Small Business

Dolphins With Dinner

There aren’t many places you can feed dolphins one minute, then, in the next, bite into a juicy sirloin burger with truffled tater tots while listening to live jazz. You can do this in a single afternoon at The Kahala…

Helping Family Businesses

There is no typical family business in Hawaii – they are as diverse as the state itself. But each has at least one powerful strength and one potentially crippling drawback: the family itself. Michael Miyahira, the founder of Business Strategies,…

Tealet: Startup in a Cup

When you think of innovative startups, what usually comes to mind are tech companies that create something new – a mini-revolution. Instead of high-tech, think about tea, one of the oldest drinks on the planet. That’s what Elyse Petersen does:…

Girls Are Puri-tty Kura-zy for Purikura

Taking pictures with friends has always been fun, but taking pictures with purikura makes it a blast. Purikura are customizable photo stickers printed from special photo booths at the Funpix store at the McCully Shopping Center. You pick the backgrounds…

Winning Play

Football season is prime time for sports bars' bottom line Baseball may be “America’s pastime,” and basketball and soccer reign as the most popular sports globally, but for sports bar owners in Hawaii there is no dispute: Football reigns supreme. “Football is crucial for us,” says Mike…

Tiny Cameras

Maurice Kondo has been collecting things since he grew up on the Hamakua Coast. “My elementary school teacher would tell me, ‘Small things entertain small minds,’ ” jokes Kondo, a principal at INK Architects, whose office at Dole Cannery is a menagerie of treasures,…

Ninja Skills

Adult’s definition of parkour: a noncompetitive sport that builds coordination, strength, patience and discipline, while emphasizing safety, community and creativity. Kid’s definition of parkour: ninja skills and Spiderman training. Parkour, which originated less than a generation ago in the immigrant-rich suburbs outside of Paris,…

Inspired by the World Around Her

What started as a pastime collecting shells on the beach in Sydney, Australia, has turned into a jewelry line featured last year in the pages of Sports Illustrated’s famous swimsuit edition. Marylea Conrad, founder of the line called [ki•ele], is still in shock. “Being featured in the…

Waterman Since Boyhood

Corbett Kalama sits in his one-man outrigger canoe six miles off Kailua Bay, surrounded by porpoises dancing on their tails. For most people, it’s a fantasy, but, for Kalama, it really happens. “At a young age, my father showed me how to interact with the dolphins in a special way,”…

The Rise of Kau Coffee

Loreto “Lorie” Obra and her husband, Restituto “Rusty” Obra, were unlikely coffee farmers. They had emigrated from the Philippines to New Jersey in 1972 to begin their careers, Rusty as a chemist and Lorie as a medical technologist. However, while…

Buy A Coffee Farm in Kona

Kena Coffee Farm sits on a country lane that meanders through picturesque coffee and macadamia orchards. The 4.89-acre farm in Kealakekua includes 1,164 coffee trees, 39 macadamia trees and numerous producing fruit…