We were lucky to catch up with Kimberly Platt recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kimberly, thanks for joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

We visited Hawaii several times and the first time we went snorkeling we fell in love with the Honu (the green sea turtles). When we decided to open a Hawaiian restaurant the name was easy to pick, it lent to a super cute logo and many fun decor items.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Kimberly Platt. I am the Chef and co-owner with my wife Lisa Platt of HONU. I realized a few years back I have always been around food in some form or fashion for all of my life. I grew up in Downers Grove, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago and spent my summers in Lawrence, Michigan with my Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, siblings and cousins on the Glista family farm which spread 600+ acres back then. The farm is still a working farm which produces mainly corn and cattle.
About 28 years ago I moved to Florida where I jumped head first into the hospitality world on Indian Rocks Beach, where I learned much about front of house restaurant operation and the true beach lifestyle in a tourist town. I survived that experience to come out on the other side, (as they say) with the best friends still till this day; and memories that mostly revolve around food!

I moved on to working with my parents and family at their global company RQA. I managed a U.S. and Canadian based field staff of over 10,000 people who assisted in the consumer retrieval and recall process of food and beverage products. When the job position of Field Services Manager that I held was dissolved with the sale of recall division I had a tough decision to make – what to do next? One of the best and scariest decisions I ever had to make. The decision was to go Culinary School.

After about a year in school the opportunity to start a food truck business came about so I opened Charlie Tulum’s Dos Tacos Food Truck simultaneously with Charlie Tulum’s Taco Shack. We bought the property at 516 Grant Street in Dunedin in September of 2014. I graduated with honors from the Art Institute of Tampa with an Associate’s Degree in Culinary Arts in June of 2014 and have been working on The HONU ever since. Today I reside in Clearwater with my wife; Lisa who is my love and inspiration, she is also our Creative Manager, Tiki-dog and creator of all things that are Honu -Tiki; we also have three puppies, Renni Patrick, Chloeee Consuela, and Piper Jo.

We have an amazing space that naturally lends to private parties, weddings and also intimate experiences. Our decor and ambiance has the ability to make you feel like you have escaped from your everyday life. There is nothing like us in our County.

In 6 years we have grown from a 4 table mom and mom Hawaiian style diner into a 150 seat full liquor full service restaurant and tiki bar, and this year adding our high end private rum bar – Ka Pakele (which means – the escape)

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

In the early days of covid we stayed open and served to go food and to go tiki drinks and it was slow going the first few weeks. Two months prior to the shutdown we had just expanded and spend all of our savings creating this amazing space that is the now the tiki bar. A week before we were shut down we found that part of the intricate bamboo ceiling decor the builder brought to us was full of powder post beetles and the whole thing had to be taken down, treated, tented and redone. A $4000 expense we did not expect. We kept our managers on full salary and week 3 of the shutdown was very close to not being able to pay them when our payroll payment from the government came through. It was not much but it got us through so our staff could pay their bills. After that scary week things picked up and one of our cousins did a go fund me for us for the ceiling repair and we raised all $4000 for the repair. Our business boomed so much that fortunately and unfortunately we made more income the year of covid than the prior year due to the increase in setting and full liquor license. This was great for us however it did exclude us from additional government assistance.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

We recently took the jump and created a commercial for our local tv stations. It airs every other week and we can definitely tell what weeks it is shown as business picks up a lot.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thehonurestaurant.com/
• Instagram: @thehonu
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheHONU