They may have come in for an oil or tire change, but few customers could resist following their noses to the restaurant side of Wally Ho’s Garage & Grill in Aiea to address a sudden urge for sizzling burgers or banana bread just out of the oven.
Wally and his wife, Louise Ho, took over a small Standard Oil gas station on Kamehameha Highway in 1956, and it’s been a family operation ever since.
They expanded to a two-story building in 1960, adding an auto repair shop and living upstairs with their six children, who helped run the store. In 1996, they stopped pumping gas and converted to a repair shop-cum-restaurant.
“We grew up upstairs, all of us, in four bedrooms, two bathrooms,” said daughter Colleen Ho, who keeps the books and runs the business today. She said they loved working together as a family, which her father often said was the best kind of prosperity. Wally Ho often cited the message of teamwork and humility espoused by the late Father Kenneth Bray of Iolani School, Colleen added.
Alas, after more than 60 years, the end is approaching for the Aiea institution. The grill closes for good at 1 p.m. today and the garage will shut its doors in June, to the dismay of customers who’ve become like family, Colleen said.
It’s grown difficult to carry since the deaths of three family members: sister Willette Ho (2008), whose idea it was to start the restaurant; father Wally (2014); then brother Nathan (2016). “It’s been stressful after their deaths,” Colleen said. “I’m ready to retire; it’s been hard without them.”
Sharon Dodge, a regular patron of the auto repair and food services at Wally’s for nine years, came by last week to pick up a final loaf of Wally’s popular banana bread.
“I’ve never known a family to work so hard and that deserves to retire at last,” Dodge said. “I knew Wally when he was alive, it was such a joy to get to know him. He was so full of life, and I see that in his children. He used to tell me that you can have all the money in the world, but if you don’t have the love of a good family, you have nothing — it’s such a legacy.”
Colleen said they intended to close the business when she and boyfriend Sung Ahn, the mechanic who has been with them for 43 years, retire in June. But with the major drop in the grill’s business due to COVID-19, they decided to close the restaurant six months earlier.
Her mother, Louise, in good health at 87, is retired, as are Colleen’s sisters Maydene Ching and Sheldene Maze, who both worked in the restaurant, and brother Timmy, a former mechanic. Sheldene, the eldest sibling at 70, was working at the grill until the pandemic hit and catering orders dropped. In August, hours were cut to just 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays.
At its busiest, the garage employed four mechanics, but is down to just Ahn now; the kitchen had five workers, but now only has two. Employees have included Wally’s grandchildren and a few nonrelatives.
Colleen said it was her late sister Willette’s idea to open the restaurant. When the family stopped selling gas in 1996, Willette thought a restaurant would be a good way to keep the family working together. “She was a real hustler, and the creative one. She liked to do different dishes and tried to do new things.”
The interior of the building was renovated to install a kitchen and dining room where the gas station used to be, though the two car lanes for the gas pumps remain outside.
Sheldene’s daughter Donna Wasilewski runs the grill, with help from Katrina Corpuz, who’s been there four years. Sheldene, whose two other daughters also used to help in the kitchen, nods solemnly when talking about missing the close-knit experience of everyone pulling together.
Wasilewski relishes the memory of the rack of lamb and braised short ribs her Aunt Willette created. They’re still her favorite dishes, though no longer on the menu. After Willette died, the family tried to re-create her dishes without her recipes. “Between all of us we tried to get the recipes together — except for the rack of lamb,” Wasilewski added. “She was the only one who could do it.”
Today’s menu isn’t as diverse as when they offered kalua pig sandwiches with hoisin sauce and fried poke, but Wasilewski’s proud of the top-selling Korean garlic chicken, and the made-from-scratch hamburger steak and loco moco with deep brown gravy.
“This time of the year, we would have been very busy with catering,” Wasilewski said. At least the banana bread loaves are still flying out the door, each made with over a pound of bananas. “People say it’s the best they ever had.”
The carrot cake is a winner, too. Wasilewski’s passion is baking and cake decorating, with trial-and-error her main teacher, she said.
Now in her 50s, Wasilewski said she’s been around the family business since she was 6, learning to pump gas, change oil and fill tires when she got older, as did all her sisters and cousins. As an adult she’s worked there off and on for about 25 years, learning the most about how a business should be run from her grandparents.
“My grandfather was in charge of everything. He was here every day even when he retired, him and Grandma, checking on things and greeting customers. His nickname was ‘Smiler,’ because he was very friendly. He loved dealing with customers,” she said.
Colleen said her grandfather William Ho owned two other properties next to what is now Wally’s: a grocery store built in 1950 called Willy’s Market — “there was no Times Supermarket or anything at that time” — and Willy’s Restaurant, built in 1955 to serve Chinese-American food. William Ho’s other two sons ran those businesses. The market space is now leased to the retailers Runner’s Hi and Go Bananas; Dixie Grill has taken over the Willy’s Restaurant site.
Since an Instagram post a few weeks ago first mentioned the closing of Wally Ho’s, even customers from long ago have been swarming in for a last hamburger steak or other favorites. Colleen said her mother is not sure what will be done with the property.
“We’ll miss it and the customers — they’re pretty disappointed. That’s what is so hard,” she said. “Some are saying they’ll have to buy a new car now that they can no longer come for repairs. We really appreciate their business all these years. They’ve become like family.”
