{"id":2139,"date":"2023-09-20T11:30:40","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T21:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekhawaii\/?p=2139"},"modified":"2023-09-20T11:31:14","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T21:31:14","slug":"spencecliff-restaurants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekhawaii\/spencecliff-restaurants\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gang\u2019s Getting Back Together"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

(Top, standing from left) Alan Ho, owner of Jade Dynasty Seafood Restaurant and Dada Spa, Salon and Cafe, and former Spencecliff employee; Kandi Miranda, entrepreneur and niece of former Spencecliff employee; Chantal Moearii Weaver, daughter of Spencecliff founder Spencer Weaver Jr.; Wendy Loh, entrepreneur and former Spencecliff employee; Shelly Seleni, entrepreneur and daughter of Spencecliff\u2000fire dancer Malo Seleni; and L&L Hawaiian Barbecue co-founder and former Spencecliff employee Eddie Flores Jr.; (seated from left) Kalo Mataele-Soukop, entrepreneur and former Spencecliff Polynesian dancer; and Norman Nam, Cinnamon\u2019s Restaurant owner and former Spencecliff employee. PHOTO BY Anthony Consillio<\/p><\/div>\n

An upcoming reunion pays homage to former Spencecliff restaurants\u2019 employees and celebrates the bygone days of Hawai\u2018i. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Before he bought a restaurant for his mother and helped turn it into an L&L Hawaiian Barbecue empire that stretched across the islands and several states on the mainland, Eddie Flores Jr. was a busboy at the South Seas restaurant on Lagoon Drive.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d clear tables, make nice with the waiters \u2014 who\u2019d split their tips with him \u2014 and have a meal with the kitchen staff.<\/p>\n

\"\"

(Back row, from left) Clifton and Spencer Weaver Jr. with their wives (front row, from left) Daisy Weaver and Turere Tarome Tetahaimaui a Amo Weaver.<\/p><\/div>\n

He\u2019d never forget those staff meals because he grew up in Kalihi-P\u0101lama, one of eight kids, and up to that point he\u2019d never eaten so well.<\/p>\n

In his recollection, it was around 1966 and South Seas was still brand new, decorated in the \u201ctiki style\u201d popular at the time \u2014 Polynesian prints, wood carvings and puka shell chandeliers.<\/p>\n

Flores was just 20 years old and felt like he was stepping up in the world. His previous jobs had been washing dishes at University of Hawai\u2018i\u2019s Hemingway Hall cafeteria and loading boxes at Dole Cannery.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Vintage art depicting the Ranch House in \u2018\u0100ina Haina IMAGE COURTESY CHANTEL MOEARII WEAVER<\/p><\/div>\n

To his way of thinking, busboy was a high-class position, just one step below waiter, and he wasn\u2019t just any busboy, he was a busboy at South Seas, a semi-fine dining establishment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe customers were nice, and the waiters and the management were nice,\u201d he recalls. \u201cSpencecliff was a really good organization because they really took care of their employees.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Fisherman\u2019s Wharf Restaurant before it was torn down in 2014. PHOTO COURTESY CHANTEL MOEARII WEAVER<\/p><\/div>\n

To the younger generation, the name Spencecliff may not ring a bell, but for folks of a certain age it will evoke a flood of memories \u2014 of the treasure chests full of free toys for keiki diners at Fisherman\u2019s Wharf in Honolulu and the Ranch House in \u2018\u0100ina Haina, of the hot coffee and pancakes at Coco\u2019s on the corner of Kal\u0101kaua Avenue and Ala Moana Boulevard, or of the Polynesian revue at Hawaiian Hut next to Ala Moana Hotel.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery restaurant you can think of belonged to Spencecliff back in the old days,\u201d Flores says. \u201cI\u2019m telling you, until 1985-86, they were an icon in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spencecliff restaurant empire began in 1939, when Spencer Weaver Jr. returned to O\u2018ahu after completing his service in the U.S. Navy. According to company literature, he\u2019d first fallen in love with Hawai\u2018i as a youth in 1929, when his upper-class New York family took an around-the-world cruise that stopped in the islands.<\/p>\n

When Spencer grew up, he became a Navy pilot and was stationed at Pearl Harbor in 1936. The assignment was short, but he found time to surf and join the Outrigger Canoe Club.<\/p>\n

He finished his military service on the mainland but returned to Hawai\u2018i with no concrete plans. After a tepid foray into real estate, he ordered six eye-catching Swanky Franky hot dog carts and set up shop at the corner of Ala Moana Boulevard and Ena Road.<\/p>\n

Swanky Franky had been popular at Floyd Bennet Airfield in New York and the entrepreneurial Spencer took a gamble that they\u2019d be a hit in Hawai\u2018i as well.<\/p>\n

When his younger brother, Clifton, arrived on vacation from the Virginia Military Institute in 1940, Spencer convinced him to stay and join the business.<\/p>\n

After the hot dog carts came a coffee shop, then a bakery and then a request from the U.S. Army for Spencecliff to run the post exchange, restaurant and beer garden. Eventually, the brothers\u2019 corporation would grow to more than 50 restaurants that employed thousands of islanders and fed even more over the course of nearly five decades. It also included two hotels in Tahiti.<\/p>\n

When the Weavers sold the company in 1986, it felt like the end of an era. Although some former Spencecliff restaurants carried on under new management or endured in different iterations \u2014 Fisherman\u2019s Wharf hung on until 2008 and bulldozers tore it down in 2014; a shell of the South Seas remains as part of the Aloha Kia dealership near Daniel K. Inouye International Airport \u2014 it was never the same. And all these years later a nostalgia for the Spencecliff days lives on among those who remember. <\/p>\n

“I really truly believe it boils down to caring,\u201d says Chantal Moearii Weaver, Spencer\u2019s daughter, about why her family\u2019s restaurants seem to have captured the zeitgeist of the times. \u201cMy father cared so much about his employees, and, of course, so did my Uncle Cliff.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir philosophy was if you take care of them, they\u2019ll take care of you and I think that\u2019s what happened. The employees were very passionate about what they were doing. They embodied that in the customer service, which was not only taking care of the customer but of their coworkers as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moearii Weaver grew up during the golden days of Spencecliff, when entertainer Hilo Hattie would perform at Queen\u2019s Surf while handsome young men climbed coconut trees to shower the audience with plumeria lei.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like you were in someone\u2019s backyard,\u201d she says, describing mats on the lawn for seating and whole pigs roasting in an imu.<\/p>\n

She also recalls stories about how waitstaff would greet regular customers by name, seat them at their preferred table and have the kitchen prepare their favorite meal before they even ordered.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father was all about customer service,\u201d she says. \u201cHe wanted to please the customer because if you don\u2019t, how many people would talk bad about the restaurant, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

She says her father and uncle treated employees the way they wanted employees to treat customers. One memorable example \u2014 the company kept a record of their employees\u2019 birthdays and sent them a small cake to mark the occasion.<\/p>\n

Moearii Weaver believes if her father and uncle were still alive, they would want to do something special for their former employees. So later this month, she\u2019s hosting a Spencecliff Employees Reunion at Ke\u2018ehi Lagoon Memorial.<\/p>\n

Melveen Leed, who performed at Spencecliff restaurants back in the day, has agreed to sing at the gathering and Moearii Weaver is hoping to serve Tahitian Lanai\u2019s famous banana muffins \u2014 one of Spencecliff chef Anderson Washington\u2019s most popular desserts.<\/p>\n

Mostly, though, she wants to spend time with folks who may remember preparing those muffins at the restaurant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want them to reconnect with each other and be able to share their stories,\u201d she says. \u201cBecause a lot of them, when they share, they share from the heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s occasion will be the second Spencecliff Employees Reunion. The first took place back in 2008 at the Hawaiian Hut, which at the time was owned by former Spencecliff vice president Gordon Yoshida. About 300 people attended.<\/p>\n

The Hawaiian Hut closed for good shortly after that gathering, but for years, Kalo Mataele-Soukop had ruled the stage there as director and producer of the Polynesian revue. Her dance troupe would put on two shows a night in front of packed crowds.<\/p>\n

Mataele-Soukop met her late husband, a pilot from Canada, while dancing there and their lengthy courtship included many brunches at the Tahitian Lanai.<\/p>\n

When the pair tied the knot in 1975, the wedding was probably the largest the state had seen. More than 4,000 guests packed the Neal S. Blaisdell Center to watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost all of them from Spencecliff came,\u201d Mataele-Soukop says. \u201cExcept for those who had to work, they all came.\u201d<\/p>\n

She would go on to be the first woman and first Polynesian to serve on Polynesian Cultural Center\u2019s board of directors.<\/p>\n

Mataele-Soukop and Flores are not the only entrepreneurs who got their starts at Spencecliff. Victor Lim, owner of several McDonald\u2019s franchises on O\u2018ahu, spent nearly two years at the Beer and Grog in Waik\u012bk\u012b. Norman Nam, owner of<\/p>\n

Cinnamon\u2019s Restaurant in Kailua, managed several Spencecliff restaurants in his younger days. And Alan Ho, owner of Jade Dynasty Seafood Restaurant in Ala Moana Center and Dada Spa, Salon and Caf\u00e9 in Ala Moana Honolulu by Mantra, paid for college by working as a busboy and waiter in Spencecliff eateries, then joined its management training program.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach (Spencecliff restaurant) was a different unit and unique,\u201d Ho says. \u201cSo I picked up a lot of different management skills, how to deal with people, how to do food cost control and everything else.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many people in the food industry came from Spencecliff \u2026 so you have to give credit to Spencer Weaver. He started with a hot dog stand and became very successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some may argue that success continues today, even though the restaurants are no more.<\/p>\n

Says Chantal, \u201cWhile the restaurants were bought out and dissolved, the legacy of Spencecliff continues in the people we invested in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spencecliff Employees Reunion<\/strong>
\n10 a.m. Sept. 24<\/strong>
\nKe\u2018ehi Lagoon Memorial<\/strong><\/em>
\n$40 per person <\/strong>
\n(Venmo @Chantal-Weaver or make checks payable to Chantal Weaver)<\/strong><\/em>
\nBYOB<\/strong>
\nTo RSVP <\/strong>
\nCall Chantal Moearii Weaver at 808-277-5358 or email hwnrealestate@gmail.com<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An upcoming reunion pays homage to former Spencecliff restaurants\u2019 employees and celebrates the bygone days of Hawai\u2018i. Before he bought..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":2140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover-story"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Gang\u2019s Getting Back Together - Hawaii Island MidWeek<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekhawaii\/spencecliff-restaurants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Gang\u2019s Getting Back Together - Hawaii Island MidWeek\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An upcoming reunion pays homage to former Spencecliff restaurants\u2019 employees and celebrates the bygone days of Hawai\u2018i. 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