KAPA‘A — Even the employees were surprised. Then there were all the musicians, Mexican food aficionados and cool kids who didn’t see it coming either. On Saturday night the owner of Shaka Tacos, Al Alamodian, said his restaurant would be
KAPA‘A — Even the employees were surprised. Then there were all the musicians, Mexican food aficionados and cool kids who didn’t see it coming either. On Saturday night the owner of Shaka Tacos, Al Alamodian, said his restaurant would be out of business in the morning.
“I put my heart into this place,” he said. “And it’s like a part of me is closing too.”
The Mexican-food restaurant located in old Kapa’a town on Kuhio Highway was a popular haunt that Kaua‘i’s best amateur and professional musicians frequented for improv jam sessions six nights a week. Music ranged from reggae to traditional Hawaiian, blues, jazz and rock and roll.
“This will create a vacuum for musicians in the area,” said guitarist Jamie Nuñez. “It’s like they’ve all been suddenly displaced without any warning.”
Rumors about Shaka Taco’s closing began circulating Friday amongst the musicians. By the time it reached the restaurant’s employees many of them expressed anger about being kept in the dark.
“I was working just the other night and he didn’t mention a word about it,” said one employee who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I expected to work on Monday and then I get a text message about it shutting down from someone else.”
Alamodian said shutting down Shaka Tacos was a last-minute decision.
“Business was suffering and I couldn’t afford to keep it open any longer.”
He estimated sales decreased by 50 percent in 2009, compared to when the restaurant first opened in 2007.
“Things started going south around the time Aloha Airlines closed,” he said.
In the last three months a few food businesses in the area have closed and nearby Small Town Coffee and others have sliced their hours.
But some businesses have recently opened in Kapa‘a, including Da Kine Wine and The Eastside, and more appear to loom on the horizon, such as No. 1 Chinese.
Today the location’s new owners are set to begin work to make it into a pizzeria. According to property owner C.W. Boggs, his firm has been searching for a new business to lease the space for the past year and a half. It signed a deal with the new owners on Wednesday.
Those who know Alamodian refer to him as more of a musician than businessman.
“But that’s what made the place so special,” said saxophonist Denny Morouse, who has played with Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, John Lennon and Art Blakey. “Everything he did there he did for the music; it wasn’t about the money.”
Critics of Alamodian’s “loose” business-style believe he could have improved revenue at the restaurant with a liquor license.
“Go there any night of the week and you’d see people drinking beer or alcohol from the ABC next door,” said musician Jim Farrell, who played guitar at Shaka Tacos several times a week. “If it had a liquor license the place could have made a lot more money, but then Al would have to regulate the sound level and he didn’t want to sacrifice the freedom to play as loud as we wanted.”
Employee Zack Short said many of the patrons who frequented Shaka Tacos went there because it was a free place to hang out and listen to music.
“It’s too bad it’s going down,” he said. “In these hard economic times people need places like this.”
Alamodian said Shaka Tacos was his first business venture and if he had to do things again he’d do them differently.
“But I don’t regret creating a no-stress environment where people could come to play and listen just for the love of the music,” he said.
Alamodian’s art-first mentality is reminiscent of the Roxy Theater, which in the 1930s built the structures that Shaka Tacos and its surrounding businesses now occupy. The theater was built too big for the amount of people interested in attending it and eventually leased its space out to the Army in World War II. But since then there have been flashes of talent that came through, such as Jimi Hendrix in the ’70s. Hurricane Iniki destroyed the theater in ’92.
Devotees of the island’s arts and music venues remain optimistic that a similar scene will eventually sprout again.
“There’s too much energy not to,” said Nuñez.
Until then, Alamodian decided to wrap up his business the same way he began — with a burrito and the blues.
