Used to be, a trip to Strawberry Connection meant negotiating that rabbit-warren of narrow streets in lower Kalihi, then praying to the parking gods.
Strawberry Connection
R.Field's heading windward
makes the move to
more comfortable digsBy Betty Shimabukuro
bshimabukuro@starbulletin.comA Strawberry Connection customer was motivated.
But next week, the quest for fancy foods gets a whole lot easier. Strawberry Connection is opening at Dole Cannery, a place of plentiful parking, right along the bus and Waikiki Trolley lines. A customer may still be motivated, but possibly to see a movie. Signature Theatres is right around the corner, offering the potential of something new for this gourmet grocery -- foot traffic.
Owners Becky Choy and John Stoudt are looking forward to another fringe benefit: air conditioning. "It's going to keep us going even longer," Stoudt says.
Not that you should think the old Strawberry Connection was something out of the Dark Ages. For six years, the warehouse-like store tucked away on Kahai Street was upscale, high-end and unique. It offered fresh herbs, specialty meats and vegetables, gourmet products of all kinds in boxes, bags, bottles, cans and jars.
The store has been closed since the end of March for the move. Many regular customers are in withdrawal, a situation compounded by the fact that opening day has been in flux since June. Right now they're aiming for the end of next week.And so the adventure continues for this pair -- partners since 1984 in what was at the time a brave new world of gourmet foods. They met when she was helping her mother run a shop in Oahu Market and he was a food and beverage manager for the Ilikai hotel. That may sound like the opening in a romance, but it's not, although Choy says the relationship can be as close as a marriage, complete with divorce-like overtones in times of stress.
It began with a question: "Why can't you get a good strawberry in this town?" Instead of just wondering why, they did something about it, becoming importers of premium strawberries.
And a business was born.
OK, it was more complicated than that, but neither one can explain how they came to believe a partnership would work, as their relationship didn't fit any business norm. They had never worked together, weren't longtime friends or family.
Years later, Choy and Stoudt admit they did things backward, with the plunge-ahead attitude of youth. "We played it real stupid," is Stoudt's harsher evaluation. "We didn't approach any banks -- we should have. We should have used their money instead of ours."They emptied their bank accounts to fund that first enterprise, but Stoudt says they were financially stable and growing within three years.
Once you master the art of importing strawberries, he confides, you can do pretty much anything. "They're easy to bruise, they're susceptible to heat and people want shelf life out of them."
Through a complicated process involving air-cooled delivery vans and thermal wraps for the plane flight over, the berries would reach Strawberry Connection safely the day after they were picked, then be sent to such buyers as Anna Miller's and the Halekulani.
At the height of the season, Stoudt was on the phone every night with his grower, bringing in 182 flats a day.
But strawberries were only the beginning. Next came specialty greens, baby beans, different colored beets. Then -- fast-forwarding a bit to the opening of the Kahai Street store -- Strawberry Connection expanded from wholesale to retail, but always with a clear idea of its identity
"A lot of people would come in and ask for things -- all kinds of things, like rattlesnake meat," Stoudt says. "But that's not where we were going. We wanted to go in the direction of upscale products."
This means no polar bear meat. Yes to ostrich meat, no to seal meat. "We don't want to be the weird-stuff store."
But enough of the past, whither the future?
The Dole location is actually half the size of the old store, but because they were able to design it to their specs, it's a more efficient space, meaning they can fit in more stuff.
Choy says they're holding onto their full inventory of specialty products and a deli offering salads, sandwiches, soups and "quick bites."
New at the new Strawberry Connection: Tabletop flower arrangements and dining displays from Once Upon a Table, which can also rent you a tent and other large-scale party needs. Designer breads from Koko Head Foods (think olive, onion and cheese loaves). Heirloom tomatoes in several varieties grown in Waialua. Pastas for the wheat-intolerant. A tea bar. Wine and beer (not right away, but in time for the holidays).
Choy says their aim remains to keep the business intimate -- a specialty shop, not a supermarket. Dole Cannery expands their potential customer base, but it's not the highest traffic, most upscale location in town, she says, and that was a deliberate choice. While they want to be more accessible, they don't want loyal customers turned off by crowded aisles.
Their business approach has grown more sophisticated. They work with banks now, even a business consultant. Stoudt says they have spread sheets for the length of their 10-year lease marked with "very aggressive goals."
To seal the deal, Choy had their astrological charts done. The verdict of the stars: They are perfectly compatible.
Another gourmet grocery on the move is R. Field Wine Co., which opens an outlet at Foodland in Kailua in early August. R. Field’s gourmet
cuisine is taking the trek
to the Windward sideOwner Richard Field's partnership with Foodland began in 1998 when he moved his shop from Ward Centre to the supermarket's Beretania Street location. But he's been in this line of retailing since 1977 and says the key is staying ahead of a market that is growing more sophisticated.
"When you go back five years, many of the things considered gourmet are mainstream now," he says. What were specialty foods are now sold in regular grocery stores or in discount stores such as Costco. "Retailers will continue to move the market up. While that sounds like a bad thing for the small specialty retailer, it's not. The more people are willing to treat themselves, the more it helps the market."
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