The thing about creating your dream business is, well, it’s hard work. Really, really hard work. Up at dawn, last to leave, and no days off, by the way. David and Sheri Trentlage are doing just that in the heart
The thing about creating your dream business is, well, it’s hard work.
Really, really hard work. Up at dawn, last to leave, and no days off, by the way.
David and Sheri Trentlage are doing just that in the heart of Old Koloa Town. The owners of the recently opened Garden Island Grille, formerly Tomkats, are knees deep in fulfilling their lifelong wish of running their own restaurant, but it’s taken a ton of commitment to get there.
Like gutting the whole place and building it anew, for starters.
“That was the easy part, David said, “even though we thought it was hard at the time.”
But after seven months of renovation, the restaurant opened Oct. 5 with a distinctly Hawaiian flair. Local maple, Purple Heart, sapala and bamboo tables, fences and bartop give off a unique outdoor feel. And you are almost outdoors, as there’s an open roof courtyard lush with greenery in the middle of the place, though you have to get there by walking through a shopping center.
“We really invested a lot in this place to make it nice and clean and fresh and new,” Sheri said. “We actually built from the dirt floor up — everything.”
The menu the Michigan couple wanted was quality food at reasonable prices. Familiar staples like club sandwiches — with soft bread- fish tacos, fish and chips and burgers, cost around $20.
It opens at 11:30 a.m. And dinner starts at 5 p.m. and runs until 11. Live music starts at 8 p.m. and is usually contemporary Hawaiian music played in the very courtyard that gives the locale that outdoor yet secluded feel.
“We just made a decision to do it right,” said Sheri, who, like her husband, traded in their former professional careers to run a restaurant for the first time — he a plumber she in real estate and health care.
The look they went for is old Hawaii, and the menu is local, too. They buy local meats, Kauai Shrimp and herbs and fruit around the island as well. Hawaiian beers on tap? You bet, including Primo. The wooden bar itself is so smooth and curved it almost looks like a perfect surfboard. In the back, past the tables where the chairs from the original Coco Palms are, is a wall dedicated to all the films and TV shows filmed on Kauai, complete with photos, so it’s borderline museum-esque.
“I wanted to own a restaurant and bar my whole life,” said David, who traded 30 years of plumbing for the opportunity in March after visiting Kauai several times. “I love to know people are having a good time and if they’re doing it in your establishment, awesome.”
Tomkats was known for being a late night spot. The Garden Island Grille will keep late night bar hours after it’s fully staffed and celebrates its grand opening in later this month. It will stay open until 1 a.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Meantime, the couple is logging long hours as they build their team — they have 22 on staff but are looking for three or four more, either chefs, bartenders or waitstaff.
“So far, 98, 99 percent of the time we’ve been able to do that,” Sheri said of delivering a satisfying meal and experience to customers since being introduced to the Koloa community.”
“We’ve met a ton of good people,” David said.
The Garden Island Grille is at 5204 Koloa Road. Info: 742-8887.
