Hawaii chefs start deli-style meats and pickled veggies company

by Duane Shimogawa   –   Pacific Business News

Three Hawaii restaurant industry chefs are debuting their first joint venture at an Oahu farmer’s market this month that sells pickled items and deli-style meats made in the state, one of its owners told Pacific Business News this week.

Pipikaula & Pickles Hawaiian Style Deli is the brainchild of Sheldyn Young, 32,Christian Domingo, 29, and Andrea Helfrich-Nuss, 32, who all, at one time, have been the head chef or manager of a restaurant. Young and Domingo hail from Oahu, while Helfrich-Nuss is from the Big Island.

The trio met while working for the now-closed Christie’s Restaurant in Waimalu in Central Oahu. The idea of Pipikaula & Pickles didn’t get serious until about two years ago.

“We were getting tired of cooking for other people,” Young told PBN. “We couldn’t see our talents go into other people’s pockets.”

So in May 2015, they formed their new company after meeting with Jo McGarry of Honolulu-based Pacific Property Group Hawaii, who specializes in the restaurant industry. Young said McGarry molded and guided them to where they are today, which is debuting Pipikaula & Pickles at the Farmers Market at Windward Mall in Kaneohe on June 12.

The trio leases out space at a commercial kitchen in the Honolulu neighborhood of Kalihi, where it pickles vegetables such as grapes, onions, carrots and cucumbers, and it cures meats including pipikaula — a Hawaii delicacy similar to beef jerky — roast beef, pastrami and smoked pork.

They eventually want to make and sell sandwiches as well.

“My dad had his own lunch wagon, and he did local-style food,” Young said. “To me, I like that, but everyone else does it. With the deli, it’s more versatile with what we can bring out. It helps us get through all the colors of the spectrum. We could make it, from ham to prosciutto to salamis and so forth.”

Pipikaula & Pickles is talking to both Mao Farms and Nalo Farms, as well as a pig farm in Kahaluu, about supplying some components for their products.

They’re also looking to get into the farmer’s market in Olomana and eventually in the hugely popular Kapiolani Community College Farmer’s Market.

As far as retail stores go, they’re looking at a space in Waimanlo next to a McDonald’s and a space in Ward Village’s planned South Shore Market, which will include a mix of retail and restaurant tenants.

“It’s a little surreal, but we’re adjusting to it,” Young said.