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TheBuzz
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An accidental
restaurateur
scores big
You might call Peter Kim an accidental restaurateur.He opened Cheeseburger Factory and Steak & Fish Co., his 10th and 11th restaurant brands, June 10 in Makai Market at Ala Moana Center. It is a dual operation with a common salad bar at the corner.
"I never had the intention to stay in Hawaii. I was going back to the mainland for a job," said the former football player. He was a kicker for Kaiser High, the University of Hawaii and the University of Alabama under legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant.
After graduation from Alabama, Kim was home waiting to be placed as an agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
"I had six months to kill and my family wanted to start a restaurant," he said.
Restaurateur Peter Kim opened his 10th and 11th restaurant brands this month at the Makai Market in Ala Moana Center.
Kim acknowledges that Ala Moana leasing agent Egan Nishimoto took a huge leap of faith in signing a restaurant with such a short track record. In a year, however, the Ala Moana Yummy's recorded the highest volume of sales per square foot and was third in overall sales in Makai Market.
"I think the time was right. There was a lot of luck there."
Kim owns half a dozen Yummy's while his six sisters own the others. There are two licensed Yummy's restaurants in Japan, for a total of 17.
His company, PBHK Inc., owns and operates 17 other restaurants -- both original concepts and national franchises including Baskin-Robbins, Bear's Drive-In, Chow Mein Express, KFC, Lahaina Chicken Co., Mama's Spaghetti House, Sbarro Pizza and Subway.
Underneath all the brands is one mission. "We serve restaurant-quality food at a fast-food pace, with fast-food pricing," said Kim.
Kim at one time was the food service provider for Aloha Stadium. "All this gray hair came from that," he laughed.
"From that experience we gained a lot of confidence," which the company took into its partnership with Sodexho USA, the food service operator at the University of Hawaii at Manoa's Campus Center.
As a former UH student, he laughed recalling that Saga, the old Campus Center food service provider, was referred to by students as Saga-rrhea. He was confident his company could do better.
The food court he envisioned was constructed at breakneck speed and opened in 28 days last fall with four of his restaurants, a salad bar and grab-and-go snacks such as musubi.
Of his more than 200 employees, many have been with him more than 10 years. He believes fair treatment and a commitment to improving their lives contributes to his low turnover rate.
"We try very hard not to fire people." If there is a concern, the company will try to help the employee until options are exhausted. "If one of us has to lose, it has to be the employer. We can survive and keep going. I don't want to hurt my employee," he said.
His other restaurants generally offer comfort food in different genres. Bear's serves plate-lunch-cuisine; Lahaina Chicken Co. serves fried chicken, roasted chicken, prime rib and baby back ribs; Mama's Spaghetti House serves Italian pasta dishes from basic spaghetti to Lobster Italiano for $9.49.
"If I served that on a ceramic plate, I could charge $21.95," he said, as a customer was handed a plate mounded with steaming, fragrant seafood.
The Cheeseburger Factory's double cheese burgers start at $6.29 ... while around the corner at Steak & Fish, a 7- to 8-ounce, charbroiled, choice rib eye steak sells for $9.99. Other cuts of beef and a variety of fish and shellfish are also offered.
Will he make money selling steaks for 10 bucks? "I don't know," he laughed. He'll review all the numbers after a month's operation.
Building the business has occupied Kim's time for the past two years.
"The next thing is, we need to find out ways to more efficiently operate ... and how to help employees better their lives."
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