Kitada’s Kau Kau Korner

Oct 7

One of Makawao’s oldest businesses, Kitada’s conjures a heartwarming reminder of days gone by. With its homey clutter, hand-written signs, coffee cups stacked on wooden shelves and antique cooking utensils located in the front window, Kitada’s was Makawao’s small town eatery that served great food with a friendly smile for everyone. Takeshi and Suteko Kitada established the restaurant in 1946. For a brief time, they offered groceries and fishing gear, eventually becoming a restaurant that served breakfast and lunch to shopkeepers, mechanics, cowboys, school children and Upcountry folks. They were known for their local comfort food – their most popular items being local-style hamburger steak, saimin and beef hekka, served “plate lunch style” with the traditional macaroni salad, salted cabbage and two scoops of rice. As years went by, little changed at Kitada’s even after Takeshi and Suteko were gone. The crew continued to serve the community, led by their daughter Ethel Nobu Hotema and her brother Wilfred. They closed in 2007 after 60 years of business. Always focused on the community, Kitada’s wanted to honor Makawao by raising the bar of current coffee standards and bringing back the oldstyle customer-centered feel. The wall behind the counter was lined with photographs of fans and friends as well as thank you notes from kekei whose school projects received support from the Kitada family. Times have changed. Kitada’s former location on 3617 Baldwin Avenue is now occupied by the Sip Me coffee store.

KITADA’S KAU KAU KORNER. Ethel’s gigantic smile and Mrs. Kitada’s giant heart. The most delicious food I’ve ever tasted. Two reasons I didn’t eat there every day: It would have killed me, being smothered in beef gravy and loaded up with macaroni sa… — KITADA’S KAU KAU KORNER.
Ethel’s gigantic smile and Mrs. Kitada’s giant heart. The most delicious food I’ve ever tasted. Two reasons I didn’t eat there every day: It would have killed me, being smothered in beef gravy and loaded up with macaroni salad, heavily flavored with Best Foods mayonnaise. Secondly, they would never take my money, ever! . . . and then battle with me for trying to leave a tip. I didn’t want to take advantage. The Kitadas were the best part of Makawao to me. If anyone ever made me feel loved it was them. I miss you. — Eddie Flotte. Makawao artist

“Kitada’s makes the best saimin on Maui, according to all the locals. It’s across from the Makawao Steak House. Open daily 6 am to 1:30 pm. The 77-year-old owner, Takeshi Kitada, does all the prep work himself. Walk in, pour yourself a glass of water, and take a hardboard-topped table. The saimin is delicious and only $2. There are plate lunches, too. The walls have paintings of Upcountry by local artists: most show more heart than talent. Bus your own table while Kitada-san calculates your bill on an abacus. His birthday, May 25 has become a town event.”

— Printed in Spirit of Aloha, circa 1984

Takeshi Kitada was born in Wailuku in 1907. At age five, his family moved to Japan where he was raised and educated in the traditional Japanese way. Returning to Hawai‘i in 1927, he became Makawao’s Japanese teacher. (The Japanese school was located where the Makawao Hongwanji now stands, across from the post office.) In 1938 Takashi married Suteko Matsuo, a 22-year-old woman who lived in Hana and worked in a tailor shop. It was shimpai, an arranged marriage, a common practice. Suteko moved to Makawao, and the marriage worked well. The Japanese school closed in 1942 after the declaration of war with Japan. Since he was born in Hawai‘i, Takeshi was not required to go to a relocation camp. During the war he was a laborer and cannery worker for Maui Pineapple Company. Later he became a masseur and had a massage parlor in Kahului. Suteko claimed that her move from sea level to Upcountry improved her woman’s intuition. She detected that Takeshi had a yearning to open a store. In 1947 the Kitadas – by this time parents of Ethel (age 7), Lorraine (age 4) and Wilfred (age 2) – built the store that would become Kitada’s Kau Kau Korner. Suteko described their grocery store: “We had aloha shirts, mu‘umu‘u, slippers, fishing supplies and hardly any people.” During the 1950s they we started seerving food, starting with saimin and lunch and gradually adding more and more items. Eventually Kitada’s officially became a restaurant. Running a restaurant was harder work than running a grocery store. Ethel remembers her father going to work at 3 am to start the food preparation. Soon residents and workers of nearby businesses and ranches tried out the new diner, liked what they got and came back for more . . . and more and more.

Takeshi and Suteko Kitada, 1979 Notice the black abacus on the counter. Takeshi used it to total the guest checks.

Lorraine and Ethel at the ice cream counter

Takeshi Kitada’s eightieth birthday party. Mayor Tavares is reading the card; Takeshi is front on the right.

For eight years during the 1090s, May 25 was a big day in Makawao: Takeshi Kitada’s birthday party. The late Gary Moore, a Makawao merchant, described it as “a great way for everybody to get together and share aloha. The first year we walked into the restaurant and stuck balloons all over the place. We bought in a cake from Komoda’s that had Mount Fuji on it with little bridges and fish. It was so big you could have parked a truck in it. Everybody had so much fun, the next year we did it again. We had Mayor Hannibal Tavares, who was raised in Makawao, come on the radio to give Kitada his best wishes. Last year I called the mayor and asked if there was a special little something that he could do again. There was – he showed up.” In July, 1996, more than 300 people gathered at the Maui Beach Hotel in Kahului for a surprise 80th birthday for Suteko Kitada. Former mayor Hannibal Tavares emceed the evening that was filled with good wishes and fond memories from Kitada customers and Makawao business folk. Mrs. Kitada presented a lei to Gary Moore who organized the event as well as the many annual birthdays for her late husband.

Family photo, 1988. Back row: Wilfred, Suteko, Takeshi. Front row: Lorraine Takaoka, Ethel Hotema

The Kitada Family

Ethel, Sutedo, Takeshi in back; Wilfred and Lorraine in front, 1952

When Takeshi became ill in 1989, Ethel and her husband Shigeru Hotema began working in the restaurant full time and continued until 2007. After Takeshi died in 1992, Suteko worked into her senior years. She would wear a starched white apron and sit at the kitchen table where she could keep her eye on both food preparation and the customers with whom she loved to chat. After Suteko died in 2001, Ethel took full charge of Kitada’s along with her brother Wilfred, who also worked as a commercial fisherman, and his wife Pauline. Lorraine worked in the state government on Oahu for 45 years, retiring from the DLNR, Division of Aquatic Resources. Ethel closed the famous old time restaurant on April 23, 2007, after 60 years of happiness with friendly, regular customers. Ethel thanked them for coming and making her laugh for many wonderful years, saying, “It’s the atmosphere and the LOVE inside.”