KAPA‘A — Today, Friday, Oct. 22 is the day that energy from two sources will come together as one. From the time they met over a barrel of Pistachio nuts in a Sausalito, Calif. flea market, there was a magic
KAPA‘A — Today, Friday, Oct. 22 is the day that energy from two sources will come together as one.
From the time they met over a barrel of Pistachio nuts in a Sausalito, Calif. flea market, there was a magic that drew the pair together.
For the past 30 months, Cece and Michael Rickett have been together, but apart; Cece handling chores at the Killer Juice Bar located across the way from the Kapa‘a Neighborhood Center, while Michael tended the ovens at the Country Moon Rising bakery at the Roxy Square.
As close as the couple were in Kapa‘a, there was a distance between them, and although together in the sampling of products from the bakery being integrated into the offerings of the fruit stand and juice bar, they were apart.
Friday is the final day for the Killer Juice Bar in its familiar form, and after that Cece will join Michael at the bakery in Roxy Square. “We’ll be concentrating more, together,” Cece said.
The couple approaches Friday with mixed feelings, as Michael takes a juicy bite out of a starfruit while Cece disappears into the bowels of the corner juice bar to help an employee service a seemingly unending line of people.
“This has been a special, special time in our lives,” Cece said of all of the people who have touched their lives in the eight-year history of the juice bar. “We wouldn’t have been able to do it without them,” Cece reflected.
Michael explained that they’ll take a couple of weeks to clear their minds, but the Killer label will move to the Roxy Square bakery as will the Killer Bars that people have become accustomed to.
Arriving here in 1996 with a truck and the Killer label, the couple set out to do what they had done all their lives — sell fruit. Michael is quick to point out that the truck they arrived with was used by its owner to peddle fruit door-to-door in California, and before the truck, the peddling was done from a horse and buggy.
“It was time for a change,” the couple said of their move here. “I had been here before,” Cece said. “It was an unexplainable pull, but Kaua‘i was calling.”
“At first, we were in the parking lot,” Michael said, indicating a spot close to the Otsuka’s Furniture & Appliances parking lot along Kuhio Highway. “About a month later, we moved here (the corner spot across from the Kapa‘a Neighborhood Center). We were selling fruit, and what goes better with fresh fruit than a juice bar?”
Fruits that are ripening faster than customers can pick up are processed and frozen, forming the base for smoothies. Eventually, sandwiches utilizing bread from Country Moon Rising joined the menu.
“We borrowed money, and built this juice bar,” Michael said while Cece continued to crank out orders – “Bee pollen coming up,” a red cup being quickly thrust from behind a screened opening.
The Killer label came from a fruit stand in Mill Valley just outside of San Francisco, Michael explained. Green Giant was producing a super-sweet white corn that used to tout ‘killer’ on its label at the fruit stand, and Michael said customers used to drive by and ask, “What’s ‘killer’ today?”
The odyssey in Kapa‘a involved everyone, as Michael explained that employees brought forth suggestions for smoothie recipes that were eventually tried and incorporated into the Killer offerings.
During the odyssey, the couple was blessed with three sons, the oldest, Cece explained, is in Colorado going to school, the other two are at home at Kapa‘a High School, one a senior, the other a sophomore.
“They’ve been involved in every aspect of the business,” Cece pointed out. “That’s part of a family business. The oldest son has taken an interest in the business, learning about bread. The middle one is the strength — he has to move 5,000 pounds of flour that’s coming in today, and the youngest one is the cookie wrapper and bread slicer.”
“It was the school of hard knocks — wonderful knocks,” Michael said. “But, we have been blessed with people — wonderful people, from the customers, the employees, and the farmers. How can you tell George Mukai that we’re closing? Then, there’s Yaeko, the Yamaguchis, Walter and his father, the coconut guy, Eddie Banana, and the lady who brings mango from the Westside. We started out with nothing eight years ago, and it’s the people who made us what we are. It’s been a fun ride!”
“Together, we have strength,” the couple agreed.
Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@pulitzer.net.
