GEORGE SHIGEO KAWAMOTO /
1906-2002

Restaurateur made landmark
out of Maui’s Tasty Crust

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By Gary T. Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.com

George Shigeo Kawamoto, who turned a bakery into the popular Tasty Crust Restaurant on Maui, died May 29 at Maui Memorial Medical Center, a week short of his 96th birthday.

Kawamoto was known for special recipes he created for the local-style restaurant that has become a Wailuku landmark. The restaurant's specialties included pancakes and "French Steak," thinly sliced beef cooked in an egg-and-bread-crumb sauce and served with fried onions, said Kawamoto's daughter, June Ito.

Kawamoto was born in Hilo and went to Japan for his education in the 1930s. He returned to Hilo afterward and worked for a short time in the pineapple fields before leaving his parents and jumping on a cargo ship to Maui.

He worked for Toda Drugs in Kahului as a pharmacist assistant and began a photography business.

Kawamoto spent a year in an internment camp on Sand Island on Oahu and was about to be shipped to the mainland when World War II ended, Ito said.

Ito said her father never displayed any animosity toward the United States for his incarceration during the war and moved forward with his life on Maui.

After the war, Kawamoto bought Tasty Crust bakery from Maui businessman Joe Kozuki and expanded it with soda fountain service and eventually into a restaurant, Ito said. He sold the Mill Street restaurant in the 1960s.

Kawamoto is survived by daughters June Ito of Aiea and Mae Karimoto of Wailuku, and two granddaughters, Denise Karimoto and Yvette Muta. A private service was held.