A restaurant will close today after dinner service, as Violet, Dennis and Randy Yim hand the keys of Waimalu Chop Suey to new owners.
"We’re retiring," said Randy Yim, whose father, the late Mun Cho Yim, established the restaurant almost 50 years ago.
"He came from China with $5 in his pocket," Randy said.
The restaurant the elder Yim built put his children through private school and college. He worked every day, Randy said, through the day he died.
"The last day of his work I took him home and said, ‘OK Dad, see you tomorrow,’ but he died in his sleep." He was 87 when he died seven years ago.
A simple, humble and non-extravagant man, "he taught us to be like that, too," Randy said. "I’d like for people to remember him as a simple person that worked hard and achieved the American dream.
"I’m proud of him. … I’m thankful for what he did."
As for his mother, Violet, now 85, "she’s wrapping gau gee as we speak," Randy, 51, said Thursday. Brother Dennis will be 62 in February.
"It’s our time to leave," he said.
He declined to name the new owners and said although they will hire some Waimalu Chop Suey employees, he didn’t say how many, explaining that he didn’t feel it was his place to discuss the new owners’ plans.
"They’re going to use the name (Waimalu Chop Suey) and I hope they continue the way we did business," up to and including "the bambucha gau gee" for which the restaurant is famous.
"Your gau gee was so delicious," Deanna Chan posted on the restaurant’s MyAlohaVibe.com page Opens in a new tab. "I never had them with so much meat and so crispy."
MyAlohaVibe.com Opens in a new tab was established for local restaurants in part by the Hawaii Restaurant Association Opens in a new tab, with an eye toward smaller eateries with limited resources to direct toward an online presence.
Jonathan P. posted raves on Yelp.com Opens in a new tab about the eatery’s gau gee that someone brought to a dinner party. It was "the one food item that won my stomach’s heart," he said.
Da M. wrote of going to the restaurant for "the last 40 years," through four generations of family. "This was truly my best Chinese restaurant. Where will I go now?"
The failure rate in the restaurant industry is commonly cited as 90 percent and 95 percent, though a 2003 study Opens in a new tab by H.G. Parsa at Ohio State University found it to be closer to 60 percent.
"For anyone to have been in the business nearly 50 years deserves whatever recognition and more than they’ve ever gotten," said Roger Morey, new executive director of the Hawaii Restaurant Association.
"It’s people who have done that who really set the standard, not just for the restaurant industry but for business people in Hawaii," he said. "To be successful for that long is extraordinary."
Dennis, Randy and Violet Yim will miss the restaurant but look forward to retirement. "My first priority is my mom," Randy said. "My second priority is to find something part time," as well as to continue supporting his college-student daughter, he said.
"I’m looking forward to having holidays," he laughed.
MOJO WORKING
Mojo Barbershop will open its doors at 1157 Bethel St. near Chaplain Lane on Oct. 24, and will stage its grand opening on Nov. 4 in conjunction with First Friday.
The owners are not barbershop or cosmetology industry veterans. Rather, Matt Leo "works on hot rods. He’s a car enthusiast," said Marian Lee. Her background is in finance "and I used to be a stock analyst."
They were inspired to open a barbershop-slash-social-club-slash man-cave because Leo missed the barbershop he frequented when they lived in Portland, Ore., for 10 years.
Mojo is finalizing the hires of licensed barbers for the five-chair shop that will offer haircuts, straight-razor shaves followed by minted hot towels, and other services. The shop also will have a cosmetologist who will provide "hand and foot detailing," Lee said.
Just don’t ask about manscaping. Seriously.
Services will cost from $30 to $65 and the shop will take appointments as well as walk-ins.
Of the 83 Oahu barbershops listed in the Yellow Pages, six of them are downtown and about half of those are in Chinatown. Leo and Lee felt the downtown area best fit their concept, "especially for all the businessmen that can just walk over on their lunch break, or after work," Lee said.
The company is fully online, with a website Opens in a new tab, a blog Opens in a new tab, a Facebook page Opens in a new tab, a Twitter account Opens in a new tab and a "check-in" page Opens in a new tab on geolocation site Foursquare.
Reach Erika Engle at erika@staradvertiser.com.
