Married a US soldier at age 20
Breaking the jinx that Okinawan restaurants do not succeed as a business, Okinawa Shokudo Habuya, located in Tustin, Orange County, a suburb of Los Angeles, is continuing to thrive, having celebrated its eighth anniversary in December 2018. Three months after opening, it was featured in the Los Angeles Times as a "hidden gem of a Japanese restaurant," and has since become a popular spot with many regular customers of all races.
The interior of the store is packed with ornaments brought by regular customers as souvenirs from their trips to Okinawa, as well as handwritten menus by the owner, Mayumi Vargas, which show her artistic side. Mayumi is from Yonabaru Town, Okinawa Prefecture. "I was the middle child of two brothers, and I was a bit of a playful kid when I was little. I had a boyish personality. I liked English, and I was fascinated by America, culture, fashion, and everything." She married an American soldier at the age of 20, and moved to Camp Pendleton when her husband was transferred at the age of 21. However, during the Gulf War, her husband was away from home most of the time for training.
"I was lonely and wanted to do something, so I looked for a job and started working at a Japanese restaurant, which was an hour and a half's bus ride away. At the same time, I started making artworks as an artist, using shisa as a motif." Mayumi had a daughter and was busy raising her child, working at a restaurant, and working as an artist, but she had a dream since moving to the United States. That was to open an Okinawan restaurant in America and make it a success. No matter how many years passed, that dream never faded, and she began to feel that she absolutely had to make it a reality.
Eventually, Mayumi, who had ended her marriage and become a single mother, met Kimura Yuki, a chef from Yamagata Prefecture. Yuki said, "Since I was a child, my grandmother told me that my great-uncle (her brother) was hidden by a farmer in Okinawa during the war and was able to return home safely. I wanted to give back to the people of Okinawa someday, and when I became a chef and met Mayumi in America, the dots connected and became a line." Yuki, who was working as a chef at a Japanese restaurant near Los Angeles, had decided to return to Japan when he met Mayumi. However, after meeting Mayumi, he stayed in America to realize his dream of "opening an Okinawan restaurant" together.
After paying off the opening fund, he makes a triumphant return to his hometown
Apparently, nine out of ten people he consulted were against the idea of opening an Okinawan restaurant. The reason being that while greasy Okinawan food is fine to eat occasionally, people don't eat it often, and it wouldn't be viable as a business. This was the exact reason why Okinawan restaurants in the United States did not last long in the past. Yuki decided to overcome this obstacle by making full use of his experience as a Japanese chef and pursuing a taste that many people would find familiar.
Thus, Mayumi married Yuki, and at the same time she gained a new family member and a business partner. She borrowed the funds to open the restaurant from family and friends. "We opened the restaurant on the day before Christmas Eve 2010. On that day, only four of my Japanese friends were there. On Christmas Eve the following day, there were no customers. For the first three months, the customers were almost all family members (laughs). That all changed when the restaurant was featured in the Los Angeles Times as "The best hidden Japanese restaurant." A long line of customers formed, stretching all the way around the liquor store on the corner outside the restaurant. Since then, we have been planning and implementing events that would please our customers, such as eating contests. We also put a lot of effort into not only the food but also the interior of the restaurant to recreate the atmosphere of Okinawa. However, Yuki was the only chef, and we were both amateurs when it came to management, so we had a lot of arguments," Mayumi recalls of the early days of the restaurant.
The restaurant was also featured in many local media outlets and Okinawa magazines, and word of mouth spread, leading to a steady increase in customer numbers. The opening funds she borrowed from a friend were repaid with 8% interest two years after the restaurant opened. She paid off her family five years later, and at that time, she made her first visit to Okinawa since opening the restaurant. It was truly a "homecoming."
After that, whenever Okinawan food culture was featured on television, interested customers began to visit Hubya. After the late Anthony Bourdain featured Okinawa on his regular show, the number of first-time customers who wanted to try real Okinawan cuisine increased. And, Mayumi says, "Hubya is now number one in the U.S. in sales of draft Orion beer. At dinnertime, we have more than 100 customers." In addition to Orion beer, they also purchase ingredients from Okinawa whenever possible, such as gurukun, mozuku seaweed, and sea grapes.
An Okinawan woman who moved to America after getting married has realized her long-held dream of "opening an Okinawan restaurant in America," and after working hard with her partner, the restaurant is now celebrating its 8th anniversary. "The most important thing is to keep the restaurant open so that Okinawan cuisine can continue to spread," Mayumi asserts. The Habu family are precious children to the couple. They hope that they will continue to protect their customers' "Okinawan home in America."
14215 Red Hill Ave
Tustin, CA 92780
© 2018 Keiko Fukuda
