For 45 years, Itsu’s Fishing Supplies in Hilo has dished up Hilo favorites, including plate lunches, gravy burgers, hot dogs, chili and shave ice.
For 45 years, Itsu’s Fishing Supplies in Hilo has dished up Hilo favorites, including plate lunches, gravy burgers, hot dogs, chili and shave ice.
At the close of business Friday, owners Wade and Gwen Kitamura will hang their own “Gone Fishing” sign and enjoy a well-deserved retirement.
The Kitamuras have been quietly informing their regulars, but as of Monday, the news hadn’t yet gone viral on social media or the “coconut wireless” — word-of-mouth, local style.
“We’ve been trying to keep it quiet. We didn’t want to get slammed like Kawate’s, just fade into the sunset,” Wade Kitamura said Monday as the couple served and bantered with a steady stream of lunchtime patrons. He was referring to Kawate Seed Shop, which announced its closure on Facebook last April, causing lines reminiscent of banks the first day of the month before direct deposit.
The Kitamuras will lease their Piilani Street store to new operators they describe as “a local couple,” whom they said would continue Itsu’s time-tested recipes, including their legendary Wednesday staple, Korean chicken. It’s uncertain, however, if the new folks will make shave ice — or as many Hiloans prefer to call it, “ice shave.”
“We’re taking the machine with us. It’s an antique. It’s ours. That and our old cash register,” Wade Kitamura said.
The store will close for a couple of weeks and the new management should reopen April 1.
“Our regulars are all sad,” Gwen Kitamura said. “We’re going to miss the customers. You notice, we know all their names.”
“Some of them, like Dustin, we’ve seen from small-kid time,” her husband added, referring to off-duty police officer Dustin Chaves, who was getting gravy burgers and talking story with the owners.
“I love coming here,” Chaves said. He’s done so “as long as I can remember, since I was about 3 years old.”
“When I was little I used to come with my grandparents, come and get shave ice,” added another longtime customer, Francine Vargas Valente. Unlike some, she had no hesitation about her fave: “Coconut with azuki beans and ice cream with the hot dog on the side.”
Darryl Balai has been an Itsu’s regular “since high school.”
“I used to come here when there was fishing supplies. That was way back then. This used to be the hot dog, coffee stop. Shave ice, too,” he said. Asked about his favorite flavor of shave ice, Balai replied “rainbow.”
Asked about the Kitamuras’ retirement, Balai smiled and replied, “It’s OK. They deserve it.”
Russell Kohashi described the occasion as “so sad.”
“Food’s good. Never had a bad meal,” he said. “When I’m off, I try to come and get shave ice.”
His favorite flavor?
“Strawberry.”
Strawberry also was the reply given by a blue-collar worker in steel-toe boots and hard hat who declined to give his name, saying “I’m not supposed to be getting lunch.”
“We’ll miss the shave ice. We used to come for fishing stuff, as well,” he said.
Itsu’s is named after Wade Kitamura’s father, Itsuo “Itsu” Kitamura. In addition, Wade Kitamura’s middle name is Itsuku, Gwen Kitamura said, joking about “the two Itsus.” The name of the business remains Itsu’s Fishing Supplies even though the store hasn’t actually sold fishing gear for about a decade.
“We used to do a lot of fishing business,” Wade Kitamura said. “They all buy online now.”
Through the decades, the Kitamuras rolled with the changes, including lean years during the Great Recession.
“It was touch-and-go at the time,” Gwen Kitamura said. “This is a small business. We don’t have much of a cushion, but we managed. My accountant told me, ‘You can make this business survive, that’s an accomplishment.’ And we did.”
A customer who calls himself “Kimbo” — like the late, legendary fighter Kimbo Slice, “but nice” — said even though the business will remain, things won’t be the same.
“Great food, you know, awesome service. They always call us by our names. It makes us feel like family, you know,” he said.
Family is the key for the Kitamuras. They have two sons, Tracy and Kenny, and a daughter, Toni, who’s a classical French chef at Waikiki’s upscale Michel’s at Colony Surf restaurant.
“Everybody tells me, ‘Why don’t you tell her to come home?’ I can’t afford her food,” Wade Kitamura quipped.
A framed copy of a Midweek article about her is prominently displayed, as are photos of their granddaughter, Keely Kitamura, a 19-year-old golfer at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, and 4-year-old grandson, Kaye. In addition, Chef Toni is expecting her first child, the couple said.
In addition to more family time, Gwen Kitamura, a registered nurse, said she might return to school to complete her studies in administration of justice, which were interrupted to help her husband run the store.
“I’m still young enough, hopefully,” she said, smiling.
The couple golfs and Wade Kitamura is a hunter.
“I want to do some of the things I used to do. First, I’ve got to get in shape,” he said. “Forty-five years, that’s a long time. Some tell me, ‘You’re gonna be bored.’ I don’t think so.”
Chaves described the occasion as bittersweet “because of the nostalgia.”
“They need to live their life. They need to keep going, have fun,” he said. “But thank you for the years of service, the love and the food and taking care of everybody. It was always great.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.