I realize that this wont mean a damn thing to any of the people who read this, but this is big news for my fam. After 83 years in business, Sagara Store in Waialua has closed.
83 Goddamn years.
Basically everyone in my family (both mother and father’s side) ate there, from back when the plantation was the center of life in Waialua. It was located mad close to my grandma’s house and across the street from the school that my dad teaches at (coincidentally, the dude is retiring this year, after 30 years there). Needless to say, the place figured prominently in many memories of my youth.
Cosmetically, the place wasnt exactly something to brag about. The ceiling always on the brink of falling in, the stairs leading up to the raise entrance covering god-knows-what. Dirty as fuck…who needs pavement? But the food was so on point and i get all shook just thinking about it.
Forget your limited sneakers, once the bentos were gone for the day, they were gone. (And they rarely stuck around past 7 am) The cone sushi (inari) and chow fun were pretty much untouchable.
Anyway, Im just kinda bummed, cause Waialua has been on a consistent downward spiral since C&H moved their sugar operations off-island. Crystal meth and unemployment ravaging the town since then. Meanwhile, haole developers have slowly been buying land up and the inevitable gentrification has begun. I guess seeing Sagara store close up is one of the most significant events signaling major change.
(by the way, when my mom was a wee lass, she ganked some candy from that spot and had to go and return it)
2 responses so far ↓
1 Cono // Jul 26, 2005 at 7:43 pm
They better not replace Sagara with a Pho’s.
2 False Crack » Blog Archive » Addict // Feb 27, 2006 at 12:13 pm
[...] Google Earth is undoubtedly my favorite thing in the world now. Tracing the route from Mililani to Waialua (HI) that I used to take with my dad at like 6 in the morning is a trip. The resolution is just enough so that I can see aunty’s house along the winding road; the weird, seemingly useless turnabout just before the bridge; the random shops (Sagara store I see you!) (those buildings are being held up by a faith in the lord and cooperative termites); and finally the long driveway into Nana’s house, near the entrance of which resided a sewer hole covered by a shaky grate, inhabited by pulverized toads and rats..ahh, the house where I would spend the day while my dad taught at school. Id be eating wayyyy too much good food while fending off meth heads and the hyperactive children of meth heads. Mad summers were spent there, roosters crowing and all kinds of craze shit going down…This thing is too cool. [...]
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