[ HAWAII AT WORK ]
Linda Armour Wakamaya, owner of Clam Bake Hawaiian Style Inc., has been in business for 26 years offering full-service catering on Oahu and Maui.
Clambake
26 years strong
We've been around for 26 years. We were in Kaneohe for 25 1/2 years. Now we're over in Kailua. We're not totally settled. We're right behind All Pool and Spa on Kapaa Quarry Road.
CORRECTION
Wednesday, July 21, 2004A photo caption on Page C1 in yesterday's morning edition incorrectly spelled the last name of Linda Armour Wakayama as Wakamaya.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin strives to make its news report fair and accurate. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, call Editor Frank Bridgewater at 529-4791 or email him at corrections@starbulletin.com.But that's not our address. Our address is Kalanianaole Highway. If you went to our address, you'd end up in Waimanalo. Our suppliers, they're still getting lost.
We've been doing this for 26 years, and we're still going strong. We've got a bunch of suggested menus.
Linda Armour Wakayama
Title: OwnerCompany: Clam Bake Hawaiian Style Inc.
Web site: www.clambakecatering.com
It started out as the original clambake -- lobster, crab, chicken, bouillabaisse, corn, potatoes, etc. Since that time, it's expanded into full-service catering, breakfast, lunch, dinner, pupus, and we still do the traditional clambake. We really have the whole spectrum.
I'm from the East Coast originally. During summers, I worked clambakes in Maine. I came to Hawaii to go to UH and never left.
I was in advertising at the time, and one of my clients started a company called Clam Bake Hawaii or something like that. But he didn't have any equipment. He went to people's houses and dug the holes and did it imu style. That took a lot of labor. Then he left and went to work on the Alaska pipeline, and there were a lot of customers with reservations for a clambake.
My ex-husband said he could build an above-ground lined imu. And that's how we got started.
I'm the owner, and the man who's been working with me for the past 23 years, Mark Tawata, runs our operation on Maui. He's been on Maui for the last 20 years. He's like a son to me. We opened in Maui in 1982, so 22 years.
We do everything. We do weddings, we do company parties, we do baby's first birthdays, any time there's a reason for people to get together and eat.
I did a party of 2,500. "Oh my gosh" is right. We try to keep our minimum of 20, but if there's less than 20, there's an extra cost for my labor. I guess 50 seems to be the average size. We just did a wedding for 300 last week. Last Friday, we did one for eight. So it really varies. We do one for the YWCA and YMCA.
One of my very first clambakes was Who's Who International. They had me do a clambake at the sandbar in Kaneohe Bay. We had to go out at high tide so we could get the boats close enough. Then we had the party at low tide. We ate at midnight.
Mostly people find us by word of mouth. But we're also in the Yellow Pages.
I do enjoy it; it's one of those business where people are 99 percent of the time in a good mood because they're planning a fun function. It's a good business to be in.
Since the beginning, everything's gotten more expensive. When I first went into business, I was paying $7.25 a pound for lobster. Last week, it was $18.25, and that was for spiny lobsters, not live Maine lobsters.
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