Richard (Dickie) Furtado, owner of the restaurant, comes from a family of restauranteurs and entrepreneurs on the Hawaiian Islands. In his senior year at Punahou School he began his friendship with the late Raymond Valentine "Buzz" Schneider, working as a waiter after school. Dickie continued to work part time through his first year at University of Hawaii. Schooled in San Francisco for his formal education in the industry, he returned to the islands and worked all facets of Buzz Schneider's restaurant in Waikiki at the time.