HANAMA‘ULU — The Ellamar family was looking forward to having their own storefront. Joshua Ellamar and his dad, Ronald, had a plan to sell Kaua‘i-made Pueo Breads and Kamoa ‘Ukuleles from a storefront in the Hanama‘ulu Trading Company complex. Joshua
HANAMA‘ULU — The Ellamar family was looking forward to having their own storefront.
Joshua Ellamar and his dad, Ronald, had a plan to sell Kaua‘i-made Pueo Breads and Kamoa ‘Ukuleles from a storefront in the Hanama‘ulu Trading Company complex.
Joshua Ellamar said his family had just completed renovations on a new space for LMR Hawai‘i at Hanama‘ulu Trading Company and opened their doors for business Friday morning.
LMR, while a homonym of the family’s last name, is also an acronym for “Local Marketing Resource.”
As sales and distribution coordinator for Pueo Breads, Ellamar sells the breads around the island to restaurants and stores.
The family had a vision of selling fresh and day-old bread and ‘ukuleles in the main part of the shop, while Ronald Ellamar would provide ‘ukulele lessons in a side room of the shop.
By Friday afternoon, however, tragedy struck and the family watched in horror as the main part of the complex burned to the ground. The event also caused some fire damage and a lot of water damage to the new store.
After Ellamar helped alert several women in the beauty salon and a tenant in the apartment upstairs about the fire, he quickly ran back to his shop and rescued the most expensive items, moving them off site.
Determined to not entirely lose the family’s business, Ellamar quickly regrouped.
“We’ll go back to the old ways,” Ellamar said, “until we can open a new store.”
This means returning to working from his home for the time being.
Ellamar is starting up a “Bread Club,” which would offer organic Pueo Breads delivered directly the same morning they are baked, with no charge for delivery to customers island-wide.
According to the website, www.PueoBreads.com, Pueo Breads are preservative free and include varieties such as Feather Light Rice Bread, which is wheat and gluten-free and vegetarian; Heavenly Challah, which is vegetarian; Organic Dill Rye, which is a vegan bread; Organic Sourdough, which is a vegan bread; Organic Sprouted Multi-Grain, which is vegan, but contains honey; Pizza Crust, which is a gluten-free and vegetarian; and Hawaiian Sweet Bread, which is vegetarian.
Customers interested in joining the Bread Club can call 634-8196.
