“I don’t see how any restaurant in the U.S. or in Hawaii can turn a profit right now. The margins are so thin to begin with. Even before the stay-at-home orders, people were not going out.”
He said his company received a Paycheck Protection Program loan and took out a small-business loan. “I could have gotten more loans and stayed open, but we’d be open just to pay off those loans. It didn’t make sense.”
But the values of Town live on at Mud Hen Water and Kaimuki Superette, the two other restaurants owned by the partners, located across the street from Town on Waialae Avenue.
“In the giant equation, the other two spaces are staying open. One determining factor is that we own these buildings. The success of Town enabled us to purchase the buildings, and the bank has been extremely cooperative. It’s true that no restaurant is turning a profit, but we can endure,” Kenney said. “I think of these as something I can leave my kids.”
The legacy of Town also endures in chefs like Noguchi, who credits the restaurant with helping him develop his own values as a chef and a leader.
After Town, Noguchi went solo to open He‘eia Kea Pier General Store & Deli, followed by Mission Social Hall & Cafe. The restaurants were lauded for their focus on local products. (Both have since closed.) In 2012, Noguchi launched Pili Group, which offers catering and classes, and is involved heavily with community outreach. Through Pili, Noguchi and his wife, Amanda Corby Noguchi, run Chef Hui, which has been bringing chefs together during the pandemic to cook and distribute meals to the community. Noguchi also works at Punahou School as a food curriculum specialist, developing food and aina-based curriculum for grades K to 12.
“Working at Town catalyzed the beliefs inside me,” he said. “At all the other restaurants I worked, I learned technique, discipline, execution, commitment. The things I learned at Town were more metaphysical.”
Noguchi said he came up as a chef during an era when “being a chef was chauvinistic, masochistic. We were the last of the old-school generation.”
“I thrived in that environment. If you told me I sucked, I’d be better tomorrow. But I knew something was missing,” he said. “At Town, Dave walked in and made conversation with every employee. The team didn’t work in fear, it thrived in an arena of aloha.”
That Noguchi’s menus have always championed local ingredients is a clear reflection of the influence of Town. But it’s his community outreach and team-building style, such as in his work with Chef Hui, that illustrate how he’s taken lessons learned at the restaurant to make his own mark.
“Town made me realize you can be an aina-based chef. Most of us today have elements of sustainability. But putting community and home before yourself — it’s what got me woke. When I went off on my own, it pushed me to want to be better,” he said.
“Working at Town was my ‘aha’ moment.”
