Whereas I had good luck and enjoyed tracking down Fong’s Store in the Up Country of Maui, my second search for an old time Maui store was a little bit more of an adventure. Here is why.
The Wailea Marriott where we stayed in Maui featured the Humble Kitchin Restaurant owned by famed Hawaiian celebrity chef Roy Yamaguchi.
As I checked out the restaurant I noticed this posted on the wall
Naturally, it made me curious about Roys’ Grandparents’ store. I found the following in an article on how Roy got his start:
I asked a lady working at the Marriott front desk if she knew anything about the Yamaguchi Store in Wailuka and she laughed as she said “Of course. I grew up and still live in Wailuka. I was in the Yamaguchi Store just about everyday of my childhood. Grandma Yamaguchi was like a family member to me.”
When I asked her if it was still open she said “No, it had been an Oriental Store for a while but was now closed. It was located on Lower Main Street just down from the restaurant Tiffany’s.“
Catching up with Ryan, who knew about and had been to Tiffany’s, we headed to Wailuka. Sure enough, we found Tiffany’s and just down from there the Ohana Mini Market that we bopped into.
We had a good time talking to Adele but she was not sure about the Yamaguchi connection.
Too, my front desk lady had said that the Yamaguchi store was now closed.
While we were having lunch at Tiffany’s, our waitress verified with some of her “old timers” at the bar, that the old Yamaguchi Store was a block over from the Ohana Market that we had visited.
I then returned there and took this photo. (I later confirmed with the front desk Marriiott lady that it was the old Yamaguchi Store.)
As for reminiscing about the Yamaguchi Store in general and Grandma Yamaguchi specifically, here is an excellent article (click here.) (Note that I would include some excerpts from the article, but the material is copyrighted, so I will leave it to you to track it down and read for yourself. Also, the website containing the article, Alohaworld.com, is well worth spending some time checking out.)
Remember this lady? (As far as I know, the Wailuka, Maui restaurant is not connected in any way with her.) This tune of hers was a Billboard Number 1 hit for two weeks in 1987.